Review of Gravity (2013) by James G — 14 Oct 2016

Alfonso Cuaron's GRAVITY is an experience. It isn't merely a movie. It isn't tacky 3D. It isn't something to be taken lightly. It is cinema at its most engaging and evolved form. It is a 90-minute portal that transports viewers into an atmosphere that thrills, scares, hooks, and evokes. No film in recent memory holds such a clenched grip on its audience as this one; a testament not only to the experience that GRAVITY creates, but also in its significance among the contemporary artistic canons in which it deserves to be placed.

Cuaron's latest is a cinematic benchmark achievement. In the age of the here and now in which digital technology - 3D, cameras, CGI - is ever so present, how do filmmakers use these tools at their disposal to further the game? The drive of an artist is to accept and adapt, push and pull, and break through with work that is groundbreaking. How do they separate themselves from the pack? GRAVITY is Cuaron's diligence; it is his piece of work that encompasses its medium and pushes the boundaries to new limits. It is the near-perfect immersion of basic elements that drive the film - story, character, camera, editing, sound - enhanced by the incredibly realistic visual effects and design. The floating camerawork, long takes, extraordinary sound work, and VFX dazzles - evoking plenty of "how in the world did they do that?" responses, but at the heart of GRAVITY is a simple and small tale of instinct and survival that more than complements the technical wizardry. For that, it is masterful.

At the surface is a story of two people stranded in space. However, as the experience unfolds, it becomes not merely a tale of human survival, but the very nature of what drives a living being to, well, live. GRAVITY demonstrates the instinctual urge for a person to survive, no matter the costs, and despite having arguably little to live for. It presents a narrative that when stripped down is quite primal and minimal. There is no fluff to the story, nor is there any to the character. Cuaron takes us on a journey that is as humanistic as it comes. He purely ups the stakes by placing it within a stratospheric circumstance in which the only help available is through the mind, body and spirit - the ultimate test of determination and grit.

With that said, is GRAVITY a cheesy borefest with no story and no character in which a woman talks to herself (I mean, don't we all talk to ourselves, especially if we were stranded in space - alone?) while fighting through a constant array of unfortunate mishaps and accidents? Or is it more an existential glimpse into the human spirit at its nakedest and loneliest conformation? In bypassing personal grudges, biases, and dislikes, take a closer look at the film and it becomes clear it is much more the latter. Clooney plays an astronaut, Bullock plays another. Simple as that. See the film the way it is meant to be seen. Forget the scrutiny. Leave the baggage at home. The film may well be perfect in a way that Cuaron and his team intended it to be.

Rarely does a movie hold such control over its audience, where the silence within bleeds out, where breaths are held, coughs are swallowed, and eyes are unblinking - save for the flinches caused by the debris that hits you in the face. GRAVITY is raw and bare. It is chills-inducing and edge-of-seat entertainment. It may not nail the science perfectly, but that hardly puts a dent into the craftsmanship seen on screen. Naysayers may disagree, but Cuaron's work at the very least deserves their appreciation. The film is a sight to behold. In fact, it might just be a masterpiece.