Interstellar in a Nutshell

Interstellar is not Christopher Nolan’s best film. I still believe that honor belongs to the Prestige. It is a great film in its own right though. Matthew McConaughey continues his sudden rise from gimmicky to great in the film’s primary role as Cooper. He must leave his daughter Murphy and son Tom to pilot a team of scientists through a wormhole in space to look for future habitable worlds before earth goes extinct from crop blight. A lot has been made of how accurate the science was in this movie but even if you know nothing about the cosmos you will still enjoy what is, at its core, just a great story. It’s one of the few films I’ve ever seen that I think a father should take his daughter to or vice visa as their relationship is extremely important in the film. Visually the film’s space sequences are clearly inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey but they also do a great job of being modern and above all else thrilling. There is a scene where Cooper must dock his shuttle onto an out of control space station that had me biting my nails off. Interstellar also takes influence from 2001 with its unique robot TARS but instead of recreating HAL they give us a fresh and interesting take on a robot that is less inclined to kill humanity. Hans Zimmer also shines in this film with his most inspired score since the Dark Knight. My only real complaint in this film was Matt Damon’s plot thread which proved to be a bit predictable for a Christopher Nolan film. At the end of the day this was a stunning science fiction adventure that more than lived up to the hype around it. I can’t wait to watch it again when it comes out on DVD and Blue Ray.