Interstellar (2014)

There are science fiction films that use the cosmos as wallpaper, and then there are films that treat it as the point. Interstellar, released in 2014 and produced by Legendary Pictures alongside Christopher Nolan's own Syncopy banner and Lynda Obst Productions, falls firmly into the second camp. The premise is rooted in genuine theoretical physics, with astrophysicist Kip Thorne serving as an executive producer and scientific consultant, lending the film a grounding in concepts, wormholes, gravitational time dilation, higher-dimensional space, that most blockbusters would happily gloss over or ignore entirely. The story follows a group of astronauts who pass through a newly discovered wormhole near Saturn in a last-ditch effort to find a habitable world for a humanity that is running out of time on Earth. At 169 minutes, it is not a film that rushes anywhere.

Christopher Nolan had, by 2014, built a reputation for large-scale films that ask something of their audience. If you want a sense of where he had come from before taking on a project of this scope, the blog has reviews of Memento (2000), his early calling card, The Prestige (2006), and Inception (2010), each of which gives a feel for how his ambitions had scaled over the years. Interstellar represents perhaps the most earnest film of his career, a word you do not always associate with Nolan, in that it wears its emotions plainly rather than hiding them behind structural puzzles. The screenplay, written with his brother Jonathan Nolan, draws on decades of theoretical work and leans into the human cost of the science rather than simply the spectacle of it.

The cast assembled around that material is, on paper, as polished as anything Hollywood could put together. Matthew McConaughey leads as Cooper, a former pilot turned farmer who is recruited for the mission and must leave his family behind, possibly forever (the time dilation mechanics make that word do a lot of heavy lifting). McConaughey had, by this point, completed what commentators were calling his career renaissance, moving away from lighter fare into roles of genuine weight. For a flavour of his range from earlier in that period, there is the blog's take on Killer Joe (2011). Alongside him, Anne Hathaway plays a fellow scientist and astronaut, Michael Caine brings his particular brand of measured authority to the role of Professor Brand, and Jessica Chastain and Casey Affleck handle key parts of the film's emotional second half. Hans Zimmer's score, built around pipe organ rather than the orchestral palette most would expect, became one of the more recognisable pieces of film music from the decade.

As a Scientist... This is SUCH a realistic movie. Our generations 2001 Space Odyssey. I love Interstellar. It's right up my street because I love learning about the science behind the cosmos. I learnt about Gravitational time dilation through this film. I learnt more about tesseracts through this film. Matthew McConaughey absolutely CARRIES this film. That scene at the end where he's screaming Murph is SO hard to watch as a Father. The soundtrack is so powerful it's being used widely on social media right now as a means to invoke emotion. In the future they'll consider this film to be our generations 2001 Space Odyssey.

For me, that comparison to 2001: A Space Odyssey is not one I make lightly, and I genuinely mean it when I say this film earns it. The science is not decoration here, it is the architecture the whole story is built on, and there is something rare about a film that can teach you something real about the universe while also making you feel it in your chest. The father and daughter relationship at the heart of it is what stops Interstellar from being a cold exercise in theoretical physics, and McConaughey carries the weight of that with everything he has. Zimmer's score doing the rounds on social media years later tells you everything you need to know about how it lands. Some films arrive and then fade. This one keeps finding new people who need it.

Rating: ★★★★½  | Year: 2014  | Watched: 2015-06-11

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Interstellar (2014) on YouTube

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Christopher Nolan: Insomnia (2002) · The Prestige (2006) · Inception (2010) · Memento (2000)
More with Matthew McConaughey: Killer Joe (2011) · Dazed and Confused (1993)
More from United Kingdom: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) · Blue (1993)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)