SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 146 - Interstellar

[MusterX]

You're triggering more people ITT than just @MusterX.

I should clarify at least a little. This film was an emotional roller coaster. It hit me in the feels, especially with the anguish 10 year old Murphy experienced with her father up and leaving. There was a lot going on that I loved about this film and at the same time, I was kinda mad that Nolan made some rookie mistakes he didn't have to make with certain aspects of the film like not explaining anything about the Blight or not developing a love interest between Brand and Cooper so that it made sense he went back for her. This film could have been a stunning sci-fi masterpiece if he just took a little more care with some of the details.

 

[MusterX]

I'm agreeing that it makes no sense and the movie failed to build it up in a believable way, in spite of three fucking hours to do it. I'm questioning why he would need to steal the ship rather than one being made available.

I don't know. <45>

 

[Tycho- Taylor's Version]

So I think I told this story once in the SMD, but this movie actually gave me a heart attack.

Not actually, but turns out the combination of space and family drama involving a daughter triggered me past the point of no return (there were a few other stressors involved too). I left the theater alone to get some air and the door locked behind me, then I had a panic attack and couldn't breathe. With no one around anywhere, my vision tunneling, and my phone at 1% battery, I called the damn ambulance lol.

Missed a big of chunk of the middle as a result, but I've never gone back to it. Maybe the smaller screen will render it more tolerable.

 

[MusterX]

So I think I told this story once in the SMD, but this movie actually gave me a heart attack.

Not actually, but turns out the combination of space and family drama involving a daughter triggered me past the point of no return (there were a few other stressors involved too). I left the theater alone to get some air and the door locked behind me, then I had a panic attack and couldn't breathe. With no one around anywhere, my vision tunneling, and my phone at 1% battery, I called the damn ambulance lol.

Missed a big of chunk of the middle as a result, but I've never gone back to it. Maybe the smaller screen will render it more tolerable.

I have a 12 year old daughter. Believe me, Cooper leaving his 10 year old daughter behind after a cursory discussion with NASA was almost unbearable. Maybe, if Murphy's mother wouldhave been present it wouldn't have been so bad but her father was everything to her and he left, abruptly.

 

[Tycho- Taylor's Version]

I have a 12 year old daughter. Believe me, Cooper leaving his 10 year old daughter behind after a cursory discussion with NASA was almost unbearable. Maybe, if Murphy's mother wouldhave been present it wouldn't have been so bad but her father was everything to her and he left, abruptly.

Ya man, that shit hits me hard and I don't even have kids. I can't imagine.

And space is terrifying too.

 

[MusterX]

I have no problem with time passing differently due to gravity or our view of the stars being outdated by the time we perceive it. But that doesn't really add up to what we saw. Advanced humans created a situation for Cooper to save the planet. Humans that wouldn't be there without Cooper saving the planet. They simply wouldn't exist to be able to do that.

I think that qualifies as a paradox. Its one of those situations that is difficult to understand when thinking about time travel and/or time dilation. This is one reason why the guys that do Rick and Morty said they were going to stay away from time travel and instead just go with many dimensions, or many word theory. Time travel causes too many problems. I always thought the "arrow of time" was a neat concept. Described as an arrow because time only flows in one direction. If you monkey with that then problems may result.

Also, whats up with the "we never landed on the moon" stuff. Seems like an odd thing to put in there to me.

 

[minute bull]

It's only a paradox when you consider a timeline where this never happened. It always did/does. The arrow of time still stands, and incorporates time travel as part of its nature.

An arrow with a loop in it.

 

[sickc0d3r]

I had to stop reading the haters itt, I have low tolerance for bologna.

I'll circle back and try to respond to some of the debates over the story, because that's the fun of movies like this. I feel like most of our best discussions have been centered around movies with questionable plot choices.

Oh yeah, I found it far less gripping than Gravity.

Armageddon was a far superior space film.

I won't dignify this with a response



Ok, it does streeeeetch the imagination at times, but anyone focusing on that is missing out on the good stuff.

To me, it is a deeply moving, character driven, visually stunning, adrenaline pumping, thrill ride (most notably when they dock to a spinning Endurance, and also the massive tidal wave scene, which was actually the result of Gargantuan pulling water around the planet), that still finds time to play the old heart strings like a cello.
I love the questions posed about humanity. I love the emotion between Murph and Cooper, which I found poignant and authentic enough to draw real tears more than once. I enjoyed the dialogue, especially the banter between Coop and Brand and the robots. And I'm impressed that I felt the tension mounting all the way up to the climactic scene.
From what I skimmed in the thread, I do agree with @Bullitt68 that Nolan's need to fill every gap with plot explanation can be a sort of momentum killer and a distraction, and I agree with @MusterX that the actions of both the elder Dr. Brand and Cooper are infuriating at times, but, to me, it is that kind of raw emotion towards characters on a screen that is the mark of a great story (played superbly by the actors). In my opinion, this is Nolan's best effort. Flawed like the humans in the story are flawed, and I am ok with that. 9/10.

