“Interstellar” is a timeless classic, cinematic and scientific experience, and the best headache you’ll ever have watching a movie.
The 2014 film, directed by Christopher Nolan, tells a heart-wrenching story of family, humanity and risk, mixed with a healthy dose of theoretical science. Set on a decaying Earth in the year 2067, the human population is dwindling under a second Dust Bowl. In response, a group of scientists unified under NASA attempt to find a different planet to facilitate human life.
Our protagonist, Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, a former NASA pilot, hesitantly steps up to the plate after following a series of anomalous events and quickly becomes the leader of the space expedition. Spurred on by his love for his daughter, Murphy, played by Mackenzie Foy, he leaves the rest of humanity behind on Earth to search for a new planet, promising that he will come back for her. Through this journey, their volatile and bittersweet father-daughter bond is quite literally stretched to the ends of the galaxy.
Nolan’s breadth of technical expertise is apparent from every shot in “Interstellar,” made only more impactful by the directorial decisions hidden behind the camera lens. He maintains a strongly traditional belief in the magic of film cameras, as opposed to digital cameras, and practical effects, instead of CGI. He does not make any compromises in his values during filmmaking, and his work in “Interstellar” is not an exception to this. Even in his more recent movies, like the critically acclaimed “Oppenheimer,” he opts for a combination of practical effects and special in-camera techniques to capture the massive mushroom cloud-creating nuclear explosions that occur in the 2023 film.
Another aspect that “Interstellar” is renowned for is its film score, composed by the famed Hans Zimmer. The movie incorporates in its soundtrack a mix of dramatic musical crescendos played on an organ, rhythmic ticking and, most notably, uses an iconic leitmotif consisting of just six notes. Its execution is simple, classic, but nothing short of astounding.
He taps into a range of sonic techniques where sound, and the lack thereof, contributes to telling the film’s story. The complete silence of some of the most tense scenes feels the loudest as you are left with only the sound of Cooper’s faint breathing, your pulse in your ears and the crackle of radio static.
As with many science fiction and adventure films, “Interstellar” requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief from the viewer to envelop them fully in its story. The film achieves a perfect balance of cosmic beauty and existential dread, a common charm of space movies. It tackles a multitude of complex philosophies, both scientific and epistemological, and tries to address all of them with as much depth as it can without extending the runtime too egregiously. No matter one’s reception of “Interstellar,” it is undeniably a thought-provoking film that is sure to leave you pondering the universe beyond our blue skies.
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