Interstellar

IMAX Screening "We used to look up at the sky and wonder about our place in the stars...now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt." Ten years ago, I went with my friend and our dads to go watch Guardians of the Galaxy in the theater. On that same night, my favorite baseball team was eliminated from the playoffs, and as of typing this, they have not been back, and probably will not for a long time. That night, before the movie started, the trailer for some upcoming movie called Interstellar played, and it blew me away. The visuals, the concept, the tone, the feeling. I didn't know what it was about, or who Christopher Nolan was, and I hadn't even see any of his movies before, but I knew that I was interested in this Interstellar movie. It was all I thought about while watching Guardians of the Galaxy (which is a great movie that I enjoyed that night.) Later that night, I said to my dad "Hey that Interstellar movie looked pretty good," to which he responded, "Sure. Go to bed." I did go to bed, but not after watching the trailer on YouTube one last time. A month later when the movie was released, I went with my dad and my brother to go see it in the theater, and from the very first shot to the final cut to black, I was floored. It felt like everything I have ever wanted in a movie had just been presented to me. Admittedly, I didn't quite understand it, but I did know that it was amazing. It's a movie that you didn't need to understand to appreciate (and over the years, I have learned to understand everything about this movie, and it does get even better the more you know.) Once the movie ended, I was excited to share my enjoyment with my family. However, they did not have the same enthusiasm about the film than I did. "It's too long" was the main complaint I heard. Me being the kid the 12 year old kid with the attention span of a puppy and watching it with my dad and my older brother, it surprised that I was the only one able to withstand the runtime (which is under 3 hours but who's counting??) Basically, they did not enjoy the film very much. Awhile later, my friend watched the movie with his mom, and their opinions on the movie were far more negative than my families. They called one of the worst movies they had ever seen, extremely boring, and that they fell asleep during it. I was shocked, and they would not let up on how bad this movie viewing experience was for them. At this point in my life, one of my closest friends had just passed away, my parents had just split up, and my grades were going to shit, and I felt the pressure from my teachers and my family, and my favorite baseball team was not going to win the World Series (yes this was a big deal for 12 year old Tyler.) I felt like a failure. I felt like I didn't belong. And when my new favorite movie was hated by the people I cared about the most, I really hit an all time low. Initially, people tried to convince me that this was a terrible movie. It's too up it's own ass, it's too long, it doesn't make any sense. It Sucks with a capital S. People would make fun of me anytime I wanted to watch it. But I didn't listen to them. I knew the truth. I know it now and I knew it then. Over time, however, their opinions on this movie have changed. The people who previously said that they hated it now say that they love it. I'm not sure what caused this change, and quite frankly, I don't care. The only logical explanation is that they had been lying about watching the movie and only said that they hated it because they were annoyed about how much I enjoyed it, but when they actually saw it with their own two eyes, and heard it with their own two ears, they realized what a masterclass in filmmaking this movie truly is. My experience with this movie is proof you should never apologize for staying true to yourself, as you are not the problem, but people's perception of you just needs to change. This might be the greatest film ever made. I now know Sir Christopher Nolan is the greatest to ever do it.