Interstellar

Started by MacGuffin, June 15, 2006, 01:11:05 AM

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Fernando






I'll take the word of these two over those reviews.

Lottery

You know, I expected the response to be unanimously positive. That 74% could possibly shoot up in the coming weeks though. I mean  The Dark Knight Rises sits on 88% right now.

If he's made something divisive and challenging, more power to him. Anyway, I'll be watching this in the first week of release, should be a grand adventure at the very least. I expect this to be less 2001 and more heartfelt Spielbergian adventure (wearing several layers of Nolan's sensibilities).

©brad

I take the mixed reviews as a good sign. I think Altman said once "if you make a movie everyone loves then you know you've made something truly banal."


03

i think you guys are missing the biggest point here, apparently christopher nolan directed insomnia.

jenkins

i wish i could believe that people went to see movies without selecting the ones they already think they'll love. but this'll do fine and i was just surprised, he'll laugh to the bank

i know what you mean about insomnia. i believe you. while making the dear white people thread i noticed i'd mentioned the director in an article i posted in david lowery's topic, and while in that topic i noticed there was a section where i can't remember the difference between two christopher nolan movies. so i wouldn't say he's had a big impact on me either. but i never see the benefit of bringing down what other people like, and i just gotta do those zen breathing exercises man, gotta stick to my zen

Gold Trumpet

Even if it's bad, it's ultimately something to look forward to seeing. I think I will make this my first Imax experience and while I can't say I'm a fan of nolan, i am intrigued by all his work because he does challenge on some levels and cops out on others. But Interstellar seems like a film that wants to go for it so that makes it something to look forward to.

polkablues

Quote from: O3 on October 27, 2014, 04:10:36 PM
why have i thought for literally over a decade that mark romanek directed insomnia?

You were confusing it with One Hour Photo, the other movie where Robin Williams played a creepy bad guy.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Drenk

So.

It looked great, Nolan, behind his camera, was at his best. The photography is beautiful. Full of dust and shadows. To see it in 35mm was a pleasure, I wanted them to save film, too, with humanity. I thought I was becoming a cynic, growing up, seeing blockbusters, not being impressed by what I saw. But here, I was impressed. The movie can be breathtaking in its imagery. One action sequence is the best I've seen since ages. Outside the value of the two movies, I felt more in space with Interstellar than with Gravity.

But Nolan doesn't trust his talent. Everything goes really fast. You want to contemplate but it goes away. Some characters are uni-dimensional, always. Almost all of them, actually. Always frustrating to watch a three hours movie where characters feel like sketches. Other stuff are problematic, in the construction of the movie, I can't talk about it.

Nolan has good ideas, is visually brillant, but he doesn't seem to be able to add a human dimension to his vision, to feel truly alive, and it is problematic when the movie tries hard to have this dimension...

Anyway, I think everyone has to experience this movie. Even if it's frustrating to see that much talent fail total greatness; but Interstellar, definitely, has moments of greatness.
Ascension.

©brad

Quote from: Drenk on October 31, 2014, 08:58:05 AMSome characters are uni-dimensional, always. Almost all of them, actually. Always frustrating to watch a three hours movie where characters feel like sketches. Other stuff are problematic, in the construction of the movie, I can't talk about it.

Nolan has good ideas, is visually brillant, but he doesn't seem to be able to add a human dimension to his vision, to feel truly alive, and it is problematic when the movie tries hard to have this dimension...