 

[Coolthulu]

I held off watching Interstellar for a long time; despite enjoying everything Christopher Nolan has done, and being a science-fiction fan, something about the film never drew me in. Time has taught me that this was a mistake. Interstellar is fucking captivating in its design, mission, and characters that the three hour run time seems to pass as if it did not at all. It's glorious.

Interstellar's design sets up an impossible task: Save Earth by leaving it. Matthew McConaughey delivers a fantastic performance at the height of the McConaissance. What Interstellar does better than any other Christopher Nolan film is that the emotions feel real, and grounded, for such a densely packed science-fiction film. This shit is heavy as fuck. There are so many moments that allow the gravity of what's happening really be felt, and from multiple angles thanks to Anne Hathaway and Matt Damon.

The narrative is extremely compelling, and never feels bogged down by the scientific jargon (although there are some minor moments of confusion). When you break down the science, make it palatable without feeling insulting, you know your film has been designed correctly - and Nolan's a master of design. Interstellar is excellently paced, and its time driven narrative forces meaningful choices to be. There's weight and consequence to so many plot points. Couple that with excellent visuals and sound design (as if there was anything else to be expected) and you have a film that's an experience. The ending is immensely satisfying, and a reminder that there is always another journey to undertake.

It's bold, meaningful, and exhausting in the best possible way. I made the mistake of not watching this years ago in the theatres (and in IMAX), and while there's no wormhole to fix that mistake, it's given me a greater appreciation for Nolan's work, and science-fiction, as a whole.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I think that qualifies as a paradox. Its one of those situations that is difficult to understand when thinking about time travel and/or time dilation. This is one reason why the guys that do Rick and Morty said they were going to stay away from time travel and instead just go with many dimensions, or many word theory. Time travel causes too many problems. I always thought the "arrow of time" was a neat concept. Described as an arrow because time only flows in one direction. If you monkey with that then problems may result.

Also, whats up with the "we never landed on the moon" stuff. Seems like an odd thing to put in there to me.

Time-travel is fine if you've got a mechanism to go back and change stuff. But in this we're to believe Coop and his mission is the savior of humanity. Lead on by some mystical force. Later we find out he's the mystical force. Where's the bridge that allows him to at some point be helping himself? Supposedly some other continuation of humanity (not dependent upon Coop) evolved to be able to enable him. Why would those advanced people who could go back in time do all this bullshit? Why would they need to? With access to something like this, there's gotta be a simpler way.

I didn't take note of moon landing stuff.

It's only a paradox when you consider a timeline where this never happened. It always did/does. The arrow of time still stands, and incorporates time travel as part of its nature.

An arrow with a loop in it.

If you're dead you can't go back and un-dead yourself. If the movie is saying that life is like one big canvas where everything is immediately imprinted and never changes then it's worse than I thought.

I won't dignify this with a response

You're indignity is satisfying enough.

Ok, it does streeeeetch the imagination at times, but anyone focusing on that is missing out on the good stuff.

Sure. But this movie is trying to be intellectual and shit. It invites the scrutiny. And to reiterate, I said it was worth watching. Just not special.

I love the emotion between Murph and Cooper, which I found poignant and authentic enough to draw real tears more than once.

That's extended post-partum depression. Get yourself some pills.

What Interstellar does better than any other Christopher Nolan film is that the emotions feel real,

Agreed. Acting was interstellar.

