Interstellar

I decided to watch it in preparation for The Odyssey, as it's the last "big" Nolan movie I hadn't seen, and I was completely blown away. I rarely feel this much from a film, and I certainly didn't expect it from this one. The movie opens with a long prologue that feels slightly overwhelming at first, but it plays an instrumental role in the story as a whole. From that point until the very end, we're blessed with Hans Zimmer's score, which is absolute perfection and easily one of his best. The cinematography left me stunned and unable to move in certain moments, especially the space shots. New planets, the journeys between them, and the action are all captured in a way I've never seen before. The pacing is remarkably smooth. The film doesn't waste time making sure the viewer understands everything; instead, the story rests mostly on emotion rather than action, and I love it for that. The space travel, the rockets, the planets, the discovery of new worlds — these work more as metaphors for human connection than as the actual point of the film. I find it a perfect movie, and Nolan's best, on par with The Dark Knight.