Interstellar

[School of Movies 2024]

Nolan-Vember comes to a close as we handle possibly his most emotionally-driven film. Drawing heavily from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Contact (two films we've already covered) Nolan presented the most populist blockbuster version of the speculative possibilities of what happens when a human being goes tear-assing into a black hole.

This is very much our wheelhouse when it comes to the philosophical quandary of Stay or Go, regarding an increasingly uninhabitable planet Earth. So, the conclusions reached in this grand, cosmic, time-dilating cathedral of a smash-hit matter a great deal. And there are definitely elements we love about this one... but in consequence of Nolan's handling and points of focus there are also things that drive us crazier than HAL 9000 speed-dating GLaDOS.

Fortunately, there is a film that forms a perfect sparring partner with this one; Danny Boyle's Sunshine (2007). One twentieth as successful with general audiences, but it handles very similar techno-philosophical and theological concepts in a way that hits devastatingly hard with us... and that long-awaited show is coming next week.

I chose to close out this month on the astonishing music of Hans Zimmer, live from Prague with a full orchestra, celebrating his scores for Nolan in this, in Inception and in the Dark Knight Trilogy.