 

[BeardotheWeirdo]

live note style review

- Farmer destroys acres and acres of his own crops and almost kills family to chase a drone (he just happens to be carrying a drone-hacking/piloting laptop on him (yet he doesn't carry a spare tire)
- Wait, there's no armies in this world... seriously. that's the most bizarre and far-fetched sci-fi prediction (for the future) of all time, by far.
- The schools are teaching that Apollo missions are fake, when they're not. You know public schools and their conspiracy theories, good call Nolan.
- Mumble mumble, something about apllo missions and his wife, what is he saying. I have no idea, honestly.
- This poor mans Rick Grimes (while drunk) impression isn't working for me, they should've named his daughter Carlotta. Would;ve been funny to hear him say Carlotta in his anguished Rick Grimes voice
- Cooper is always out of breath, even when sitting down, why? He's a farmer / former air force pilot, not a heavy-smoking couch potato .
- I thought farmers worked hard, no one on this farmstead is working.
- The daughter sure has a lot of books for a 9 year old, who they never show reading.
- "6 billion people trying to have it all", the grandfather describing why the food shortage happened. Finally something with a little meat to it. But lol, they basically blame the Chinese for the food-shortage.
- Dad tells daughter she's insane for thinking there are ghosts trying to communicate with her
- In the next scene, the same Dad receives coordinates written in dust, supplied by gravity/magnetics and decides the communication is extremely important, seems consistent
- Dad drives the daughter all night, through the desert and then decides to break into a chained and fenced compound to follow these dust coordinates, seems logical right?
- Ends up being Area 52 (basically) but without signs or guards or anything
- The head of NASA comes to greet him at the gate
- Talking tough to a robot... badass
- They invite him in (even though they don't know each other and he's a farmer with his daughter driving through the desert at night with mystery coordinates he got from gravity) and proceed to tell him all sorts of confidential information and give him a tour of the place, cool story bro.
- So NASA has a top-secret last-ditch attempt to save the human race, and it's leaving tomorrow, but it still needs a pilot. Man, I know they had budget cuts, but talk about dropping the ball.
- "You're one of the best pilots", what is this, Top Gun?
- Autopilot can't compete with the brilliance of Cooper, the out-of-breath, conspiracy theorist, gravity worshipping nutter.
- Instead of training for the mission he's allowed to drive his daughter home, sleep, say goodbye and drive back.
- No mental evaluation or physical testing is done to ensure this man is suitable as a candidate for the most important mission of all time. Not to mention he might be one of 5 humans to survive period.
- Cold blooded to leave his daughter, her brother lived to troll her, no mom or grandma around, and the grandad is a grumpy old fart. He has no idea how long he'll be.
- Does he really think time on earth stands still when he leaves the solar system? Talk about a god complex. Time is a measurement. It doesn't slow down when others go elsewhere. You just age slower in space, depending on gravity/pressure and shit.
- Wait, there's other astronauts, none of them are pilots? All the moon mission astronauts were pilots, NASA recruits from the air force.
- NASA is still using the same Saturn V5 rocket designed by the Nazi's today. Where'd they get this super shuttle in the movie from?
- So the air force uses these same space shuttles, or when did Cooper learn to fly this thing, not all planes and space shuttles have the same controls. Armies must've been dismantled recently.
- You know how big the US military budget is? It's enough to feed the entire world steak 365 days a year lol. No army = no food shortages, they can genetically modify dust-resistant plants or grow them in greenhouses.
- Tards is cool, or whatever the Robot is called.
- NASA's plan is to repopulate some distant world with test-tube babies, not billionaires and politicians. Ha, not buying it Hollywood.
- Wormhole was cool, I expected more, but I'm not sure what more...
- And now as if I'm not mentally frustrated enough already, I'm presented with quite the conundrum. Cooper should've asked for more details. 4 years an hour is a long time, but it's a dumb conundrum, there's a tongue-twister for ya. What were they expecting to find, what info was on that satellite? The word was a giant wave, they didn't need to waste 4 years to figure that out, they could tell that from earth, with current technology.
- There are certain universal laws, such as waves and the ripple effect they cause. You don't get 500 foot tall waves in the middle of calm waters, and then again an hour later, the smaller waves would crash on endlessly. Maybe I'm being too picky, but this is a story about travelling through a wormhole to look for new habitats for humanity. Some scientific credibility isn't too much to ask for.
- They wasted 24 years learning nothing, and that was the efficient plan. the one decided upon by Cooper, the nutter farmer, who appears to be in charge of the mission now. Those budget cuts at NASA...
- That dude deserves to die for sitting there watching the wave coming instead of getting in the damn ship. These were really the best people they could find to save humanity.
- Hathaway is good
- McConaughey sucks, apart from the one scene where he watches the videos from home. That was a great scene, very powerful, but too little too late.
- Son showed a real physical photograph of his girlfriend to Dad. Kodak will be glad to know film cameras are making a comeback in the future.
- Hidden Figures style scene where daughter stares at blackboard then solves complex equation that no one else at NASA can. Well at least the scene didn't last two hours this time.
- "Love is the one thing that transcends time and space" … not including everything else, besides time and space. Nolan level philosophy right there.
- Coughing kid we've never seen before with dramatic music. Yawn, don't care everyone is dying, and the last hope for humanity is more worried about saying goodbye to his daughter than saving mankind. Great choice NASA, really well done. Guess Nolan missed all the news stories about the very intelligent people lining up to take a one way ticket to Mars.
- We can (and likely will) colonize Mars, they can turn it back into a planet with an actual atmosphere like earths, in about 100 years. There is no need to go on some crazy wormhole mission to a far off land like depicted in this movie. They could send a rover to do it.
- When Matt Damon tells them all that the people on earth are gonna choke, Cooper is genuinely surprised and upset... Michael Caine told him this before he even decided to go. He knew his daughter was dead, he was trying to save humanity. Seriously, who goes on a mission like that without even paying attention to the NASA guy telling him about it. Considering that, he clearly doesn't care about his daughter much, so the whole "I have to get home to see my daughter" thing seems totally un-genuine.
- The daughter working for NASA freaks out when she finds out.. What did she think NASA was going to ship everyone from earth off through the wormhole to this new land. Come on now.
- Actually WTF, wormhole or not, it would still take them decades to get there, at least.
- And Hathaway is clueless and naïve too. Great choices to save humanity NASA... Matt Damon was the only one of them who wanted to save mankind.
- Wait, why did the son punch Doctor Eric from that 70's show? More empty fake drama, yawn.
- Why did Romilly blow himself up? I don't get that. Because he had the wrong conditions from Damon?
- The love of one person is more important than Humanity as a whole... this seems to be a theme in Bullitt68 movies. A very Hollywood theme, and one that I personally think is bad for humanity.

