Back in 2014, Interstellar was just the next Christopher Nolan blockbuster in a long line of them. I would definitely see it but wasn’t any more jazzed up for it than I had been for Nolan’s other films to that point. Certainly my excitement level wasn’t in the same place as it was for The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, or Inception. Beyond the early teaser, I don’t recall much from the Interstellar trailers.
A quick look at my Letterboxd tells me I’ve logged Interstellar 10 times. I suppose that’s fitting as the movie hits its 10th anniversary. But it’s a lie, an undercount by a significant margin. LIke a lot of people, I’ve latched onto the movie over the years. I used to watch it any time I caught it on tv, where commercials stretched it to four hours. This was mostly during the time when my kids were in the infant and toddler stages and I was home with them a great deal. Interstellar proved to be a comfort movie for me, a very unexpected development. I love everything about it. The dense science and creative gambits work hand-in-hand. The spectacle is undeniable. Matthew McCounaughey and Anne Hathaway? Never better. The on-the-nose writing and heart-on-its-sleeve themes? Can’t get enough of it. And Hans Zimmer’s score, that score, man. Just immaculate.
The image I come back to most is of Coop (McConaughey) in the bookcase, staring at himself and daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy, with Jessica Chastain playing the adult version). Father in a room with his kid, unable to connect with her in this moment. That same father looking back on this moment from the outside, desperately wanting a different outcome. The futility of parent and child, wanting the same thing, yet unable to communicate with each other. In this moment everything the movie has been building to coheres. Then, a miracle happens. Coop gets a second chance. He has the breakthrough he’s been searching for. His belief in Murph and her slow burning belief in Coop payoff and they achieve the connection that has eluded them. It’s about a parent going to the edge of the universe in order to traverse the handful of footsteps between him and his daughter in the same room. It’s the film’s thesis on love being one of the strongest and most unquantifiable forces in the galaxy.
The premise is the stuff of classic sci-if. With Earth rapidly running out of resources, mankind needs to find a new home. A place that can offer hope rather than the catastrophe that awaits future generations on the planet. The situation is already dire enough when Coop, a former NASA test pilot turned farmer, and Murph come across a secret NASA facility. From there, Coop and Murph are put in a position where they’re going to be separated and have only their love for each other bonding them together, driving each forward with only the faintest chance they’ll ever see each other again. The direness of the situation the characters face in the movie is matched by its emotional depth. Love is the thing that compels Coop to take on the mission to find another hospitable planet for humans. Love drives Murph as she gets older and succeeds where their collective mentor Professor Brand (Michael Caine) failed. Same for Dr. Brand (Anne Hathaway), Coop’s son Tom (Timothée Chalamet and Casey Affleck), and on down the line. The stakes of the film couldn’t be higher on a personal or societal level. Nolan ties these together in a way that strengthens both without sacrificing anything. Victories big and small, setbacks minor and devastating land with full weight. There is so much feeling in Interstellar.
The movie coming into my orbit months after I became a parent had to have some impact on how much I love it. But, how can I quantify that? Over the last decade I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how parenting has changed my reaction to everything and, for the purposes of this writing, films. There are plenty of movies that pop up and I enjoy the same way I did as a pre-parent. But, something always comes along that makes me wonder how I would’ve felt about if I had seen it a few years earlier. That’s more of a mental exercise I go through every so often. I suppose it’s just another way of thinking about the movies and the ways they affect us all. I saw all that just to say this: Interstellar came around at the exact right moment for me. Given the groundswell that’s built up around the movie over the last decade, many others share that sentiment.
With the 10th anniversary of Interstellar upon us, the film is going back to theaters for a week of IMAX shows around the country. The film is also getting a spiffy new limited edition with over three hours of bonus features and an assortment of collectibles. It’s a lovely set that has plenty to offer for anyone looking to spend more time in the gravitational pull of Interstellar.
“The Future is Now: A Look Back at Interstellar” Is a brief (23 minutes) retrospective on the film, but what it lacks in length it makes up for with insight. Featuring input from key collaborators like producer Emma Thomas, co-writer Jonathan Nolan, cinematographer Hoyle van Hoytema, co-producer Kip Thorne, and Interstellar admirers like Denis Villnevue, Peter Jackson, critic Kenneth Turan, Josh Hartnett, this is a mostly standard look back, but if you’re in this movie’s choir you’ll enjoy the preaching.
“The Science of Interstellar” is a 50 minute doc narrated by Matthew McConaughey. It is a delightfully informative exploration behind the movie’s science, as the title of the doc implies. Physicists walk viewers through the logistics behind some of the film’s biggest moments, like relativity, black holes, and other habitable planets. The doc also gets into the collision of science and fiction, and how Nolan and his team took real science and extrapolated it to a Hollywood blockbuster. I hadn’t checked this special out before, so it was new to me and proved to be a good companion to the film.
Other bonus features include recycled bits about various aspects of the film. The collectibles include patches from the creed, small versions of the film’s posters, and storyboards for the “mountains” sequence set on Miller’s planet. It’s a lovely looking set. If you or someone you know is into collectibles and limited editions, this makes for a great gift this holiday season.