Ugh this is what I was worried about, although I can't say I'm surprised. I don't think I've ever truly cared about or felt like I've known a Christopher Nolan character. They feel less like actual human beings and more like ciphers used to spout exposition and ideas, albeit interesting ones. I still think his movies are fun and I'm still super excited for this though.

picolas

let's talk about these two "clips"

1:


*COUGH*
'can i help?'
'.... :yabbse-smiley:'
SEE INTERSTELLAR

2:


'let's relate to each other'
'nope'
'ouch'

*mild studio applause*

SEE INTERSTELLAR

who chooses these clips? are they meant to be viewed this way? maybe they're just supposed to be soundless b-roll under interviews with the actors. still, such odd choices.

i still can't get over these promo pics:


Lottery

Watched this yesterday, enjoyed it.
It feels different from Nolan's previous works. A number of the characters in the film are rather thin but McC is compelling. The human element is there but McC is the main person really pulling his weight in this department. Structure and pacing is a bit off at times. Drama and intensity falters or feels uneven in certain scenes- but there are definitely a number of moments where my heart was left racing. The film becomes really compelling in some of its more abstract and isolated moments and there are some absolutely incredible visual representations of ideas, particularly in the third act. Hoyte van Hoytema was a great choice and Zimmer didn't annoy, in fact I appreciated his use of organ and electronics. Look forward to watching it again in the near future. Reasonable chance I'll enjoy it more.

samsong

people at the screening seemed to have a near religious experience with this movie.  heard a lot of people with post-sob sniffles as the credits rolled.  the exaltation among most of the audience was palpable. 

me, i thought it was pretty painfully stupid.

i think the projectionist may have fucked up because the print seemed less than pristine and uneven in quality.  considering trying to see this again in a different theater with a 70mm print but i don't see improved visuals sparing me all the eye-rolling i did this first time around.  asphyxia by narrative coddling, and nolan's continued ineptitude in his portrayal of women should comfort every other man on the planet that none of them will ever be as clueless when it comes to the fairer sex.  spectacle abounds and it's all very entertaining, but it's hardly his best work, let alone the genre/cinema at large.

tarantino compared it to malick and tarkovsky, which makes me think he's never actually seen a movie by either of them.  any reference to 2001 for any other reason than to say how far short Interstellar falls of it is misguided to say the least. 

Vari

I overall liked the film but I am also surprised at anyone mentioning tarkovsky anywhere near this film. It was beautiful to watch (in 70mm imax), and I found it fairly compelling but to compare it to other infinitely more cerebral experiences does no justice to any of the films involved.

I had story and script issues but the crux of what the movie was going for was successful. Not Nolan's best but I think it's an achievement of which he can be proud.

Lottery

I have to admit, I was vaguely reminded of Solaris during a few moments. But it was mostly a superficial thing. As for 2001, the influence is there but this is far more Spielberg than it is Kubrick or anyone else. Spielberg would have made a considerably better 1st act though. This film comes from a lot of places but it certainly is put through the Nolan filter. Even then, this feels different to previous Nolan works.

Also, has anyone watched The Right Stuff? That was the film Nolan screened to the crew before starting.

SPOILER

Similarly, one of the trippier end moments is slightly reminiscent of The Aleph/The Library of Babel. At the very least, we know Nolan is no stranger to Borges. But there are probably more obvious (if unintentional) points of references to omni-dimensional beings.

picolas


i don't know how to summarize my feelings towards this. i'll have to go chapter by chapter.

MEGA SPOILERS

chapter 1: the first hour

pleasant, boring. mccons does a great job of keeping my attention with his glorious voice and face while the premise that the trailer explained in two minutes + some ghost stuff is stretched out over the course of an hour. i don't hate it, but nothing is really doing it for me. and i have serious doubts about a lot of the story (like mccons being on the mission). but i'll go with it. i'm treating it more like a myth or a fairy tale than a 'real' thing, even though that's at odds with the way nolan conveys stuff (ie. as realistically as possible).

chapter 2: space

wow. now the realism is interesting. we can hear the suits moving. we can't hear anything in space. and there's way less score than a typical nolan. the use of imax to accentuate the vastness of space is overwhelming. there's a delightful robot that feels as though he was written by different people. i would have loved this levity to be more spread out amongst the characters. why must it be assigned to the robot?

