Interstellar: SPOILER Post

WARNING!!!

The following post contains spoilers for the film ‘Interstellar’. If you have not seen the film yet, avoid going any further for I will be discussing key plot-points of the film in great detail. If you don’t want to be spoiled, please refer to my spoiler-free review of the film (the link will be provided below)… and then go see the film because it’s really a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience that should not be missed.

(http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2014/11/interstellar-2014-review.html)

I’ve been doing spoiler posts since 2013 but have mostly done them just for superhero films. I did do one for ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, which focused on the big ‘villain identity’ reveal but aside from ‘Thor: The Dark World’ (because I felt that there wasn’t much to talk about with that film) and ‘Man of Steel’ (which, well, I guess you can say I just forgot to do), I’ve done spoiler posts for every major comic book film since ‘Iron Man 3’. But now having seen director Christopher Nolan’s latest film, ‘Interstellar’, I feel that it’s time for me to do another one. ‘Interstellar’ is a film that has certainly attracted a very polarizing reaction from both critics and audiences. As you remember from my review, I gave it a 5/5, meaning that I really loved the film but overall the general response that I’ve heard from people who did like it is that it was just ‘good, not great’. The big topic of debate amongst everyone is about the film’s ambitious scale and scope and whether or not it’s a little too ambitious… but I’m not really going to get into that. Instead, I’m just to going to talk about key parts of the film from the visual design to the performances from the cast to a certain cameo in the latter half of the film. Having now seen this film twice, I will note that while I don’t think it’s ‘perfect’, I still think it’s a fantastic sci-fi epic that not only features incredible visuals but also some great emotional resonance to back it all up. As I noted in my original review, even if you end up not liking the film as much as I did, I implore you all to see this film in theaters as it truly is a must-see film, regardless of what your opinion of it ends up being. So without further ado, let’s dive into Christopher Nolan’s newest sci-fi epic, ‘Interstellar’.  

THE VISUALS

Whether or not you actually liked the film, you can’t deny that the visuals are absolutely fantastic. Nolan has an eye for visuals, especially when it comes to practical visual effects as was previously exemplified in films like the ‘Dark Knight Trilogy’ and even ‘Inception’. And of course, that also applies to ‘Interstellar’ as well. Those dust storms on Earth? They actually created real dust storms that weren’t just added in later via CGI. The new planets that the crew of the Endurance travel to were all practical locations, resulting in incredibly striking visuals like a planet completely covered by water and an icy planet, which was filmed in Iceland. Then of course you have the visuals in space, especially when the characters travel through the wormhole, resulting in some of the most eye-popping visuals that I’ve ever seen in a movie. And from what I’ve heard, a lot of this was achieved by having the visual effects done beforehand and then displaying them for the actors so that they didn’t have to do anything against a green screen. Simply put, for a movie where the majority of the effects could’ve just been done with CGI, Nolan thankfully did not go that route resulting in some incredibly nice practical effects. It’ll be a legitimate travesty if this doesn’t earn this film an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects because they’re some of the best visual effects of the year.

PERFORMANCES

Nolan has always been good when it comes to the casts of his films and this one is no exception. While the whole ensemble cast is excellent, two performances in particular really stand out amongst the rest. The first is Matthew McConaughey in the lead role of Cooper. I’ll go into a little more depth about his character and his daughter’s arc in a little bit, but simply put, McConaughey has a great screen presence here and a very likable persona. The other major standout is Jessica Chastain in the role of Cooper’s daughter Murph, and on that note, I’d also like to highlight Mackenzie Foy who plays young Murph. Both do a phenomenal job at conveying the emotional turmoil/heartbreak that the character goes through in regards to Cooper leaving her at a young age (primarily in the case of Foy) and the belief that, after learning from Professor Brand (Michael Caine, in his usual top form) that the whole Endurance mission (‘Plan A’ compared to ‘Plan B’, which would have involved establishing a new colony via frozen embryos) wasn’t going to succeed and that the likelihood of humanity ever escaping Earth was slim, that her father may have known about it (which he didn’t, for the record) and left her and her brother behind to die on Earth.

A lot of Nolan’s detractors point out that he hasn’t done so well when it comes to writing female characters save for Selina Kyle in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. I’d argue that Murph is actually one of the better female leads in a Christopher Nolan film to date along with Selina. Not only is her character pretty relatable given the circumstances of what happens to her in regards to her dad leaving her, but I also admire her dedication and commitment to trying to help figure out a way to save the human race. I can definitely see a bit of Jessica Chastain’s character Maya from ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ in Murph and while I’ll admit I wasn’t the hugest fan of that film, both this and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ truly benefitted from Chastain’s performances. Anne Hathaway does a very good job as well as Professor Brand’s daughter Amelia, though she is kind of overshadowed by Chastain. As for rest of the cast, most of them don’t really get as much to work with as McConaughey and Chastain (save for Bill Irwin in a scene-stealing turn as one of the robots, TARS, who goes up into space with Cooper and his team), like Casey Affleck as Coop’s grown-up son Tom or Wes Bentley as Doyle, one of Cooper and Brand’s fellow astronauts. Still, it’s another great cast from top to bottom which once again highlights how Christopher Nolan is a fantastic actor-director.

