Christopher Nolan (2014)
Come to think of it, “rage against the dying of the light” could be the definition of cinema. The 3d stanza of Dylan Thomas´ majestic poem features prominently in Interstellar, and fits it as an emerald stone a silver necklace.
Interstellar is the 9th feature film of Christopher Nolan, who has alternated his role of resident director of the Batman series with more personal works in which, from his 2nd film (Memento, 2000) onwards, he has brought the exploration of the time-bending possibilities of narrative film to new levels.
Interstellar could be prosaically described as The Right Stuff (Philipp Kauffman, 1983) meets 2001 (Stanley Kubrick, 1967) tops Gravity(Alfonso Cuarón 2013) and matches Inception (Chirstopher Nolan. 2010). It is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, where war and pollution have reduced mankind to subsistence agriculture with some remaining high tech pockets. Cooper (Matthew McConaughy) a former NASA pilot, widowed father of a teenage boy and ten year old girl, and reluctant farmer, accidentally (or maybe not) bumps into a secret NASA base where an interstellar mission designed to evacuate mankind from dying Earth is being prepared. He is the pilot of choice, but that means he will have to leave his children behind, on a mission that will take years and, due to relativity, in the very odd chance he succeeds, he has very little chance to come back during their natural life span. Cooper's resulting anguish and guilt are the background to the subsequent Odyssey, which includes black holes, flashbacks, flash forwards, flashes whenever, action simultaneous except not, and parallel events back on Earth that have to be seen, although, or because, they cannot be believed, till eventually return is allowed and redemption visits, though not before the soul is scorched.
Interstellar firmly places Christopher Nolan in the very small group of directors whose every new film is an event shouldering the responsibility of superseding the previous ones in matching the spectator's increasing expectations: Hitchcock, then Kubrick, later Spielberg, Scorsese and Lynch, nowadays Tarantino, maybe the Coen brothers, that's it.
Film of the year, film for life, and another entry to best quote of the year: CASE (onboard robot) to Cooper: “this is not possible”; Cooper to CASE: “No, it's necessary”. As the ancient roman sailors used to say: “to sail is necessary, to live is not necessary”. As we say today: “you can't go home again”.