Interstellar

Interstellar is far from a perfect film, narratively speaking. Even so, I’m convinced it will still be discussed in the decades to come, perhaps even centuries, for popularising cerebral, narrative filmmaking to both IMAX and the mainstream blockbuster, building off of Nolan’s work on the TDK trilogy and Inception. For what it’s worth, I’m not crediting Nolan with sustaining or initiating this movement at all, but much rather facilitating this shift. The dialogue can be slightly corny (helps that there’s so much of it in this film too, corn and dialogue that is!) at times, its conclusion far too conveniently wraps things up in a bow, and it definitely depicts a future far more optimistic than realistic. Similar to The Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan’s politics lean enough toward ambiguity, that his message is often (in my eyes) misconstrued to promote conservative agendas by the right. Just ask Shapiro at the Daily Wire how great Nolan’s films are. With the TDK films, the murky stances regarding vigilantism, morality, anarchy, terrorism and mass surveillance for the archetypal “greater good”, ignorant to the idea of perspective and nuance to the idea of “good” create a great breeding ground for such ideas. With Interstellar - we have a film promoting colonialism, abandonment a necessary sacrifice to battle the ecological catastrophes of our time, of both people and the planet. Quite an imperialistic mentality, and one that aligns with neo-cons and MAGA fanatics stances (or lack thereof) on more proactive measures toward environmental conservation. All of this is often at the back of my head as I watch this, along with Nolan’s constant need for exposition - quite necessary to explain the temporal mechanics of Tenet, the rules to dreaming in Inception, wormholes and time dilation in Interstellar. Not so much in the homage to works of Spielberg, Cameron and Kubrick’s 2001 in Nolan’s climactic, love-transcends-all denouement, wherein TARS assists Cooper in comprehending what directly is in front of him. Nolan really has to spell it out. The pacing however is fast enough that you can brush this aside, and the themes of cowardice, survival and the meditations on the emotional burden of relativity, or the passage of time are perhaps make it one of the best executed examples of sci-fi cinema. Its flaws however are definitely worth addressing, as at least at this point in time, I can appreciate Nolan’s films in spite of them. Though at times, in Interstellar’s case, I feel as though, much of the criticism is too harsh on this film. Both Tenet and Oppenheimer, in my eyes, are far more deserving of such criticism. With Interstellar, the film is quintessentially made for IMAX, Nolan is achieving new heights with spectacle, scale, stakes and operates IMAX 15/70mm cameras to bring more life into the theatrical experience. Nolan is revolutionary at this, pushing the boundaries, paving the way for Peele (NOPE), Gunn (GOTG Vol. 3) and heck, even Brady Corbet with last year’s The Brutalist in utilising IMAX or film cameras not just for dramatic set-pieces, but also in the occasional, ADR’d dialogue scene. Not very many worldly pleasures match the euphoria you get with well-edited 1.43/1.90 IMAX film footage shot on film. Something simply spellbinding when you get films that pay attention to advancing formats like this. Speaking of technical wizardry - Interstellar provides some of the strongest evidence that Nolan’s sound mixing and dialogue has only gotten worse over the years. I’m actually quite a big fan of the mix on this one, and while voices are muffled, this is often not pushed to the limit of inaudibility, as is the case with Tenet and Oppenheimer. In fact, I do not find the teleology, while compelling to be particularly difficult to understand as his newer films, most notably Tenet, which makes me worry that Nolan is losing his touch. Mixing aside, when it comes to dialogue, Inception, Interstellar, The Prestige and perhaps Memento if I go off the critical reception for it stand out in Nolan’s filmography, as he can otherwise be inconsistent in my experience - whether that is through badly written and meandering exposition, or in the TDK trilogy’s case, badly aged writing. Being my fifth or so watch of the film, and second in IMAX, I was joined this time by my family. I’ve had great experiences seeing Interstellar over the past decade, but this was the first time I was joined by them to see it in theatres. It really is a completely different film to what you’ll see on streaming, once seen on the silver screen. What Nolan accomplishes is transformative, transportive and just masterful. Every single screening I have been to results in an audience always discussing what they’ve just seen - not about the performances, the actors, the writing or the direction, but always the concepts at play as well as the narrative. Which is perhaps the highest compliment that can be offered to the film, it’s ability to immerse so well, especially as soon as the second act begins. I’d also make the case (see what I did there?) that, this is one of few Nolan films that have a strong emotional core. I’ll be the first to admit that, each time I’ve seen it in theaters, it never gets old. Even my most recent screening, tonight, moved me to tears multiple times. I’m not a big fan of Jonathan Nolan’s writing on the Batman films, nor his work towards the end Westworld. But he really knocks it out of the park in this one, a few clunky lines aside, which can be excused because of how well the talent sells them. While Interstellar is indeed far from a perfect film, it’s Nolan playing to his strengths. Only Nolan would go to lengths to depict the most scientifically accurate portrayal of a black hole back in 2014, pushing the limits of rendering tech of the time, only to alter it to look different to how it would be viewed by the naked eye. Partly due to consulting with Kip Thorne, the film is always believable, at least until Cooper is left to himself towards the end of the film. Every scientific inaccuracy, every instance of artistic license, such as the clouds on Mann’s planet is committed with intention, to produce some of the greatest imagery presented in the mediums of both film prints and IMAX. There’s a reason it’s one of the most coveted and appreciated IMAX film prints of all time. So while it may be imperfect, it’s definitely one of the greatest IMAX films ever produced, and always will be. It’s a quite literal testament to the film that it’s still timeless enough to fill sold-out showings today. Definitively Nolan’s strongest work, tied with Inception, though that may soon change when I rewatch Memento.