Interstellar

After Inception, my opinion of Nolan had soured a bit, so imagine my surprise that Interstellar actually lived up to the hype. This is not only one of the most gorgeously shot movies of the 21st century, but also a surprisingly heartfelt and incredibly powerful movie about love, sacrifice, and determination. Some complaints people have for this movie is that Interstellar childishly spouts love as a magical deus ex machina that solves everything. I honestly don't know what these people are talking about, because the beauty of Interstellar is how it understands that science does not explain everything there is in the universe. Brand's monologue on Love as an unknown, all-powerful force is jarring when she first delivers it, but towards the end it reveals itself as the thesis to Interstellar. And it's a cliche thesis humanity has spouted as old as time, but it still rings true today: that through it all, there is always a sliver of hope for humanity. Interstellar in classic storytelling fashion puts the audience and our main character through the ringer with false promises and existential despair, so when he finally succeeds the reward is all the more sweeter. And I just have to gush about the visuals. While Inception greatly disappointed me in its promise of showing you a mind-bending dreamscape, Interstellar thankfully did not disappoint. The way Nolan captures the cosmic strangeness yet beauty of the facets of outer space: the spherical wormhole, the icy landscapes of Mann's planet, the event horizon, the tesseract and so much more, Interstellar had me levitating through the sheer pictures that were flashing on my wide television. Let's see, what else...Hans Zimmer delivers as usual, oh yes the dialogue in this one while still having certain Nolan-isms of clunky exposition and awkwardness in tone at times, is far better than I expected to. There's a lot of genuinely well written dialogue especially in the first act that took me off guard. All in all, this is easily Nolan's magnum opus, at least from the few I've seen from him so far. I still prefer The Prestige simply by virtue of me preferring that kind of story, but this is a cinematic achievement. Well-deserved the praise, and I look forward to rewatching this preferably on IMAX someday! EDIT: And yeah, my opinion of Project Hail Mary is even lower now after seeing this. I get it, they're exploring similar premises through two wildly different styles, but there's something so much less compelling about how Hail Mary approached its grand subject matter that I'm glad I've finally seen the better movie to do this premise justice. Don't kill me.