Interstellar

Ow... That is all I can say about this movie up front. Ow...

I came out of this movie with one of the biggest headaches I have had coming out of a movie. This movie had all of it, the visual, the metaphysical, the emotion, and the philosophical elements of story telling that only Christopher Nolan can really bring to the big screen. Seriously, the guy is probably somewhere between Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg and its amazing watching the shit he comes up with.

So while this movie gave me a headache, its a very good headache that I look forward to going through again, as long as it will give me at least a little bit more of a grasp on what the hell I just watched.

Interstellar is the story of Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey) who is a former astronaut, now farmer in an earth that is slowly fading away.

This is just a shit earth, there's dust storm, the entire population is dependent on farming, and society is just crumbling at the seams.

Cooper lives here with his daughter Merph, his son, and his father in law (played by John Lithgow). He's a farmer who is just not quite right for the time and place he was born into. The world needs him to be a farmer but he just wants to be doing something more meaningful.

When strange anomaly's lead him to a secret NASA base, Cooper is recruited by a physicist named Dr. Brand (played by Michael Caine) to pilot a shuttle into space and find a world that is inhabitable by the human race. This of course would mean that he would leave his family behind in hope that he finds a new world for the human race to live on... And that's the simple explanation.

More people join him on the expedition. One being Professor Brand's daughter (played by Anne Hathaway), Seneca Crane from the Hunger games, with a beard just not as crazy (played by Wes Bentley), another guy (played by David Gyasi) and two cube robots.

Little known fact, one of them is voiced by the guy who played Mr. Noodle in Seasame Street...

Yeah... that guy

The mind bending part of this movie, similar to the concept of dreaming in Inception, is the idea of the relativity of time.

Space travel and time are difficult things to explain in high school physics but some how Nolan was able to make me understand, (or at least make me believe that I understood) the concept of the relativity of time.

The short explanation is that time flows differently in space. While the Earth's time is measured by 24 hours and 365 days in a year, those are constructions we created. Basically, Matthew McConaughey goes into space, other people get a lot older but he ages slower... its still fucking confusing. Its represented well so don't worry.

But that's apart of the film that really tugs at the emotion heartstrings.

Basically, McConaughey spends a very short time in space (relatively) and suddenly his family is older. His son turns into Casey Affleck, his daughter turns into Jessica Chastain. Life goes on while he's out there trying to save the human race. Needless to say, it doesn't go over too well.

Jessica Chastain is on Earth and is attempting to solve the equation that would make it so gravity can

be obtained or controlled. She comes under the wing of Professor Brand, and Chastain does a very, very good job.

There's a great dynamic of Merph just feeling alone and abandoned by her father. Its heartbreaking because the relationship from the very beginning between McConaughey and the young Merph is just so good. They look and act like a great father and daughter duo and I love the relationship. It just makes it difficult when Cooper decides to leave.

There's a whole other level to this movie that deals with time and space, and I'm gonna say it, there were a lot of moments where it looked like they were traveling through the wormhole that you see in every opening sequence to Doctor Who.

And that is pretty much the movie's strongest point. 

I'm pretty sure Christopher Nolan took a look at the movie Gravity, a movie praised for its visuals and its almost claustrophobic perspective of space, and pretty much said, "I can do better than that".

The movie's strong suite is its visuals and this movie is just one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen in a long time. 

While I have yet to see 2001: A Space Odyssey, from what I have seen of that movie and the cultural

and visual impact it made in film, I can only imagine that Nolan drew a lot of his visual inspiration for this film from that one.

This is one of those movies where I came out of the theater with a sore throat because my mouth was open the entire time because I was in such awe of the visuals.

I've heard that everyone who is a Christopher Nolan fan wants this movie to become the next 2001: A Space Odyssey and everyone who is a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey wants this movie to become just that. Visually, I think he may have succeeded. I don't know about story wise but holy crap this movie is just down right gorgeous.

Does the movie have its problems? Sorta?