The movie starts to get meaningful and artsy here, or attempts to, but honestly my brain is numb from the madness of the premise. I don't even care anymore.

Chris Nolan is a terrible story-teller. The story of the battle of Dunkirk is very interesting, and he managed to make it a story about ships being blown up at sea, just like the myriad of other sea battle movies from his childhood. He's like a more mature version of Michael Bay, meets whoever does the casting for the walking dead. Like Dunkirk, Interstellar is another example of very poor story-telling.

 

[minute bull]

Time-travel is fine if you've got a mechanism to go back and change stuff. But in this we're to believe Coop and his mission is the savior of humanity. Lead on by some mystical force. Later we find out he's the mystical force. Where's the bridge that allows him to at some point be helping himself? Supposedly some other continuation of humanity (not dependent upon Coop) evolved to be able to enable him. Why would those advanced people who could go back in time do all this bullshit? Why would they need to? With access to something like this, there's gotta be a simpler way.

If you're dead you can't go back and un-dead yourself. If the movie is saying that life is like one big canvas where everything is immediately imprinted and never changes then it's worse than I thought.

I don't think most time travel films are about mutability. For me time travel is only a function, not a theme or statement. Just a solution to a mystery.

The idea that gave me the most trouble was gravity moving across time. I don't know if that's a thing in real life, but it gave me more pause than when the film was still letting us toy with ghosts.

Presumably the events succeeding the film are going to lead to the future ability to traverse time as an independent dimension. Maybe it's some of Brand's spawn who attains it, but what's possible now is Coop is pioneering territory he knows is charted, which is why he can move boldly.

 

[BeardotheWeirdo]

No way it makes sense to send 500 eggs and only four people

That's 125 babies to each raise. They should be fine...

How the fuck you gonna steal a spacecraft? Do you know how hard it is to steal a carton of smokes?

The time thing is the most interesting part of the film because it indicates a loop is going on. Right? Cooper was communicating with Murphy through the bookshelf....BEFORE...he ever left. He decoded his own binary message with the coordinates to NASA's location. This is why you don't fuck with time, it never turns out good. It creates paradox's. How is he gonna send himself messages through the bookshelf before he ever even went? The only way he can do that is if he's looping over and over. Its kinda like going back in time to kill your grandfather therefore you never exist, but if you never exist how did you go back in time to kill your grandfather?

Just walk up tp the door, they'll give you a tour and offer you a pilots job. No need to steal it.

Hathaway explained to him time doesn't work like that, it can't move backwards.

I didn't watch the end, but it sounds like Nolan supports the theory that black holes are portals to the past. The time travel theory that their are trillions of alternate universes out there, each to be accessed through black holes.