EMOTIONAL DEPTH

Nolan has both huge fans and huge detractors and one of the main things that the latter group always points out when it comes to his films is that they’re more focused on the story than they are with the characters. Now I do see where they’re coming from but I’d also argue that they’re not entirely devoid of emotional depth and resonance. It’s just that, after re-watching his films, I realize that the emotional beats of his films are primarily focused around the main characters while the other supporting characters don’t get as much to work with. The main example I’d use for this would be ‘Inception’, where most of the dramatic moments in the film were based around Dom’s perspective whereas the other characters were really just there to fill out the cast. The same can kind of be said here as Cooper and Murph are the ones who get the bulk of ‘Interstellar’s more emotional moments. Still, I felt that it was done to great effect in regards to both of these characters. You really see how both are affected by Cooper’s decision to go into space; in the case of Cooper, it is how he’s forced to leave his kids behind and for Murph, it’s dealing with him leaving. The scene where Cooper tries to patch things up with Murph right before he leaves got me very emotional as we really see how pain both of them are going through on an emotional level.

However, there is one moment in particular that really stands out for me in regards to having great emotional resonance and that is the scene where Cooper and Brand return from Planet Miller to discover that 23 years have passed since they first left for the planet due to the fact that the planet is right next to a big black hole named Gargantua. Cooper goes through all of the messages sent to him by his kids, most of which are Tom telling him about everything that has happened since he’s been gone from how he got married to the death of grandpa Donald, moments that I’m pretty sure Coop wanted to be there for as shown through McConaughey’s emotional and heartbreaking reaction to all of this news. Then, he watches the first video sent to him by Murph, who’s now grown-up and who just so happens to be sending him on a message on the day of her birthday where she is now as old as he was when he first left and earlier in the scene where they were talking before he left, he told her that he might be back by this point but of course as we now know, he wasn’t able to get back in time for this. This scene once again shows the distress that Murph has gone through as a result of her dad leaving her for all of this time. Thankfully, the two do finally reunite at the end of the film, albeit when Murph is now an old woman (now played by Ellen Burstyn), and it is a very satisfying moment where father and daughter finally reunite after all these years. Say what you will about Nolan’s films lacking emotional development, but if you ask me, this film really delivers on emotional resonance in just the right way and at just the right moments in time.

THE SCORE

‘Interstellar’ serves as the fifth collaboration between Nolan and Hans Zimmer after his work on the ‘Dark Knight Trilogy’ and ‘Inception’ and as I stated in my original review, those who are worried that the score for ‘Interstellar’ will be similar to those films won’t have to worry because that is not the case here at all. I really loved Zimmer’s work on ‘Interstellar’ with some truly stand-out musical motifs throughout the film. The emotional and dramatic melodies were incredibly effective during the more emotional moments in the film along with the more tense melodies during the more intense sequences in the film. I’ve heard some people say that the score is too ‘bombastic’ (similar to what some have said with Zimmer’s other scores to Nolan films) but I’d argue that’s not actually the problem with it. Really, the downside to this brilliant score is that it results in what is unfortunately a major issue of the film, which is…

THE SOUND DESIGN

As many of you have already probably learned by now, the sound design for ‘Interstellar’ is, well, kind of piss-poor in some areas. This is primarily in regards to some of the more intense moments of the film. During these moments, the sound effects and, as noted, even the score can be overpowering to the point where you actually can’t hear any of the dialogue. And this isn’t just one single solitary instance in the film… there are at least three-four separate instances where this happens, like when the Endurance nears Gargantua or when Cooper and his kids are driving through a cornfield in pursuit of a surveillance drone. At first I thought it was just IMAX but after seeing it again in a regular theater, the same issue still occurred. Both times I saw this film, I saw it on, well, film so I’m wondering if the same issue occurs when it was projected digitally. If any of you have seen it this way, sound off in the comment section if the same problem with the sound design occurred while you were watching it. I know that Nolan and his crew were making a major effort to work on the sound design for the film but ultimately it ends up being rather problematic when it comes to some of the biggest moments in the film.

For my next point, I’d like to open with a ‘Team America: World Police’ quote…

MATT DAMON!!!

As many of you already know by now, the key cameo of the film is none other than Matt Damon in the role of Dr. Mann, a renowned member of NASA who had gone up into space during the Lazarus missions where he was sent to survey one of the planets in the galaxy that he and the other astronauts came to after going through the wormhole. However, as it turns out, Mann’s planet (the ice planet I mentioned earlier), isn’t hospitable for humanity in the slightest and that he was only faking the belief that the planet could sustain life just so that he could be rescued. Contrary to some critics, I actually found this part of the film to be incredibly fascinating even though I can see where some are coming from when they say that it felt like it felt like the story was taking a detour when they got to his part. I felt that it was incredibly interesting to have a character like Mann who had become heavily affected by the fact that he was all alone in a mysterious world, so much so to the point where he didn’t even set up a time to wake himself up when he went into hyper-sleep. Before this, Mann is frequently described as being ‘one of the best’ who inspired many and when he finally appears, we see that being up in space for so long has had a very negative effect on him to the point where he attempts to sabotage everything just so that he could be rescued. Ultimately, Cooper puts it best; Mann was a ‘f***ing coward’. I did like this aspect of the film and it was also nice to see Damon in a not-so-heroic role that contrasts quite a bit with a lot of the other roles that he has played over the years.   

