Interstellar movie review (originally published in November 2014)

From the only superstar Director of this generation

INTERSTELLAR

DIRECTOR- he he…as if I have to tell you who directed this

CAST- Matthew Mc Conaughy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon and others.

Well, if you have ever seen a stock broker give financial advice on TV, they are actually asked to declare in the end, whether they have any personal stake in any of the analysis given, in case they don’t end up giving biased advice. In the same vein, let me declare outright, that if you even remotely know me, you already know that am a huuuuge Nolan fan and as much snobbish as it sounds to say it, but I actually was a fan of him even before The Dark Knight trilogy. You’ll find me quoting his movie references, his name and style etc. in almost every third review I write on this blog. So let me tell it to you, fair and square, am gonna like this movie more than most people did.

I could go on writing about how Nolan is what Spielberg, Coppola, Kubrick, Hitchcock, Orson Welles etc. were in their respective generations. Directors, who through their cinematic genius and marketable yet intelligent story-telling yielded influence over the ever money hungry movie studios. It is so much so, that Nolan can pretty much walk into a studio with an idea and walk out with an approved budget. Christopher Nolan is a marketable name in itself now-a-days, thanks to the success of the Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception.

So, I imagine when Nolan proposed the idea for a movie about quantum mechanics, Theory of relativity and String Theory, space travel and an apocalyptic future…based on the theories of renowned physicist Kip Thorne, He pretty much got free reign. He did fuck up your brain nicely with a reality based psycho-thriller like Memento and light sci-fi elements in Inception…imagine how much of a mind fuck he can be with all of the above elements.

And that he does successfully to some extent…without doing this in Nolan’s signature non-linear style…let me go through this review in a straightforward manner.

The story goes that somewhere in the near future, the earth is a fucked up place. Over-population and constant wars have kinda led not to a total breakdown of society but certainly a weird regression. Most of technology exists but engineers and soldiers are not needed so much. The world is dying of hunger and all it needs is farmers. Ex- NASA pilot Coop (McConaughy) is now a farmer living somewhere in America and trying to get by. As they very nicely establish it, this is not a generation of explorers or inventors but a care-taker generation, living austere lives. However all is not what it seems, as weird dust storms and diseases are wiping out the crops too.  Humanity has to look for an alternative planet to move to. And that is precisely what they have planned. Also, there are some mysterious forces helping them along the way.

Well, that’s as much as you get to know without actually revealing more of the story. Nolan does a great job of establishing the relation between the Coop and his family…especially his daughter…and one could say that in a movie filled with infinitely complicated scientific theories….that is the soul of the movie. All the actors…I repeat ALL the actors, even the child actors (who are normally very annoying ) act really well.  Nolan even manages to make you care about a metal box like robot. Even if you don’t understand the movie completely, it is this emotional connection that will keep you invested with the characters enough to care for what happens next.

What most of you might not know , is that Nolan has never been a big fan of Special Effects (SFX), he avoids as much as he can. He is old-school amongst a new breed of digital directors, where he prefers shooting on 70mm Cinema reels than digi-cam and also using practical effects and miniatures whenever possible. He had to use SFX for the space scenes here obviously….but its all shot so well, the visuals are so sweeping and magnificent that you can really feel the emptiness of space and the journey of the characters. You can see Nolan’s special touch when the explosions in space do not make any noise because they don't in real life either. Add to that the ever so spectacular music score of Hans Zimmer and you have possible got the best space visuals since 2001: A Space Odyssey. This movie was shot and is meant for the IMAX screen and I strongly suggest you watch it one if possible. 

The sweeping shots, the travels through a higher dimension…a lonely tiny spacecraft against the vast infinite backdrop of space are all obviously influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey. This movie was is and will be compared to 2001: A Space Odyssey time and again…not only because of the similarity in visuals but also because Nolan is often compared to Kubrick in terms of film making skills and Nolan himself cites him as one of his inspirations. However, don’t get your hopes up yet. 

Now, even though being a big fan, let me tell you that in my opinion, this is perhaps the least ‘tight’ (there is no better word for it) script written by the Nolan brothers. There are several convenient moments and unlike Inception or any of Nolan’s other movies, it doesn’t really build up well to a intense climax due to weird pacing issues.. I mean it does have its tense moments but still length seems long at almost 3 hours.. Also, some of the dialogue seems a little corny at times. One more drawback could be that some of the events are so complex that even if the movie tries to continuously explain what is happening, it would do you good to have read a bit of physics. Concepts like singularity, event horizon etc. are difficult to understand even as it is, let alone in a movie. I don’t mean that as a real drawback, but it is the truth that most people just won’t understand it. If you thought driving home after Inception was difficult coz you were still pondering over it in your mind, then prepare to either be so thoroughly mind fucked that either you’ll wanna watch it again or just plain fucking give up. 

An actual negative I felt was that, the third act of the movie is full of conveniences. I wouldn't have expected a Nolan movie to have so many of them. Things just happening at their most convenient time is a liberty a story is allowed to take but not when everything has been so carefully built up. But then, I feel I must have missed something. See, the fact about Nolan is that he is like (to use a cliché) a magician…he likes using misdirection, twisting narratives etc . to keep you on track while yet taking you for a ride. One of the few film makers that can still surprise you. I had frankly figured out the twist well in advance even though the journey to it was entertaining. Maybe, am expecting too much from this movie just because I like Nolan…or maybe I did miss something…some clue here or there. This, I think, has been and will continue to be Nolan’s greatest strength. The ability to keep you wondering and making you watch the movie again and again.

I pop up any of Nolan's movies anytime am bored and I can watch them from absolutely any point on wards. But even though it has its moments, I don’t think Interstellar will fall in that category. Having said that, watching this movie is like watching Sachin Tendulkar score a 50 even when he wasn’t in form. It  still was better than watching some others score a 100. Nolan’s average work is still better than other’s best.

This movie is- Total Timepass

PS- I remember when The Dark Knight Rises was going to release, I was hoping that it wouldn’t be bad. Because a) third movie parts are usually very very bad and b) Every director rather every human being goes through a cycle when he must fail. I wont say he has failed here, just wasn’t in full form.