Interstellar: a call to arms

In the interest of updating my column at least yearly, I have decided to write some stray thoughts on Interstellar. This is less a review – because there is already an exhaustive supply – and more of a call to arms for the film and Chris Nolan in general.

The film has been polarising critics and audiences. Proponents generally praise the epic scale, practical effects, and fairly consistent adherence to actual hard science. Critics may call it bombastic, poorly scored, or ham-fisted.

While none of these appraisals are incorrect, to call Interstellar failure as film (which some are doing) is wrong. I don’t consider it a masterpiece and would probably place it at the tail end of Nolan’s top 5 (after Memento, Inception, The Dark Knight, and Insomnia, just barely edging out The Prestige). It cannot be called a failure.

The film is grandiose, a true feat of production design. The acting is less the spectacle here, but far from poor. Those people criticising the acting in this film should see The Room or Grown Ups and then try to say “Anne Hathaway, meh” with a straight face. More importantly, Interstellar grapples with lofty concepts, often metaphysical, which are at the core of good SF. I will allow that Nolan sometimes lays it on a bit thick, but do not understand how a bit of heavy-handedness turns this into a one-to-two-star film.

I’m willing to give Nolan a bit more rope than other directors because few, if any, are making films like he is. Given all the people who bemoan the cookie-cutter superhero franchise films, the bland CGI-fest pictures, the lifeless, interchangeable teen fantasy flicks, and pointless reboots, one would think that more critics would be lining up to defend Interstellar. It is a hugely ambitious film from a director who delights in challenging his audiences rather than belittling them. Although I have my

issues with Interstellar (mostly the last 20 minutes), I admire Nolan’s commitment to quality and to the film medium. Here is one of the few remaining directors who is not a hired gun, not interested in selling merchandise nor franchise rights, but in making art. He is able to pursue these ambitions because he has taken big risks and they have largely paid off. His movies make heaps of money, so studios (for now) are willing to sign blank checks for him to keep creating, innovating, and pushing boundaries.

My appeal is simple: go see this movie and his next movie and so on regardless of a few killjoy critics. I realise this is a tad hypocritical coming from me, who savaged TDKR two years ago, but chalk it up to being two years older and wiser now. We are voting on the future of film with our dollars and, recently, the drab, effects-laden blockbusters have been winning. Even if Interstellar isn’t your cup of tea, you must still recognise Chris Nolan as one of the most important directors of his generation and arguably the most vocal defender of film stock today. His efforts may not always resonate with you personally, but they are always valiant. As such, I feel a moral responsibility as a film-lover to see his work in theatres and I encourage you to do the same.