THE CLIMAX

So now let’s talk about the climax of the film. After Mann reveals his true colors, he tries to escape but ends up getting killed when his ship imperfectly docks with the Endurance, which also results in it sustaining major damage. Coop and Brand manage to get it under control but find themselves with very little fuel so they decide to try and slingshot the ship around the black hole Gargantua so that they can reach the third planet, Edmunds. In order to lessen the ship’s weight, both TARS and Cooper detach from Endurance and they both fall into the black hole. They end up in a mysterious dimension where Cooper finds that he’s able to view Murph’s bedroom from her childhood at various points in time. Earlier there was discussion about who may have created the wormhole, possibly fifth-dimensional beings. Once in the black hole, Cooper realizes that he is in this ‘fifth-dimension’ and that these mysterious beings are actually humans from the future that are able to ‘communicate’ with others in the past. Cooper does this with Murph, effectively becoming the ‘Ghost’ that she thought she was hearing back when she was a kid, and years later when she’s all grown up, Cooper then relays the data that TARS had collected to her through Morse code, resulting in her figuring out the solution to save humanity and get them off of the dying Earth. Before leaving this ‘tesseract’, he also serves as the ‘being’ that Brand apparently comes into contact with when the crew of the Endurance first go through the wormhole.

Of course, because I’m no film scholar, I’m not going to try and analyze this sequence too much but I will say that, like with much of the movie, I found it to be incredibly fascinating. From a visual perspective it’s brilliant (obviously) but I also found it to be a unique plot-point and like the emotional satisfaction I felt when Cooper finally reunited with Murph at the end of the film, I found it very heart-warming and emotionally satisfying when it was revealed that Cooper was Murph’s ‘ghost’ allowing him to reconnect with her after all these years after they had parted on bad terms when he first went off into space. Not only does Coop reconnect with Murph but she is also able to finally figure out the problem that she has been trying to solve for a long time and she does so while also finally coming to terms with her emotions over her father leaving her. Now with that said, I do have to partially agree with something that YouTube movie critic Chris Stuckmann noted in his ‘Revisited’ review of the film (I’ll provide the link to it below) that this scene maybe would’ve worked a little better had this reveal not be primarily conveyed through exposition by Cooper and TARS instead of imagery, allowing the audience to figure out what is happening on their own. Now for the record, I’m not too bothered by the exposition, but I definitely see where he’s coming from and that this change would’ve made the scene a little more impactful which if you ask me it still very much is regardless of this.

IMAX AND 70/35 MM

Finally, I’d like to talk about what I believe is the best way to experience this movie; in IMAX. Nolan of course got the ball rolling for feature films to utilize IMAX cameras when he shot ‘The Dark Knight’ though I unfortunately never got the chance to see either that, ‘Dark Knight Rises’, or even last year’s big sci-fi hit ‘Gravity’ in IMAX. But this time I really made an effort to see this film in IMAX and boy does it deliver. Even with the problematic sound design, the film is truly a cinematic experience on the big IMAX screens. The already mentioned outstanding visuals stand out even more on the screen and while reading into the film’s production, it’s pretty cool how Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema utilized IMAX cameras for this film, reworking them so that they can be used in a handheld manner while shooting interior scenes. Also, if you get the chance, check out the film in the 70 or 35 mm formats as opposed to the new standard of digital projectors. Watching this film, both times in the film format, gave me quite a bit of nostalgic memories because I swear I can’t even remember the last time I saw a film in theaters that wasn’t projected digitally. And while I know that some movie theaters were really against having to project it the old-fashioned way, I’d say it actually looks much better on film. I don’t care if I sound an old man for saying that… it just does. Heck, I got a kick out of seeing those old cue marks (or as ‘Fight Club’ puts it, ‘cigarette burns’) to signify to the projectionist to change reels. I know that this old-school style of film projection is unfortunately becoming a dying art so kudos to filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and J.J. Abrams who are still all activists in regards to this format.

Chris Stuckmann’s ‘REVISITED’ review of ‘Interstellar’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Z_M0_dJhY

Big Hero 6 (2014) review

In the 90’s, Disney’s Animation Studio experienced their ‘Renaissance’ era, a decade which saw the release of some of their greatest films of all time like ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘The Little Mermaid’ (which was technically released in 1989), and my personal favorite, ‘The Lion King’. After that, the studio sort of went into a bit of a decline, even deciding to stop producing traditionally animated films at one point due to the rise in computer animation. Now while I will argue that there are some ‘diamonds in the rough’, like ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’ and ‘Treasure Planet’, for the most part the Disney films of the early 2000’s are viewed as some of their lesser works. However, it seems like the studio is in the midst of what can be described as their second Renaissance as they’ve really been dishing out some truly excellent animated films recently, including 2012’s ‘Wreck-it Ralph’ and of course last year’s $1.2 billion grossing, two-time Oscar winning smash hit, ‘Frozen’, which I can easily say was the best film that Disney had made in quite some time. For their next film, ‘Big Hero 6’, Disney takes advantage of one of their recent acquirements; Marvel Comics, which they bought in 2009, now serving as the distributor for Marvel’s main film studio. Though strangely, the fact that this is based off of a Marvel comic has not really been focused on at all in the marketing. Regardless, Disney succeeds in giving us yet another excellent animated film that ultimately can best be described as being similar to what the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are like; loads of fun.

