Review of Interstellar (2014) by Domgwy — 20 Dec 2017

About a week ago I saw Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s new Sci-Fi epic.

It’s taken me this long to write about because honestly, my opinion on the film is still changing. Part of me wants to call it a masterpiece, part of me wants to mark it down as an overthought and underwritten mess.

The truth (or at least how I see it, and lets face it, I’m just one of thousands of nerds shouting into the vast vacuum of the internet where no one can hear you scream) is somewhere in the middle.

Parts of Nolan’s ambitious story of wormholes, relativity and the fifth dimension are truly awe inspiring. The space scenes, and even some of the more intimate character moments, are just pure cinema at its best and NEED to be experienced in the movie theatre. It’s hard to even describe the wormhole scene about an hour into the film because we have simply never seen anything like it before. In the era of endless reboots, sequels and ridiculous special effects, that feat is almost enough to justify seeing the movie by itself.

But Interstellar goes beyond stunning visuals. Nolan has become a star of a director, one who’s name can sell out cinema screenings in a way not seen since Spielberg’s glory days. This means every actor in the business is clamouring to work with him and that pays off big time here.

I am now fully on board with the McConaissance. Shamefully, I still haven’t seen Dallas Buyers Club (I know I need to but it’s really hard to motivate yourself to watch something so dark and heavy when you could just watch Guardians of the Galaxy again) but I was absolutely blown away by True Detective earlier this year. McConaughey’s world weary and at times bitter performance ground Interstellar and stop it from becoming a dreary, if spectacular, three hour science lesson.

Here in lies the essential problem of the film, and it’s one that is starting to threaten film as a format. Three hours is simply not long enough to tell the story Nolan is trying to tell.

In the new golden age of television we are now seeing, complex and epic plots play out across sixty hours of movie quality entertainment. With the likes of Game of Thrones, House of Cards and Breaking Bad now eating up weeks of viewers time, its hard for a film to make the same impact. How can any actor or any director make you invest in a character and a story the same way you have with Walter White or Tyrion Lannister in just two and a half hours?

This is not to say people can’t love movie characters or stories, it just means that performances and scripts have to be that much tighter and direct in order to really connect.

The problem with Interstellar is that there is so much dense science to explain and such an involved story to tell that the character development and emotional impact get lost in the mix.

The films greatest strength is also its greatest weakness — the cinema as a format. If Nolan had instead made a five part HBO miniseries, for instance, telling the same story, he could have achieved both the character development and the mind blowing scientific accuracy he’s striving for.

The downside is we would then miss out on the shear spectacle of the sights and sounds (Hans Zimmer, killing it yet again) on display as they should be experienced.

Maybe we already have the solution — the splitting of films into multiple parts. Unfortunately this format seems to have been highjacked by young adult novel adaptations looking to increase their all important box office. Not something I think Nolan would sign off on, I mean this is the guy who refused to shoot the Dark Knight films in 3D despite studio pressure to the contrary.

Would audiences go for an Interstellar parts 1 and 2? Maybe not given the films critical reaction.

The fact remains, Nolan has created something special with Interstellar. Supported by a flawless cast and a truly original and mind blowing premise, it is both a cinematic triumph and a harsh reminder of the limitations of film.

To use a really cheesy suburban wall art saying, Nolan reaches for the moon and, even though he falls, he lands in the stars.