Christopher Nolan's INTERSTELLAR - 10 years into the Black Hole

 

Here is something I didnt realize until today... Interstellar for me comes with the opposite sort of reaction that I had when it came to first viewings and repeated watches that I had with the Dark Knight; where with that film I had a not dissimilar reaction as much of the public, where it was like "Holy cow, look at that Batman and Joker and Two Face and ahh movies ain't they great," only to find that revisiting it left much more questions and issues and less enjoyment, though for sure still a good movie, Interstellar was something I didn't quite love on the first go around (still liked a lot!) mostly due to the last twenty minutes or so when Cooper is in the Fifth Dimension and those book cases... and now on its 10th anniversary it is clear that this is such intensely moving emotional cinema as well as a profoundly thoughtful story with multiple ethical dilemmas handled perfectly.

And I know for some Nolan can do no wrong no matter what lane he's in (and I say to you, uh, "The Protagonist" in Tenet, bite me, but I digress), but I remember Interstellar was not greeted as warmly overall as other films of his up to that point. For sure it still was a hit and got multiple awards and wins (mostly on tech grounds, and I suspect had McConaughey not won just recently for Dallas Buyers Club this could have had more or a chance for him in this role, where he's much more impressive as a heroic everyman dad in extraordinary circumstances).

But I do wonder if it has actually gained in appreciation for those younger or just coming to it after its initial theatrical run, leading up to this 10th anniversary where it's been breaking Imax records and reminding us all in this dark end to 2024 that... feelings should be had, especially when they're about parents and children and saving the planet. It may just be thematic synergy speaking, but there may be something to the fact that I respond as I get older I respond to sagas where big familial straits and bonds are tested to their limits, and Interstellar is nothing if not a giant open-heart, and one (this is key) that earns to have that heart on the plate and ready to be eaten on gourmet hot 70mm/IMAX bread.

I'm not sure why I didn't feel it so much when it first came out. Perhaps I was trying to keep up with the exposition, though even here I had less trouble following what was delivered this time and it was totally clear what the stakes are for this mission, everything with Plan A and Plan B (and especially once it's revealed that the *real* deal is with Plan A by Matt Damon), and even all of the stuff with the wormholes. As for the giant book-shelf in space and the five dimensional Tesseract, there's a part of me watching this time where I thought that the brilliance of the film in some or large part is that this may be science accurate, but it still works and soars as metaphor.

By that I mean this bond between Cooper and Murph, one where time itself is put to the test and limit - by the time-obsessed and master of it as a structural writer in modern film, Nolan himself - and how something so simple is set up in that bedroom that one word Murph finds as a child pays off so spectacularly, and it works because while there's the science and so on and yada yada, there's on a fundamental level that idea of love crossing all time and space and even transcending how we make such things as space ships that can go through time or the TARS robots or any manner of things, and how we see that love unfold between father and daughter is so powerful, for how Nolan steers us there, how we have those overwhelming moments when the characters watch the videos from home on the ship (that's where I started to sob uncontrollably this time), is what makes this special.

Oh, of course this is also as grand a spectacle and awesome depiction of space travel and the possibilities of what is both "out there" and how a filmmaker's imagination (coupled with real science) can create a synergy visually that can blow one away in one's seat, not to mention the sound design and rumble in a good theater with intense IMAX sound, but all of that could be just fine without the human element.

That's where the Nolan brothers are cooking best and with actors across the board who are there to meet them and go further than we might even think - aside from McConaughey geing God tier here, how about Hathaway's eloquence with the big Nolan exposition beats just as tenderly and forcefully as she is describing love, and Damon has like the villainous turn of his own The Martian character a year before this, not to mention Chastain and Caine and Affleck and so on (secret MVP Bill Irwin as the robot) - so that by the time it gets to those final twenty minutes, things have coalesced completely around the pathos and I am more than fine with how this... Gravity works and the morse code.

Do I understand it all logically? Maybe not. But do I care? No, not really; it's about how love will be what will save us all, and the care to put in the time and effort for one person (a young woman no less, and Hathaway's character to an extent) who will be the savior and so on. And I cant say this is perfect as a movie, as there are some things near the very end that are irksome as things are wrapping up (mild spoiler for a ten year old movie: how come no mention of his son? Even if in a throwaway line? And how does Cooper know how to pilot a new plane like he does and can just leave away like that).

But this is a prime example of a modern popular mainstream filmmaker creating a work that is about the human spirit and if you meet it even a little to its level it is one of the most rewarding and sort of devastating films one can see; it does have hope to it on the level of how humans can really do anything they put their minds to, and the darker cousin of this vision is now in the world as well with Oppemheimer. As in, Interstellar is nothing without its hard choices and doom and gloom, but it looks to what potential we may have and that it's ultimately more positive than not, while Oppie is... yeah, nah, we were screwed by science and politics so long ago. And pairing those two films, albeit it would make for one long day, shows Nolan at his most inspired and on fire as a filmmaker, with all of the actors and van Hoytema and the composers at their peak powers.

This is all to say.... try if you can to see this in an IMAX theater (or if you have a very large TV that'll do I suppose) with someone you love and can hold on to.  (My wife had never seen it before and was a giant human puddle for half the run time).