In the futuristic metropolis of San Fransokyo, 14-year old robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) dreams of being accepted into the prestigious university that his brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) currently goes to. With Tadashi’s help, Hiro develops a series of telepathically-controlled microbots in order to try and gain an invitation to the university, which he does manage to get. However, on the day he shows off his new invention, Tadashi ends up dying in a fire, and resulting explosion, at the university. Sometime after this, Hiro discovers that the microbots, which were thought to have been destroyed in the accident, are now being developed by a mysterious man in a kabuki mask. Looking to catch this mysterious person who ‘stole’ his idea, and who may also be responsible for the death of Tadashi, Hiro and his brother’s invention, a personal healthcare robot named Baymax (Scott Adsit), form a team of superheroes consisting of themselves and his brother’s friends; adrenaline junkie GoGo (Jamie Chung), chemistry whiz Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez), laser-cutting expert Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), and comic-book fan Fred (T.J. Miller) in order to find this mysterious man.

Whereas ‘Frozen’ was a return to the old-school Disney musical, ‘Big Hero 6’, as you might expect given that it’s a Marvel property, feels very much like one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, albeit in animated form of course. It’s more action-oriented than something like ‘Frozen’ and the action in this film is truly excellent thanks of course to the one thing you can always expect from Disney; great animation, with plenty of eye-popping visuals that both kids and adults will no doubt love. This film maintains the same ‘fun-loving’ tone that their ‘cousins’, the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, have and as I’ve said before, that’s one of the best things about those films in general is that while they do have their more serious moments, they’re not all serious. But like many of Disney’s greatest films, this will also no doubt appeal to adults because the visuals are backed up by solid writing and the film does hit the right emotional beats at just the right moments, with some legitimately emotional scenes, specifically when Hiro grieves over the loss of his brother and a key action near the end that of course I won’t dare spoil here. But once you see this film, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

But of course, this film’s writing wouldn’t been as good had it not had good characters, and this film does have great characters. The relationship between Hiro and Baymax is the heart of the movie and while the character of Tadashi isn’t in the movie for very long, you can definitely sense a real brotherly relationship between him and Hiro. Hiro is a likable lead and Baymax… let’s face it, is the biggest standout character of the film. It’s just impossible not to like this character who has what could kind of be described as almost like a childlike innocence at times along with his devotion to help his people. The other members of ‘Big Hero 6’ are also really great as well, with each of the other four main characters getting their own chance to shine in the film. As for the main villain, whose identity I will not spoil, it’s a neat little twist as to who it turns out to be and overall it does make sense from a story perspective. It is admittedly better than the villains from ‘Frozen’, who were actually rather weak. However, with that film, I didn’t really view it as that big of a problem just because the other characters were excellent and the story was well-written and had a lot of heart which I felt at least managed to hide the fact that it had some rather lackluster villains. Had the villain in this been weak, it would’ve been the same effect; everything else around it is so good that it wouldn’t have been that big of a problem.

It’s safe to say that Disney Animation is in its second Renaissance thanks to films like ‘Wreck-it-Ralph’, ‘Frozen’, and now ‘Big Hero 6’. Taking full advantage of their acquirement of Marvel Comics, Disney delivers a film that very much feels like an animated version of one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. It’s loads of fun, has plenty of eye-popping visuals, and features a great cast of lead characters. Not only that, but the film also has the right amount of heart that you would expect from the studio behind such classics as ‘Pinocchio’ and ‘The Lion King’. I’ve heard some people already starting to compare this film to ‘Frozen’, some saying that this isn’t really as good as ‘Frozen’ while others actually favor this over ‘Frozen’. However, I’m not going to do that here, not just because I’ve only seen ‘Big Hero 6’ once (I usually wait until I see a film twice before I start attempting to ‘compare’ films) but ultimately because both films are entirely different. ‘Frozen’ is a musical while ‘Big Hero 6’ is the animated equivalent of the MCU films and I feel that it’s actually rather unfair to compare two films that really aren’t that similar. Regardless, both films are fantastic, showcasing the fact that Disney Animation has once again proven themselves to be a force to be reckoned with in animation.

