Interstellar

Nothing man-made can be perfect but I’d like to believe that this film is inching towards perfection. The plot, the soundtrack, the visuals, the acting, everything about it feels damn near flawless. Whether it be through fear or tension or sadness or amazement, this film manages to take your breath away.  To be clear I think my rating of perfect is relative (just like space-time haha). I thought this film was just okay when it came out. I was 11 then and barely understood what was going on. 8 years later and I feel like I’ve truly appreciated this film (Maybe more in the near future once I’ve learnt more about special and general relativity).  The story is incredible. I feel like there’s a plot blueprint for space films and the Nolans decided to go against it. It encompasses the science-fiction aspect incredibly well, the exploration through uncharted, mysterious landscapes in space while also being an intense thriller with plot twists and incredible sequences that make you sit in the edge of your seat. Themes of betrayal and sacrifice are prevalent here, with humanity’s survival at stake. These themes were done so well as there’s so many different times we see it through different characters which creates this ongoing suspicion, tension and distrust within the audience all throughout the film. The constant questioning on who’ll betray who “for the greater good” since each side is so morally ambiguous shows how well written this film is. Squint your eyes a little and you’d think you’re seeing a Shakespeare play. Yet from all this, I think it isn’t how the film exceeds its generic conventions that makes it so outstanding, it’s the characterisation of each and every person. They feel so realistic and that’s what makes this film so sad. They’ve done so well immersing the audience with the relationship of Cooper and Murphy so every sad scene just hits the spot. Tears just immediately started falling from my eyes in the final scene. Incredible writing. It’s also interesting to see relativity at play in a major way, how it stretches/squeezes time and creates an age difference between father-daughter, which then also drifts them even further away from each other. It was nice to see relativity in action instead of in a physics problem and I hope the more I learn about physics, the more I can understand this film. The soundtrack is phenomenal. I thought Dune was Hans Zimmer’s best work but boy am I wrong. This soundtrack is the greatest. It sounds so majestic and pair this with incredible visuals or intense scenes, it is a masterpiece. Visuals were out of this world (haha), incredible that they were able to be so accurate with the black hole. Not only that, wide shots with the main characters or the ship being incredibly tiny shows how minuscule we are in the grand scheme of things. Maybe one day I’ll find a film I like better than this one but this one feels so fulfilling.