Interstellar
2014
*****
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, David Gyasi, Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck, Ellen Burstyn, Matt Damon, Michael Caine
As the ravaged Earth is running out of food, NASA sends a space ship to a wormhole near Saturn in order to discover a potentially habitable planet. Cooper, an astronaut-turned-farmer, gets back to what he knows best, but he must leave his son and daughter behind to go on a long mission, which may create a massive time dilation in relation to Earth. This long and complex science fiction scenario, scripted by Christopher Nolan together with his brother Jonathan, deals with some massive global and cosmic issues, but it's ultimately a moving story about the people at the centre of it all. It is recognisably a Nolan film with a bit of M. Night Shyamalan thrown in for good measure. However, one film it most resembles is James Cameron's The Abyss, another insanely ambitious and awe-inspiring spectacle with an ending you either love or hate. The performances are excellent, Hans Zimmer's score is haunting, the visuals are stunning, and the director stages several nail-biting set pieces on the ground and in space. The harrowing dust storms in the beginning were inspired by the Dust Bowl, and Nolan incorporates real interviews from Ken Burns' 2012 documentary on the subject. An Academy Award winner for best visual effects.