Rating: 4.5/5

Interstellar (2014) review

Christopher Nolan is a director who just makes excellent movies. He’s one of those directors who, in my opinion, has yet to make a bad film. Of course, many people will primarily recognize him as the man who revived the ‘Batman’ film franchise with the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy which ran from 2005 to 2012. Those three films not only returned the series to its much darker roots but also differentiated themselves from other superhero movies by opting for a much more grounded tone. Not only is it the best superhero film trilogy ever made, but it’s also one of the best film trilogies period. But those aren’t the only great films that Nolan has made. He’s also helmed projects like ‘Memento’, ‘The Prestige’, and ‘Inception’, which were all very well-written films that didn’t talk down to the audience like some films admittedly do. That trend continues with Nolan’s newest film, and his first following the conclusion of the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, ‘Interstellar’. This is easily Nolan’s most ambitious film to date in regards to the film’s overall scope and scale. Heck, it’s even its longest film to date at 169 minutes, which beats his previous film, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, by just four minutes. However, under his usual great direction, ‘Interstellar’ turns out to be a truly one-of-a-kind motion picture experience, especially in IMAX which is pretty much the best way to see this movie.

The film takes place in the near future, where the Earth’s resources are slowly but surely starting to diminish, mostly due to blight and dust storms. During this time of crisis, NASA seeks a way to try and save humanity and seemingly find a solution when they discover a wormhole near Saturn. They set up a mission to send a ship into space to go through the wormhole, following a series of similarly manned spacecraft which were all sent up some time ago, and survey new planets in order to find a suitable new home. To lead the mission, NASA recruits one of their former test pilots, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a widowed engineer who currently lives as a farmer with his father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow) and his two kids; his son Tom (Timothée Chalamet, later played by Casey Affleck) and his daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy, later played by Jessica Chastain). Though he is rather reluctant to go at first due to the fact that he would be leaving his kids behind for an uncertain amount of time, Cooper agrees to lead the mission and heads up into space along with his fellow crew members, including Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), the daughter of one of NASA’s key professors (Michael Caine), Doyle (Wes Bentley), Romilly (David Gyasi), and robots TARS and CASE (voiced by Bill Irwin and Josh Stewart, respectively) in the hopes of finding a new habitable planet in order to save the human race.

‘Interstellar’ drew me in from the very beginning and I was hooked from beginning to end. From a technical perspective, the film is pretty much near-perfect. The visuals are outstanding, especially in the sequences that take place during space and when the characters go into the black hole, as is the cinematography in the first film since Nolan’s directorial debut to not be shot by Wally Pfister. As a director, Nolan has been known for using as much practical effects as possible and it seems like this is also the case, for the most part, in this film as well. The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is also fantastic and those who are worried about the score sounding too similar to Zimmer’s work on Nolan’s other films will be pleased to know that this isn’t the case here. Now I did say ‘near-perfect’ earlier, and that is because the sound design for the film can be rather problematic at times. Sometimes the audio is so loud, due to either the film’s sound effects or sometimes even the score, that it’s hard to hear the dialogue. But ultimately, the best way to see this film is in IMAX. The visuals are even more eye-catching on the big screen and despite some issues with the sound design, sometimes you can even feel the theater shake during certain sequences like when the spaceships are launching. I also saw it in the 70 mm format which served as a nice bit of nostalgia for me seeing how this is probably the first film that I’ve seen in quite some time (geez, I sound old…) that wasn’t projected digitally. You could actually hear the projector running during moments of in-space silence.

One thing about Nolan’s films that his critics frequently bring up is that when it comes to his writing, he’s more focused on story than he is with characters. While I do certainly see where they’re coming from, I’d argue that his films aren’t entirely devoid of character and substance. It’s just that most of the emotional depth of his films mostly come from the arcs of the main characters while most of the side characters don’t get as much to work with in that regard, and this is sort of the case here with Cooper. However, the emotional resonance of his storyline, primarily his relationship with Murph and the conflict that he faces in regards to having to decide to leave his family in order to save the world, is actually really spot-on and I’ll admit that even I got a little emotional at times because of it. McConaughey of course has been on a big career comeback recently and this film is no exception as he gives one of the best performances of his career in this movie. And while it is true that McConaughey’s role does kind of overshadow every other character in the film, Nolan once again proves to be one of the best ‘actor’ directors in the business thanks to great performances from all involved including Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin (even though he’s just voicing a robot), and Michael Caine. There’s even a neat little cameo by someone you will no doubt recognize in the latter half of the film. Now despite Nolan’s knack for secrecy, you’ve probably already know who it is given the extremely spoiler-ific nature of the internet. Even I’ll admit I knew about it going in. Still, for anybody who doesn’t know about it already, I won’t spoil it here.

‘Interstellar’… is truly an outstanding film. While Nolan’s critics hate to hear the comparisons made between him and Stanley Kubrick, ‘Interstellar’ is very much inspired by Kubrick (namely his own sci-fi epic ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’) and it’s safe to say that this is Nolan’s ‘2001’. Its visuals are outstanding matched by the film’s overall scale and scope. It’s also certainly Nolan’s most ambitious film to date and while some may argue that the film bites off more than it can chew, I do feel that the film does manage to succeed in that regard more than it may fail. Not only that, but the movie does have enough emotional resonance through the arc of the character of Cooper thanks to both the writing and McConaughey’s excellent leading performance. Now I do realize that this is, at the moment, becoming one of the more polarizing films of the year and while I haven’t seen that many negative reviews, most of the positive reviews I’ve heard are describing the film as ‘good but not great’. I for one think it’s one of the best films of the year so far, but regardless of whether or not you end up liking the film, one thing’s for certain; it’s still very much a must-see in theaters, especially in IMAX and if you do have the opportunity to do so, preferably in 70 mm. It’s a film that truly delivers on spectacle and does manage to be more than just that.