chapter 3: wormhole

YES YES YES. this was like a documentary of something we've never seen before. as though nolan snuck in real footage of travelling through a wormhole. SO REAL and yet so completely otherworldly. i was in AWE.

chapter 4: wave planet

one hour on this planet = many years??? OH JESUS. i've never experienced stakes like this before, outside of maybe homer's odyssey, but those guys didn't know about the time difference going in. the race against the clock is riveting, and it's really hard to take a side in the mccon vs. hathaway showdown.

chapter 5: return from wave planet

this is probably the best part of interstellar. we experience the time jump from mccon's perspective, and the swell of tragedy/wonder as he experiences his children grow before his eyes hit me like a rocket to the face, which is also what mccon's face looks like. simply STELLAR work from everyone involved. there's also something very emotional about the casting of the little girl vs. chastain. i didn't love the little girl as an actor, but chastain is so convincing as the older version of that kid, it's almost like nolan pulled a 'boyhood' on us.

chapter 6: planet decision time

hathaway has a monologue that ALMOST works really well, and gets to the heart of the themes of the movie, but then it goes a couple steps too far and i'm like 'uh-oh... you're spelling out all the themes. i can hear you doing it. noo...'

chapter 7: DAMON 1

holy fuck. i cannot believe they snuck in damon. his story is compelling as an idea, and i like the IDEA of his speech about how we haven't evolved far enough past our concern for a select group of people. we're too single-minded to think about, let alone SAVE, our entire world. good stuff, but once again i can feel the writing. then he has to deliver a monologue as mccon struggles for his life that REEKS of WRITING and EXPLAINING, when no human would keep talking to mccon. he's clearly not listening. i'm confused by damon's motivations. i love the idea that he took years to transform into the bad guy.

MEANWHILE, ON EARTH: affleck is being a weirdo and i don't understand how michael caine could've fooled so many smart people for so long, but he really does a great job of dying, even though he dies at a very convenient time (right after he's asked a very important yes or no question and he decides not to answer. classic stupid trope.)

chapter 8: DAMON 2

a great sequence partly because it involves some serious ingenuity on mccon's part, which is just as crazy as it is believable. and damon's death is great. he's about to deliver another expositional monologAND BOOM

chapter 9: mission to wha?

i was genuinely confused about what mccon and hath were doing at this point. one of the few times i needed more explanation. but i went with it.

chapter 10: BLACK HOLE

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. heavy shades of contact. diving into the unknown. fear and wonder and the ultra-real feeling of something extraordinary, like the worm hole, but still its own thing.

chapter 11: FURTHER DOWN THE BLACK HOLE

the audacity of this sequence is unlike anything i've ever seen. the way we experience this ROOM OF ROOMS feels like nolan isn't just speculating. he's sitting you down and explaining 'this is exactly what happens when someone does that.' it's a true meeting of the fantastic and the scientific, but i still can't decide if it's TOO MUCH. it's kind of hokey, but kind of BALLSY too. it's definitely poorly written, but i'm not sure how else one could write this aside from using a little more finesse with the explaining of mccon's thought process.

chapter 12: the new world

hmm... there's no way this would happen. it's almost on par with batman surviving the nuclear bomb as far as stupidly happy endings go. i'm still trying to see this story as a myth etc, but that's tough because it's so real! the idea of murphy seeing her dad exactly like when he left her is hugely moving, like getting to meet a REAL ghost. another incredible bridge between science and fantasy. i don't like how murphy ends the conversation and mccon just leaves. after all that. it feels flippant. stupid writing!

chapter 13: finding hathaway

sequel?



closing thoughts

writing is nolan's biggest enemy. i'm not convinced a movie is the right format for a story of this scale. a miniseries might've given the characters enough room to breathe. to show us rather than tell us. i cannot deny the power of many ideas contained within. i love that interstellar exists, but i want it to be better. but maybe it's enough. it's going to take time and views for me to really know where i stand. or i'll just always feel mixed about it. or i'll just watch the good parts.