Gravity
2013
*****
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris, Phaldut Sharma, Amy Warren, Basher Savage
A space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Telescope goes horribly wrong when the team is hit by a cloud of debris from a destroyed Russian satellite, and the two surviving astronauts are stranded in space. This groundbreaking, incredibly tense and fabulously entertaining thriller delivers a perfect marriage of stunning images, dynamic sound design, powerful score, and state-of-the-art special effects. Although the film is technically brilliant, it is ultimately an intimate portrayal of human resilience. Alfonso Cuarón, who co-wrote the screenplay with his son Jonás, does a perfect job in the director's chair. To sustain a believable sense of zero gravity for 90 minutes is one thing, to do so with long and flowing tracking shots is something else. Sandra Bullock provides the story's emotional core in a career-best performance. The seven Academy Awards include Best Directing, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.