Rating: 5/5!

Directorial Retrospective: Christopher Nolan

It’s time for another directorial retrospective and this week, in honor of the release of his latest film, ‘Interstellar’, today we’ll be looking at the films of another one of the best directors currently working today in Hollywood: Christopher Nolan. The London-born director got off to a pretty good start early in his career with a few solidly-acclaimed movies like ‘Memento’ and ‘Insomnia’. But then in 2005, he truly made his mark in Hollywood when he took over the ‘Batman’ film franchise. Not only did he bring the character back to top form after the franchise had died out eight years prior, but also ended up giving us what is quite frankly the best superhero film trilogy to date whereas most other superhero film franchises have weaker third entries compared to the first two (like ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘X-Men’). Nolan is one of the few directors right now who, in my opinion, has yet to make a bad movie. But with that said, let me make something perfectly clear; while Nolan is one of my favorite directors, that doesn’t mean that I’m a Nolan ‘fan-boy’. Unfortunately, there are some people out there who are so huge fans of Nolan that they act like he’s the best director ever and act like jerks to anyone who doesn’t like his movies. You may recall back when ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ came out, they actually sent death threats to any critic who gave it a negative review (and given the current critical reception to ‘Interstellar’, I’m guessing they’ve already done the same thing again to those who didn’t like it). So while I am a big fan of his movies, I’m not ‘that big’ a fan. So now that I got that out of the way, here are the films of director Christopher Nolan.

FOLLOWING (1998)

While Nolan first attracted major attention with his second film, ‘Memento’, his official feature-length debut was 1998’s ‘Following’ and really, for a film made on a $6,000 budget, featuring a cast consisting of what we can assume as a bunch of Nolan’s friends (along with his uncle John, who later appeared in two of the ‘Dark Knight’ films) and with a runtime that’s just a bit over an hour long, it’s actually a pretty impressive directorial debut. It’s a very engaging/twisting crime drama that very much feels like a crime noir. Nolan makes the most of his incredibly limited budget, handling the cinematography himself and only doing about one or two takes of every scene, heavily rehearsing them beforehand, so he wouldn’t waste any film stock. This results in a film that feels incredibly focused from beginning to end due to how careful Nolan was when it came to making the film. Plus, at just 70 minutes long, it’s a breeze to get through. All in all, ‘Following’ is a film that, for its time, was the first to show-off Christopher Nolan’s talents as a director. Things would only get better for him as time went on.

Rating: 4/5

MEMENTO (2000)

 

After ‘Following’, Nolan immediately followed that up with ‘Memento’, which was based off of the short story ‘Memento Mori’ written by his brother and frequent collaborator Jonathan Nolan. This was the film that officially established him as one of the best new directors working in Hollywood at the time although you could also say that he really didn’t become a household name until he took on the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy. ‘Memento’ is a very complicated film, primarily through the way it is structured. There are two parts to this film; a series of black-and-white sequences and a series of color sequences. The black-and-white sequences are shown in chronological order, but the color sequences are shown in reverse order. In other words, one color sequence will begin where the next color sequence will end and the film intercuts between the color and black-and-white sequences. It isn’t until the end when both sequences meet where the film finally starts moving in proper order. So like with many of Nolan’s films, you have to make sure you’re paying attention because otherwise you might get lost.

That’s why ‘Memento’ is such an effective psychological thriller. Because the film is technically ‘out of order’, we’re usually trying to figure out what’s happening due to the fact that we basically go into each scene in the middle of the action. We gradually learn more about what happens as the film goes on. It isn’t until the end, with a great twist regarding the truth behind the events of the story, when we finally understand what’s really going on. It’s all headlined by an outstanding performance by Guy Pearce in the role of Leonard, a man who has anterograde amnesia following an attack on him and his wife, which resulted in her death, by two men who now looks to find the one that escaped to enact his revenge for the death of his wife. It’s a complicated role, and Pearce fits the role of what can be classified as an ‘unreliable narrator’ perfectly. So much so that it’s sad that he didn’t get nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor that year because I feel that this is one of the best performances from any actor/actress that I’ve ever seen. ‘Memento’ is, without a doubt, one of Nolan’s best films as it is a smartly written thriller with an excellent payoff.

Rating: 5/5!

