Interstellar

Watching Interstellar again, this time the second time within a couple years. It's always so scary to me how real of a possibility that world seems to be in regards to us running out of food and there being a virus that makes it so we can't grow food any longer.  Just hopefully if that happened we would be able to do the intergalactic travel like they do too.  I also am always amazed how well everyone owns their roles.  The first time I watched it in theaters I was a little distracted at first from John Lithgow's performance because I was so used to him in Third Rock from the Sun so seeing him in a more serious role was a bit of a shock but now I see him more for his role in Interstellar than Third Rock.  With that I also have to commend Matthew McConaughey because in a similar way I always remembered him for him being him in Dazed and Confused but he embodies Coop so well and I feel since first seeing the movie, playing Coop kind of affected the way I see him in real life interviews, of course that's more of a para-social kind of vibe and Coop is a character that is definitely a flattering one to be associated with as while he's not perfect, he definitely embodies that of a good hero and someone I see as a person that's worth striving towards where his character is a good balance of character and competence as oppose to how so many people usually go one way or the other.

The thing that affected me the most when I first saw this movie in theaters was that of the theory of ghosts and what if ghosts or supernatural presence is not one of the afterlife communicating with us but rather that of distant relatives communicating through time travel where for them humanity has evolved to the point where time becomes a physical construct like how space is for us now.  And so they communicate with us through time to help guide us down the right path.  But I also saw it in a way of what if this can be extrapolated to instinct and intuition like the feeling of not doing something like something or someone is holding you back for reasons you do not know, preventing a bad string of events from happening.  Of course in my times of rewatching this movie over the years another perspective opens up to me in recognizing how much the ghosts warning aren't actually taken heed of by the characters in the film and how at times if they did do what the ghost wanted them to, then the events of the ghost being where they are wouldn't have happened in the first place.  So it's like a weird paradox of determinism versus free will.  I can see some maybe seeing this as some kind of logical flaw in the film but I see it as an accurate portrayal of the chaos of reality.  So for this I subscribe to the idea that David Lynch said in that life doesn't make sense so why should stories have to make sense.  But then again my willingness to apply that logic and then when to choose not to is just another part of the chaos of my own reality.  So in the end maybe everything really is just chaos  and all we can do is make the best with what we get from that chaos.

Of course another part of that chaos that's explored in the movie that I pay attention to more and more is how love can be a feeling that can guide us and how it can be stronger than how the ghost was guiding them.  Of course that also begs a question on if love works as its own ghost guiding them through time.  It makes me think of all the times I was so close but may have failed or just not acted and ended up missing a potential opportunity for finding love in the past and how when I was single so many of those times would be regrets but now I am happy for those times as I feel what I have right now with my fiance is better than anything than I could have found before and how all those decisions from the past led me to where I am now and how if I did act differently maybe I wouldn't be as happy as I am now with her.  With this in mind, one thing I noticed more with watching Interstellar again this time was the subtlety in Anne Hatthaway's acting like the cues Coop picks up on from Dr Brandt and her feelings in how love is guiding her position on where to go in their mission.  I always saw the way she talked about her loved one as admiration but saw more this time how you can tell she was caught up in a memory of them with the hope of being able to see them again.

And this is what I like so much about Interstellar is the depth in its story and themes and how other aspects of filmmaking play into this really well, especially with the performances.  Only other thing to mention is the music as this score is what I feel is Hans Zimmer's magnum opus.  The Cornfield Chase sequence is one of the most inspirational pieces of music that I've ever heard and I feel it has a majesty that puts it at the same level of the works of classical composers like Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Debussy.   The Dark Knight is still my favorite Nolan film but Interstellar is up there with it as well, along with Inception and the Prestige following.  But The Dark Knight only inches further for its cultural impact with filmmaking but both films have the greatest personal impact for me and are absolute must see films for anyone.  Even if you don't like space films, you should see Interstellar.