Movie Thoughts - Interstellar

Hey everybody, I'm back today with my thoughts on one of the newest blockbuster hits. Interstellar!
Since this movie just came out, I don't have any pictures to add unless I screencap from the trailer (which I'm not going to do). Once it's available for home viewing, I will add them but for now, this post will be mainly text.

One last caution, this "review" WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

Let's begin.

Interstellar features the dynamic duo of Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer and boy do they earn that name. It's apparent that they've worked together so many times because the score matches the picture so well. One scene in particular that was really well put together was the part where Cooper is driving away from the farm while audio of the launch is heard. The rumbling of the engines and the music in the background. Man, the theatre was trembling and overall, it was really intense. Huge props to Zimmer for once again putting together a wonderful score.

A hard to describe ambiance that "Super 8" has

Another technical part of the movie that I enjoyed was the cinematography. Although I found the first act of the movie to be rather slow, I couldn't ignore the marvelous cinematography. For me at least, it really captured the essence of the early 90's American South/Countryside. I know it's supposed to be in the future but the striking parallel's with the Dustbowl leads me to believe that this was intentional. One shot that I really liked is right at the beginning when the truck blows a tire. Cooper tells Tom to go take a look at it and Cooper and Murph are leaning against the side of the truck in the sunset talking about life. It gave me a "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Super 8" ish feel. Kinda strange since the settings aren't that similar but that's how I felt. I really liked the shadows and sunsets, plus the colour correction was spot on; not overdone, but gave an extra oomph to the mood. The use of oranges and blues worked surprisingly well together.
I don't even have to mention the space scenes do I? It was phenomenal, especially the wormhole scene. In my opinion, they could have done away with Amelia (Anne Hathaway) shaking the ghost hand since it felt a little corny. It was like "Sunshine" but with the breathtaking realism that "Gravity" had.

A shot from Danny Boyle's 2007 "Sunshine"

The plot was pretty good, but nothing special. The time dilation concept was pretty cool but it didn't play that much of a role on the characters but was more used as a way to advance the plot. I really enjoyed the symbolism and motifs throughout. There were a couple that really struck out to me. The first is Discovery vs Sustainability. At the beginning, especially with the whole Apollo mess, there was definitely something to be said about how Earth became the way it did. Although discovery is admirable and adding to the collective bank of human knowledge, sustainability is equally important. My interpretation was that everyone tried to revolutionize the world but it's not possible for everyone to be a hero. There will always have to be people who at the end of the day, keep us alive with food, water, and shelter.

Another one that I found interesting was the Will of Life. First of all, when Matt Damon appeared, there were at least three people in the theatre (including my friend who was sitting beside me) who yelled: "WOAH! IS THAT MATT DAMON?" Pleasant surprise seeing him in the movie and he did a fine job. This theme is really open and the movie talks about different aspects of it. One was simply the measures taken to keep a species alive. With the whole Plan B, the idea of for the greater good couldn't be more evident. As well, the whole thing that Matt Damon talked about as you die and what you feel and see. His character itself is a testimony that says humans are incapable of sacrificing themselves for the greater good. It's kind of ironic because it seemed like he did understand with the whole "Humans can empathize with those they love but will never truly be able to do the same with strangers". Him continuing sending the green thumb shows that it is almost impossible for a human to just lie down and die. "Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night" indeed.

There's way more themes and motifs but I think I'll leave it at that. If you found one that I didn't include, please leave your thoughts in a comment below.

The cast was pretty stellar, I found Michael Caine's character to be the weakest, I literally could not hear a word he was saying as he died. Anne Hathaway's character was also not too amazing. Neither was the son, Tom. Cooper definitely has his favourite kid.