INSOMNIA (2002)

This is one of Nolan’s lesser-talked about films and I’m guessing the main reason for this is because this is the only film that he has directed where he wasn’t primarily involved with the screenplay. Instead, it was someone else who wrote this remake of a 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, though apparently Nolan did write the final draft of the screenplay. Despite this, the fact that Nolan wasn’t in charge of the screenplay does kind of show, as the film isn’t as twisted as Nolan’s other works. It’s a much more straight-forward story. Still, Nolan’s direction shines through in this film, which centers on a pair of detectives who travel to a small Alaskan town in order to help solve the case of the murder of a teen girl. However, during the investigation, the main character Will Dormer (Al Pacino) accidentally shoots his partner Hap (Martin Donovan) dead, resulting in him suffering from insomnia due to both his guilt over what had happened and also because the town he’s staying in is stuck in perpetual daylight. It’s an interesting look into the psyche of Dormer, who slowly but surely starts to lose his mind as the movie goes on. Pacino is fantastic in this, but really the main stand-out is Robin Williams in the role of the killer, crime author Walter Finch. I actually have to admit that this is the first film of Williams’ that I have seen that wasn’t a ‘comedy’ and it goes to show that with films like this, ‘Good Will Hunting’, and ‘The Fisher King’, that Williams was very much a truly great screen talent… and he will be very much missed. So in short, ‘Insomnia’ is another solid effort from Nolan, but while I do feel that it’s definitely one of his more underrated films, I can’t really say it’s his most absolute underrated. Still, ‘Insomnia’ is very much worth checking out.

Rating: 4/5

THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY (2005, 2008, 2012)

Due to the fact that I already talked about these films back in May when I did my retrospective on the ‘Batman’ films in honor of the 75^th anniversary of the character’s first appearance, I’m not going to go into too much detail about them here. For that, just refer back to that earlier post (http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2014/05/batman-film-retrospective-part-1-live.html) but I’ll still do a quick recap on what I had said there. After the ‘Batman’ film franchise hit rock bottom in 1997 with ‘Batman and Robin’, Christopher Nolan revitalized the series in 2005 with ‘Batman Begins’. That film returned the series to its darker roots and gave us a solid look into the origins of Batman, something that we hadn’t really seen before in previous films. Featuring a great cast, great writing, and some terrific visuals, ‘Batman Begins’ is a phenomenal entry in the comic book genre, even if most of the hand-to-hand combat sequences aren’t really that good due to shaky cam work and quick editing. It does something much different in that while it is a comic book movie, it’s much more grounded in reality than what one would usually expect from a film of this genre. It’s a style that has influenced many as shown in films like the Daniel Craig ‘Bond’ films and even some other superhero films like ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’.

Thankfully, that issue of weak fight sequences disappeared three years later with ‘The Dark Knight’… I don’t need to go any farther than that. You all know how phenomenal a movie it is with a well-deserved Oscar win for Heath Ledger who gave us the best on-screen portrayal yet of Batman’s iconic nemesis, the Joker. It was such a great movie that admittedly it ended up having a bit of a negative effect on the finale, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and sure enough there are some people out there who were extremely disappointed by it. I’m not one of them… sure it may not be as great as ‘The Dark Knight’ due to some small issues like the occasional plot-hole (even though I’m not really bothered by them compared to most people) and some rushed character development. But it’s still an excellent conclusion to this trilogy and if anything, you can’t deny it’s still a well-crafted film. In short, ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’ is the best superhero film trilogy to date as all three films are superb. That’s because they’re more than just your typical superhero films… they’re incredibly well-written films that ignore the more fantastical elements of the comic books to go for much more grounded storylines that I feel do one of the most iconic comic book superheroes of all time justice. Simply put, this trilogy is a high mark of the superhero film genre.

BEGINS: 4.5/5

DARK KNIGHT: 5/5!

RISES: 5/5!

THE PRESTIGE (2006)

‘The Prestige’ is easily Christopher Nolan’s most underrated film, one that feels like it’s been rather forgotten about in recent years. It’s sad because ‘The Prestige’ is arguably one of Nolan’s best films. It’s an incredibly compelling story about two magicians, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, who form an intense rivalry as they each try to one-up each other in regards to creating amazing illusions of magic, often leading to dangerous and tragic results for the both of them. As you would expect from a Nolan film, ‘The Prestige’ is full of twists and turns to keep you guessing the entire film. After all, the film opens with the line ‘Are you watching closely?’ which just goes to show how twisty the film’s plot is from beginning to end. I’ve heard some people say that they didn’t like the ending, but I found it to be a pretty neat ending. Now for the sake of spoilers I won’t say anything about what actually happens during the ending. However, if I had to describe it in just one word, it would be this; Duality. If you see the film, you’ll understand what I mean by that. All in all, with great production design, great direction from Nolan (obviously), and a terrific cast including Jackman, Bale, Michael Caine, and Scarlett Johansson, ‘The Prestige’ definitely deserves more attention than it’s currently getting. Like I said back in May 2013 when I reviewed the film ‘Now You See Me’, I feel like the idea of magicians isn’t very popular anymore which I do find a little sad because the art of magic can lead to some amazing results and this film is very much proof of that.

