Interstellar
Most peoples journey in cinema begins with loving Christopher Nolan (this film specifically was a huge landmark for me when I first started watching films. Probably the first film that I actually LOVED). A lot of newer film fans see Christopher Nolan as the greatest director of all time, or at least the best working today. This is something I likely said (despite probably knowing 3 directors maximum at the time I first watched Interstellar). Wherever your Nolan journey begins (for others it’ll probably be The Dark Knight or Inception), most come to these conclusions about Christopher Nolan.
However, as you expand your taste, your knowledge of directors, your analysis of style, structure, dialogue, messaging, cinematography, etc, a lot of people branch away from Christopher Nolan. I personally lost a lot of appreciation for The Dark Knight. It was never a 5/5 for me, but I’ve developed significant issues with it over time. Interstellar used to be a 5/5, but then became a 4.5/5 over the last year or two. You go through a period where assessing Christopher Nolan is quite hard because the huge amounts of praise is already there for him. There’s nothing you can say that hasn’t been said by someone else. If you love him, you become part of the pack. A pack that also gets labelled ‘film bro’ on social media. It’s a group you don’t really want to be a part of if you consider yourself an ‘actual’ film fan. It’s a discourse I actually quite hate, but it inevitably enters my conscience when I think about films like Interstellar.
However, the third step of that journey, for me anyway, is just accepting that Christopher Nolan is absolutely top tier. Or Interstellar is anyway. I do have issues with it. The message about ‘love transcending space and time’ and ‘anything that can happen, will happen’ presents no nuance whatsoever. Feels slightly cheap as a message and as a plot device. The character writing can be surface level at times too. Brand feels particularly emotionally cold and underdeveloped for a character so crucial to the whole ‘love transcending time and space’ concept. I also think there are some pacing issues. However, I do still think this is exceptional.
It’s just the most transcendental and beautiful space opera we have seen put to the big screen since 2001: A Space Odyssey. Mathew McConaughey is a tremendous lead. The score from Hans Zimmer is utterly incredible. On a technical level, it’s flawless. I will say, I came into this hoping to bump it back to a 5/5. There are sequences in this film that are some of the best pieces of cinema I have ever seen. But in its entirety, I think I’m going to keep it at a 4.5. Has too many small issues to bump it up to a 5.