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Interstellar | 3.5/5

SINGAPORE —It’s no big secret that this reviewer worships at the feet of Christopher Nolan. I will be the first to brawl through long laborious fights with friends and colleagues just to argue the countless virtues of his entire filmography, whether it’s Memento, Insomnia, The Dark Knight trilogy or Inception. Which is why there was no other person more surprised than me at how gob-smacked and divided I feel about Interstellar.

SINGAPORE —It’s no big secret that this reviewer worships at the feet of Christopher Nolan. I will be the first to brawl through long laborious fights with friends and colleagues just to argue the countless virtues of his entire filmography, whether it’s Memento, Insomnia, The Dark Knight trilogy or Inception. Which is why there was no other person more surprised than me at how gob-smacked and divided I feel about Interstellar.

Arguably Nolan’s most ambitious film to date, Interstellar, simply put, is all about the colossal theory, the big philosophies, the imaginatively plausible science, and the very thing that gets us humans every time… love. And whether that’ll intrigue you for the almost three hour film duration will be entirely dependent on how well you absorb everything thrown your way.

With Earth running out of food resources, a team of explorers (Captained by Matthew McConaughey ) embarks on the most important mission in human history; taking the leap to infinity and beyond to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars.

Without revealing too many spoilers, let’s just say be prepared for giant waves, newly discovered planets, worm holes, black holes and a suitably stressed out Matthew McConaughey doing his best to keep the McConaissance intact by delivering a performance in line to what delivered him the Best Actor Oscar in the first place.

Nolan as expected, shoots for the cinematic stars, both literally and figuratively. The visuals are breathtaking and stunning, the sound (or lack thereof in space) penetrates your being and cinematographer Hoyle van Hoytema’s deft eye will be a shoo-on for a technical Oscar. And who can fault a filmmaker like Nolan, who still insists on shooting on film with as little reliance on CGI as possible, purposefully builds intricate sets and  simulators, so as to get the best performances out of his Oscar winning/nominated cast? These typical Nolan characteristics are the reason why the audience will be treated to bombastic space operatics, visual innovation and esoteric discussions on humanity. 

All that said, there is flaw. And that is the length of two hours and 49 minutes, which I clearly felt. As Noland and his co-writer brother Jonathan ( his go-to scriptwriter) plough through the wondrous science with help from the beautiful mind of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, a tighter grip on editing would serve the story-telling so much better.

Still the strong performances all round (from long time collaborators Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway, together with newbies Jessica Chastain and McConaughey) and magnificently shot space sequences see the audiences through to the very end. Some might argue that the emotional vein that Nolan holds oh-so tightly on to might be a tad cheesy or hokey. But it’ll also be that very ideal that some audiences will appreciate as we hurtle through the harder-to-digest space-time continuum questions and metaphysical conundrums.

So as we go outer space to realise what is truly humanity’s inner space, I’m still not any wiser as to the definitive answer. But what I'm most sure of is the fact that the technically brilliant Interstellar has most certainly cemented its position as one of the most divisive, much discussed, widely argued, out of this world must-see sci-fi flick this year.

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