Rating: 4.5/5

INCEPTION (2010)

In between ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, Nolan took on a dream project of his that he had been working on since 2002 about ‘dream stealers’. Originally envisioned as a horror film, it soon became what we know today as ‘Inception’. As is typical with Nolan’s films, the film is very complicated in terms of its plot. This is one of those films that very much requires constant attention throughout… otherwise you might get lost. But if you do stick with it, the payoff is quite satisfying. ‘Inception’ is an incredibly engaging and original story (although some will say it’s just ‘The Matrix’) featuring some incredible visuals that come as a result of the many dreams that the main characters infiltrate throughout the course of the film, like the fight sequence where Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt) fights henchmen in a rotating hallway. It’s even more impressive knowing that Nolan, as he did with the ‘Dark Knight’ films, opted to use as much practical effects as possible. The cast is terrific from top to bottom, highlighted by Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role of Dom, a ‘dream thief’ who takes on one last job in order to get back home to his kids following the death of his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), who now haunts his memories due to him feeling guilty for letting it happen. The pulse-pounding score by Hans Zimmer, which as many of you know has been copied quite a lot in many other films since this film came out, is also excellent. My only complaint about the film is that the pacing is rather too slow. When I saw this film in the theaters, I swear that it felt like I was watching a four-hour movie when it was really only two and a half hours. Despite that, ‘Inception’ is just an awesome sci-fi heist film and another great entry in Nolan’s prestigious resume.

Rating: 4.5/5   

2014 Preview: November

Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s year-long preview of the films that are set to come out during 2014. This is Part 10 of 11 (previously 12) and today we’ll be looking at the films that will be hitting theaters this November. It’s actually going to be a lighter month than you might expect as there are only 1-2 new wide releases coming out every week (not counting the few limited releases I’m including here as well). Still, there are quite a lot of big names in movies that are headlining this month, from Christopher Nolan to Katniss Everdeen to Disney.  So let’s get started as we look at the films of November.

NOVEMBER 7- Two big-name wide releases start off the month; one is the latest from Christopher Nolan, the other is the new Disney film. There’s also one major limited release that comes out this weekend.

*Director Christopher Nolan takes on his first project following the conclusion of the ‘Dark Knight Trilogy’ with ‘Interstellar’. Taking place in a future where Earth’s resources are diminishing, the film centers on a former NASA test pilot turned farmer/engineer (Matthew McConaughey) who is hired to lead a space expedition in order to save the human race. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Wes Bentley, and Michael Caine.

(Note: ‘Interstellar’ will open in limited release and in IMAX two days before it is released nationwide in theaters that still utilize the 70 mm and 35 mm film format)

*Following the $1.2 billion success of ‘Frozen’, Disney releases their next animated feature, ‘Big Hero 6’. This will be the first time Disney utilizes the Marvel Comics brand, which as you know they bought back in 2009, as it is based off of the comic series of the same name by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau. The film takes place in the futuristic metropolis of ‘San Fransokyo’ and centers on Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter), a young robotics prodigy, and his healthcare companion robot Baymax (Scott Adsit), who form a team of crime fighters in order to stop a criminal plot. The film’s voice cast also includes Jamie Chung, T.J. Miller, Maya Rudolph, Damon Wayans Jr., and Alan Tudyk.

*Opening in limited release is ‘The Theory of Everything’, a biopic on famed physicist Stephen Hawking. Eddie Redmayne stars as Hawking in this film, which focuses on his relationship with literature student Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones) and the diagnosis of the disease that forever changed his life; ALS.

NOVEMBER 14- The long awaited sequel to a comedy classic hits theaters along with a notable limited release.

*Two decades after the release of ‘Dumb and Dumber’, everyone’s favorite dim-witted duo return for ‘Dumb and Dumber To’. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels reprise their roles as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, respectively, who in this film head out on a journey when they learn that Harry has a long-lost daughter.

*One of the major award contenders of the year, ‘Foxcatcher’ is directed by Bennett Miller (‘Moneyball’, ‘Capote’) and is based off of the true story of Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and his relationship with his coach John du Pont (Steve Carell), which ended up taking a very, very dark turn. The film also stars Mark Ruffalo as Mark’s brother Dave.

NOVEMBER 21- Only one major new release but given the pedigree that it has, who would even dare try and challenge it at the box office?

*The ‘Girl on Fire’ returns with ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1’, the first half of the conclusion to the ‘Hunger Games’ film series based off of the book ‘Mockingjay’ by Suzanne Collins. Jennifer Lawrence reprises her role as Katniss Everdeen, who in this film finds herself right at the forefront of the growing rebellion amongst the citizens of Panem against the Capitol. Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and many more reprise their roles from the previous films and are joined here by Julianne Moore and Natalie Dormer.

NOVEMBER 28- This Thanksgiving, we’re getting two new wide releases that are coming early on November 26^th, the day before Thanksgiving.

*Another successful comedy, 2011’s ‘Horrible Bosses’, gets a sequel this week in ‘Horrible Bosses 2’. Jason Bateman, Jason Sudekis, and Charlie Day return as Nick, Kurt, and Dale, who in this film decide to launch their own business. However, when they end up getting screwed over by their investor (Christoph Waltz), they decide to kidnap his son (Chris Pine), in order to save their new business. Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, and Kevin Spacey also reprise their roles from the previous film.

*Finally, we have ‘The Penguins of Madagascar’, a spin-off of Dreamworks’ ‘Madagascar’ series centered on its most popular characters; the Penguins. In this film, the Penguins end up getting enlisted into an elite undercover animal task force called the North Wind in order to stop a villainous octopus from taking over the world. The film’s voice cast features Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, and Ken Jeong.

And those are the films that will be coming out this November. Check back next month for the final part of this year’s monthly previews as we look at the final films hitting theaters in 2014 that are coming out this December.