FLIX!
Interstellar is a film that requires a lot out of the audience member. It requires that you have a rudimentary understanding of astrophysics. It requires that you stay focused and do your best to follow it. And it requires the stamina to sit through 3 hours of staying focused and utilizing your rudimentary understanding of astrophysics.
I predict that these factors will lose a majority of viewers. But for the few that can pass that test, I think this film is worth the effort.
It begins sometime in the future. The climate change thing is affected more than we initially thought. The earth's atmosphere is beginning to change and we ultimately will run out of oxygen. It is time to search for another planet like ours that we can colonize.
Act one of this movie happens while Mr. Cooper's daughter complains of a ghost, or weird phenomenon in her bedroom. She is a gifted little girl who has a bedroom that looks like a library. Mr. Cooper is a farmer, and because of conditions - wheat, rice, barley, potatoes...well, the bottom line is that the only thing that can be grown is corn. And soon that will no longer be viable.
There are often dust storms. And the people have kind of learned to cope, at least deal with them. Mr. Cooper's family (deceased wife's father, son, and daughter), routinely keep breathing masks in the car. Cooper (Matthew McCanahey-hey-hey! as all the ladies know him) discovers some validity to his daughters claims and realizes that the dust patterns on her floor are binary code, and he ascertains they are GPS coordinates. They go to the spot and find that they are at a secret government facility planning a launch in search of an planet where upon human life could flourish.
Act two, literally hour two, Cooper is solicited to head the mission to go through the worm hole south-west of Saturn to look for the info predecessors have gained about the planets they've investigated. His daughter begs him not to go. He promises her he will come back. He promises he'll see her again. A lot of drama takes place on these planets, and in one they spend 7 years of Earth time for every hour they spend here, so they need to get in and get out. But nothing's ever that simple.
On the next planet, in between getting messages from home that people have died and that his children have grown up, met others, now have children, etc., they encounter the person sent to this world who reveals that they have been duped. They are never to return. He is a warped person whose over-zealous, and tries to kill Cooper to save what he believes is his mission.
The third act/hour is where is gets weird and really hard to follow. There are a few questions that are never answered but if you just go with it, it maybe kind of works. The bottom line is, Cooper finally gets to see his daughter again. Sadly he's about the same youthful age he was when he left, and she is a very old woman, on her death bed, who gets to say, "I knew I'd see you again." He asks how she knows. She says " My daddy told me so."
My wife kept mumbling in the last hour "I'm lost." I kind of followed it, but honestly, this film asks you to accept a lot that really doesn't add up. Nevertheless, it is one of those movies that will have you thinking about it for 3 days after.
And it will certainly make you pray Republicans at least admit there's a Climate Change (global warming) problem soon. We can still fix this. And I'm glad that "Interstellar" made me think about that.
Grade: B
Sunday, December 7, 2014
The Judge
FLIX!
In a small town in Indiana there is a judge who is not afraid to be harsh with the people who come before his court. He is a staple in his small town, albeit not always well liked.
Far away in Chicago there is a hot-shot lawyer who just happens to be the middle son of this Judge back here in Nowheresville, Indiana.
And then the Judge's wife and the estranged son-hot-shot lawyer's mother dies. The son returns home to attend his mother's funeral and it becomes clear that the Judge and this son are way, way less than close. They are very, very estranged. The can't wait to get this over with and get back to Chicago, but he has just left his wife and they are battling over their daughter and then there is the old girlfriend who owns the local restaurant and has a hot daughter. Yep. There's a lot going on in this movie, but the meat of it is that it appears the Judge went out and got in an accident and killed a local villain. Or was it an accident? And therein lies the meat of this movie.
The Judge is played by the masterful Robert DuVall. The hot shot lawyer son is played by Robert Downey Jr. Both incredibly gifted actors. The prosecutor is played by Billy Bob Thorton. Another gifted talent. Toss in a fine supporting cast and you have all the makings of an interesting piece of movie making. There are scenes that are heart wrenching. Such as when the Judge who is suffering from cancer and can't make it to the bathroom in time and the son forces the old man to let him help. They want to connect. They almost connect. But it never seems to hit.
And then the son's daughter arrives for a visit. And the whole "Grandpa" thing kicks in. But the hot-shot lawyer is still faced with trying to get off a client (his dad, the Judge), who refuses to cooperate, even a little bit. Pride stands in the way. And Billy Bob Thorton is a skilled prosecutor. So that is where the drama really happens.
I have a feeling this film will get some mention at Oscar time. But then again, this time of year we are going to get buried in Oscar fodder. "Selma", and on and on.....
I don't think you can see this anymore in the theater. But go for it on DVD. I think it's worth the time.
B+
In a small town in Indiana there is a judge who is not afraid to be harsh with the people who come before his court. He is a staple in his small town, albeit not always well liked.
Far away in Chicago there is a hot-shot lawyer who just happens to be the middle son of this Judge back here in Nowheresville, Indiana.
And then the Judge's wife and the estranged son-hot-shot lawyer's mother dies. The son returns home to attend his mother's funeral and it becomes clear that the Judge and this son are way, way less than close. They are very, very estranged. The can't wait to get this over with and get back to Chicago, but he has just left his wife and they are battling over their daughter and then there is the old girlfriend who owns the local restaurant and has a hot daughter. Yep. There's a lot going on in this movie, but the meat of it is that it appears the Judge went out and got in an accident and killed a local villain. Or was it an accident? And therein lies the meat of this movie.
The Judge is played by the masterful Robert DuVall. The hot shot lawyer son is played by Robert Downey Jr. Both incredibly gifted actors. The prosecutor is played by Billy Bob Thorton. Another gifted talent. Toss in a fine supporting cast and you have all the makings of an interesting piece of movie making. There are scenes that are heart wrenching. Such as when the Judge who is suffering from cancer and can't make it to the bathroom in time and the son forces the old man to let him help. They want to connect. They almost connect. But it never seems to hit.
And then the son's daughter arrives for a visit. And the whole "Grandpa" thing kicks in. But the hot-shot lawyer is still faced with trying to get off a client (his dad, the Judge), who refuses to cooperate, even a little bit. Pride stands in the way. And Billy Bob Thorton is a skilled prosecutor. So that is where the drama really happens.
I have a feeling this film will get some mention at Oscar time. But then again, this time of year we are going to get buried in Oscar fodder. "Selma", and on and on.....
I don't think you can see this anymore in the theater. But go for it on DVD. I think it's worth the time.
B+
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