So basically when Hathaway says "love is the one thing that transcends time and space" she was talking about Coopers love for his daughter. He travelled through a black hole to the past to tell his daughter he loved her... but also to give himself the coordinates to NASA so he could leave her again... hmmm. Guess once he got to the bookcase he decided pussy was better and went to find Hathaway, so he re-sent the coordinates to make it possible.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Guess once he got to the bookcase he decided pussy was better...

Haven't we all been there?

 

[Coolthulu]

Agreed. Acting was interstellar.

 

[moreorless87]

I should clarify at least a little. This film was an emotional roller coaster. It hit me in the feels, especially with the anguish 10 year old Murphy experienced with her father up and leaving. There was a lot going on that I loved about this film and at the same time, I was kinda mad that Nolan made some rookie mistakes he didn't have to make with certain aspects of the film like not explaining anything about the Blight or not developing a love interest between Brand and Cooper so that it made sense he went back for her. This film could have been a stunning sci-fi masterpiece if he just took a little more care with some of the details.

As far as the blight goes I think it was left deliberately vague because it was ultimately a stand in for climate change and general environmental decline that Nolan had been told was too political to include.

Personally I feel if Nolan's big blockbusters like this and Inception have an issue its that they often get too caught up in their own technical details and plots at the expense of their drama. I mean not that they don't spend any time on the latter they definitely do but as you point out here with the lead characters he tends to draw on a romance he's not really setup much. I felt Arrival was actually the same, too much focus on technical details and not enough on drama to really make it a classic on the level of say Blade Runner.

For me there were definitely a lot of highpoints here though like the giant wave, the spinning re dock and the black hole that fitting into Zimmers typically bombastic soundtrack plus indeed strong central performances.

 

[MusterX]

I didn't take note of moon landing stuff.

Nah bro, you can't just pass over that. Its one of the most inexplicable parts of the plot. The schools teach that the Apollo moon landings were fake.

 

[MusterX]

So basically when Hathaway says "love is the one thing that transcends time and space" she was talking about Coopers love for his daughter. He travelled through a black hole to the past to tell his daughter he loved her... but also to give himself the coordinates to NASA so he could leave her again... hmmm. Guess once he got to the bookcase he decided pussy was better and went to find Hathaway, so he re-sent the coordinates to make it possible.

I don't know, shit gets confusing. Cooper was receiving messages through the bookcase before he ever even left to go on the mission. That seems to indicate a time loop happening over and over.

 

[MusterX]

As far as the blight goes I think it was left deliberately vague because it was ultimately a stand in for climate change and general environmental decline that Nolan had been told was too political to include.

Personally I feel if Nolan's big blockbusters like this and Inception have an issue its that they often get too caught up in their own technical details and plots at the expense of their drama. I mean not that they don't spend any time on the latter they definitely do but as you point out here with the lead characters he tends to draw on a romance he's not really setup much. I felt Arrival was actually the same, too much focus on technical details and not enough on drama to really make it a classic on the level of say Blade Runner.

For me there were definitely a lot of highpoints here though like the giant wave, the spinning re dock and the black hole that fitting into Zimmers typically bombastic soundtrack plus indeed strong central performances.

I pretty much agree. I started off hard on the film because I knew it would help the thread gain some traction. I do like the film, I also get irritated by some aspects of the film. Its a sad film where a bunch of sad things happen. The highlight of the film was what? Cooper misses his children's entire lives to ultimately go a second time across the galaxy and be with Brand, who he barely knows. There are things in the plot that don't make sense to me but at the same time the acting was tremendous and the special effects were more than adequate.

 

[moreorless87]

I pretty much agree. I started off hard on the film because I knew it would help the thread gain some traction. I do like the film, I also get irritated by some aspects of the film. Its a sad film where a bunch of sad things happen. The highlight of the film was what? Cooper misses his children's entire lives to ultimately go a second time across the galaxy and be with Brand, who he barely knows. There are things in the plot that don't make sense to me but at the same time the acting was tremendous and the special effects were more than adequate.

I'v no problem with it being sad, I mean look at the film I served up last week. <45>

Beyond the issues I raised one comparison that obviously comes to mind for me is Danny Boyles Sunshine which whilst it isn't perfect I do think is a better film overall because it takes a very similar premise and explores it in a more interesting way. Nolan's films drama focuses heavily on family and romance yet I think the most interesting aspect of it which Boyle focuses on more is responsibility and the extreme enviroment. The idea of giving individuals responsibility for the survival of the entire human race and the effect that kind of pressure can have on people. Brands character does definitely have a bit of this too her and I actually found her the most interesting for that reason but Sunshine I think looks more effectively at how characters deal with that weight as well indeed with the very extreme environment they've been put in.