One last thing I wanted to go over, and that is the ending. The general consensus is that what was portrayed after Cooper went into the blackhole is literally what happened. As with most Nolan movies, I think that the ending has many different interpretations. I think that after he went into the black hole, he died and the ensuing events is a metaphorical depiction of him leaving this existential plane and going to the afterlife. Here's why:

What Matt Damon said about the instinctual thoughts that humans have as they near death nearly matched what happened after Coop went into the black hole perfectly. All major things in his life had closure in the most perfect way possible, showing that his body and mind making peace with the fact that he has died. The lighting style when he woke up on Cooper Station starkly contrasted the entire movie's up to that point and I noticed a lot of whites being used. This made it feel like it was representing heaven/afterlife. Not only that, it overall seemed too outrageous that they found his body since it is shown that NASA is okay with sacrificing astronauts. Either way you interpret it however, I think we can all appreciate the themes presented in this movie.

All in all, Interstellar is definitely one of the best movies that I've seen in the past two years. I would definitely bet on it being a big player in the upcoming Awards season. It lives up the Nolan name by proving an exciting yet thoughtful film. Nightcrawler is next on the list so stay tuned for that!

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Dealing with Disappointment Part.2

Hello world! It's almost become convention to start these with "It's been a long time?". Well, it has! Like always, I don't have a good reason. This extended break however has given me a lot of time to think about my next topic. I was originally going to write a piece on dealing with happiness but things have taken a turn for the worse and now here we are talking about sad things again. Let's start with the story shall we?

If you may recall, I am a runner. The previous dealing with disappointment piece was inspired from a failed track season. In the fall, I run cross country. Up until about a week ago, the season couldn't be more perfect. I qualified for the big meet that I failed to even come close to last year. That night after the qualifying meet was one of the best nights in my life thus far. Everything was perfect and I couldn't be bothered by anything else. That's when I started writing the (now scrapped) piece on dealing with happiness. When the day of the big meet came around, I was ready to have a final good race to close an amazing season. However, things went horrible askew and I ended up running the worst race in my life. Now, this may seem petty but you have to understand what this race meant for me. For me, it was like making the Olympics. It is the biggest high school cross country race in Canada and I was ready to show off how ready I was for it. But since I ran so poorly, I was by myself for the majority of the race, getting passed by people that I normally am so far ahead off, I never see. It was more than a disappointment, it was humiliation, disgrace, and a kick to the gut all in one. I felt like I didn't deserve any of the happiness I had found this season because of this poor showing. Right when the world (or country) was watching, I choked and made myself look like a fool and an idiot. I wanted to slap myself for ever thinking that I was good at running. More importantly, I felt like this might be the only time I would ever make this race and I ruined it. To make matters worse, the week immediately after was plagued with tests and presentations for school. Most of which, I did poorly as well. These constant disappointments and blows to my ego all piling up on each other was big enough to put me in a slump.

And a couple days after it is all sorted out, here I am writing this on my computer. To be honest, I don't know what the reason is, but sometimes in your life, the whole universe comes together and says: "See that guy? Let's screw him over". Sometimes it is just a small thing while other times, it can be blow after blow after blow. And once you're on the ground beaten and defeated, life may just give you another kick to the face just for good measure.

But you know what? If life was free of struggles and pain, it would lose its value. Life is an extreme and lucky case of variables that shouldn't otherwise be. By looking at the numbers, it's amazing that we live as long as we do. There are so so so many ways to die but there is only one way to stay alive. That's what makes it so beautiful. At any given moment, you could lose everything; it's the most volatile thing in existence. Life. You know those rare moments when everything is just right? It could happen at any time but when it does, you're happy it did. You could be washing the dishes or taking your dog out for a walk but then it hits you. You're just happy. There's no logical reason for it, but you're just perfectly at peace with the world and enjoying being alive. Without disappointment and the other terrible feelings associated with it, there's no low point in our journeys. Imagine an action adventure movie where there is no conflict. What would it be? What would life be?

It's taken a lot of thinking and pondering to come to this conclusion. This isn't to say that I'm going to stop trying to improve my running and grades. But it does say that when you're in your lowest of lows, know that everyone goes through this process. And most importantly, remember that it's the reason that life is worth living. Thanks everybody, take care of yourselves. I'll catch y'alls next time.