MFTW: Interstellar (2014)
Christopher Nolan's own "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Starting 2025 off by watching Interstellar turned out to be a great idea. I decided to do so on a whim, but I’m glad I did. Looks like it could become a yearly tradition of sorts.
My viewing of Interstellar has been a bit delayed since December. I was planning to watch it in IMAX for its re-release but never had the chance to do so. With Netflix bringing it to their platform on the first day of the year, I decided why not.
This review may sound a bit biased because Christopher Nolan is my favorite director. So it doesn’t make sense as to why it took me this long to watch Interstellar, but I’ve always heard good things about it since its release.
Interstellar is a visually stunning film and one that I wished I watched in IMAX while it was out. A few months after watching 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time, I saw where Nolan got his inspiration for Interstellar.
Interstellar is set in a future where Earth is starting to become unhabitable. As a result, Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), along with other scientists Dr. Brand (Anne Hathaway), Romilly (David Gyasi), and Doyle (Wes Bentley), are chosen to head into space to colonize a planet that would be sustainable for human life.
However, things aren’t as simple as they seem. Multiple issues come up, from losing members of the crew to extreme time dilation that has Dr. Brand and Cooper aging more than 100 years. When Cooper’s daughter, Murph (Jessica Chastain), is an adult, she’s the one left to rescue her father and Dr. Brand.
Even though I didn’t watch Interstellar the way it was intended (I watched it at home), I still found my viewing experience for the first time to be eye-opening. I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey the same way and was still left speechless by the end of it, similar to Interstellar.
My only complaint about the film is that the sound mixing is a little off. Whether it was done on purpose or not, the dialogue is sometimes too quiet, which led me to turn on the captions or rewind a few times.
This could be a Netflix issue, as similar titles on the platform have dealt with sound mixing issues. This could also just be a Nolan problem, as sound is usually something he plays with intentionally.
Matthew McConaughey is the big star of this film, and it’s a shame that he didn’t get a single nomination from any major awards for his role.
Prior to Interstellar, most people knew McConaughey for a number of different roles that weren’t as dramatic or emotionally charged. Despite having little screen time in Dazed and Confused (1993), his character is still the most memorable.
Afterward, he gained more of his fame as a romantic lead, which turned him into an actor who was mainly used as eye candy. However, around the 2010s, he started to prove himself as a serious actor, and to great success. Interstellar proved that.
Since Interstellar’s release, McConaughey hasn’t done anything as of late that continues to push him as a serious actor, but he doesn’t need to worry too much. His performance continues to prove to audiences otherwise about McConaughey.
This just doesn’t apply only to McConaughey. It also applies to other actors in the film like Topher Grace, Wes Bentley, and an early role from Timothée Chalamet, who are typically not found in big-budget feature films like this one.
Interstellar takes after Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). 2001 may be more fresh in my mind than it is for others, but I swear some scenes had me thinking I was watching 2001 by mistake over Interstellar.
There’s nothing wrong with that. I saw it as Nolan giving a bit of an homage to Kubrick’s dedication to what 2001 became. It’s obvious Kubrick directly influenced Nolan not only for Interstellar, but his other projects as well.
I’m not here to compare the two films or call Interstellar a 2001 copy, because that’s far from the truth. While similar in their exhibition, they make different narrative choices that set them apart, for the better.
Interstellar takes more of an emotional approach to the very real possibility of an Earth we can’t inhabit anymore. Emphasis on human emotion and relationships help to drive home its plot.
I gave Interstellar an overall rating of 5/5. It’s a beautifully crafted film, one that you have to watch in a specific way to immerse into the story and enjoy it fully. There’s not much more I can say about it, other than I was left speechless by the time it was finished.
While I can see Interstellar as Nolan’s best work, in my opinion, I don’t think this is Nolan’s best film either. But that’s for another time.