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.
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’