The movie has this underlying theme that love is the most powerful thing in the universe... Luckily, I didn't feel that was too forced or didn't take too much away from the film.

There's parts in the movie that I need to re-watch the movie to understand, its a complex movie with a lot of science about time and space and its can get a little convoluted with those theories and parts of the film. The fun part is that a lot of the science in this movie is correct. Nolan used a lot of help to make sure the science in the movie was as realistic as it could be. Now he does take some liberties and some parts are totally based in Science Fiction, but doesn't that make a good science fiction film? When its layered so well with science and fact that suddenly the science fiction could be conceived.

And that's the fun part about Nolan's movies.

Everybody came out of Inception not totally getting what the movie was trying to say and there's a lot of parts in that movie that require you to watch it for a second time.

The good thing was, the storytelling and the characters were so good in that movie that you wanted to come back and relive the tale again so everytime you watched it, something new would come out of it.

I feel like that's what is going to have to be the case with Interstellar. It has those qualities and those characters that you don't mind coming back to.

The one problem I see with that is the pacing of the movie. I don't think when I was watching it I had any thoughts that the movie was dragging but I did still feel like it was a long as hell movie. Its the same as my thought process with the Dark Knight. This is really good, there's no end in sight, I don't know how I feel about that right now.

Its that feeling where the movie is really good but you realize that its been going on for about 2 hours now. Its the moment when you know movies should usually end but this one has about an hour or so left.

The one thing about Interstellar that is different than Inception is that Interstellar, to me, doesn't really feel like a movie I would want to rush to see again.

When I finished Inception I wanted to watch it again, get all the intricacies, understand more. With Interstellar, it was just so big and honestly just hurt my brain that I need a break for a while.

It was such an experience watching this movie that it almost feels as though it will never be the same again, even though I might get more out of it, it will never really compare with the first time I watched it.

Maybe I just need to see it again, but that's how I will guess I will watch it the next time.

As far as the cast goes, Interstellar is one of those casts that is just fun. There are small parts that are taken up by big name actors and they just show up. There's no warning. For example, I didn't know Casey Affleck was in this movie. When I saw him I was wondering why he was taking such a small role in a big movie but again I think its one of those films, and this is becoming a bigger thing now, where word will be that this movie is coming out and I almost imagine big name actors saying, I don't care if I'm in the background, I want to be in this movie.

Is that true? Probably not. But I like to think of it that way.

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about this movie in the context of my series of movies in the McConaissance.

For people who know about the McConaissance, this movie is no surprise that McConaughey is good. For people who don't know about the McConaissance, this movie could change your mind because he freaking rocks it in this movie.

And for people who were on the fence about McConaughey (which includes me, I'll admit, even True Detective didn't quite push me over) this movie may push you over. McConaughey is fantastic in this film. There is some emotion and depth in this film that I never thought I'd see come out of the guy. Again, if there was any doubt remaining from watching True Detective or Mud, this movie set me over.

The guy can act, no doubt about it.

The rest of the cast is, like I said, really good. They're fun to watch, and there's a perfection to the roles they're cast in I think. For example, I wasn't wild about Anne Hathaway, I thought she looked a little silly in a space suit, but she killed it and it almost seems like nobody else could have that role. Same goes for Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain, lots of other people. I love it.

Overall, the film is really an experience. Its a visual beauty, almost to the point of overload. The story is very good, though sometimes convoluted with science and an overtone of love, its one of those movies you want to watch again to get everything out of it. And the acting was great. No one was a weak link, it was just damn good.

But what did you think? Do you think its the next 2001: A Space Odyssey? Do you think its just an overrated Nolan film? Where does it compare in the Nolan films? Comment and Discuss Below!

I'll leave you with this. There is a lot of science in this movie and there's a part at the ending where they start trying to explain dimensions and what exactly they mean and its one of the things I couldn't really wrap my head around while I was watching. Luckily we have Neil deGrasse Tyson to explain shit. This video has some spoilers but its really good. Enjoy!