Interstellar

Some Spoilers within.

Crops on Earth are dying. Corn is the last one to survive, and only a matter of years away from meeting the same fate. And then it'll be humanity's turn. But NASA has been working in secret on a way to save the humans. When a black hole opened up in space near Saturn, they saw their chance and took it -- sending astronauts in to explore the planets in the new galaxy, in the hopes that they'll find a habitable one.

Through a series of strange events, Cooper, a pilot-turned-farmer discovers NASA's secret headquarters. There he is told the truth about Earth's impending demise and is recruited to lead one last mission into the black hole -- to visit the three planets where the surviving astronauts are sending out signals indicating that the planet is potentially habitable. Knowing that the mission would take many years, Cooper doesn't want to leave his two children behind, but takes the job anyway, to save them.

Ladies and gentlemen; 3001: A Space Odyssey.

Never mind if it's enjoyable; never mind if it's entertaining; the biggest issue and controversy surrounding Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster epic is whether or not it's scientifically viable. I started out without any specific explanations of the science behind this movie, but I had heard about relative time in space travel, and I know all about paradoxes too... because Doctor Who. So the parts in the film that had to do with space travel -- the black hole, the time differences, the technical aspects -- made sense to me as the film explained them. It would be a whole other issue if the story was being sold as a true story, but it's science fiction, so making sense within its own explanation is all I require to give a stamp of approval.

The previously mentioned aspects I can see the more involved (read: geeky) fans debating over, about potential holes, or whether or not the science is applicable in reality, but a lot of the less science-y events made we wonder how far people's claims of this film's incredible accuracy actually goes. Are people swallowing that the Earth will eventually die via the natural extinction of plants? That humans will eventually evolve to be able to see and manipulate time? I love a good bootstrap paradox in my entertainment, but that involves literal time travel (not just space travel "time travel"), backwards time travel, and that, as fun as it is to enjoy in a film, is a little silly to call scientifically accurate.

Short answer: no; it's not scientifically accurate. Proof? Bookcases.

Now that I've dealt with that, on to whether or not Interstellar is enjoyable and entertaining -- an underrated point that I put a lot of importance on when evaluating entertainment. And this is actually a pretty unique case. Usually in a big blockbuster I have a backup for if the plot fails to engage and impress; the cast. Usually there's at least one actor or character present that I can turn my attention to. This movie, not so much. It has a huge cast, but isn't made up of many actors that I'm automatically biased towards. Plus Matthew McConaughey was the only constant character, and I'm neutral towards him. I didn't find much to connect with Cooper on, except that I really did appreciate his extreme will to survive because of his love for his children (child, really). Only, that came from the script.

Anne Hathaway I actually dislike generally, and her character being so dramatically sentimental and inept (she was probably a descendant of Gravity's Ryan Stone) didn't help one bit. She killed my favorite character, Wes Bentley, who died predictably early. Then all I had to look forward to was Matt Damon's appearance, which ended in surprise when Mann turned out to be a coward and a villain. And while I'm on the subject, can I just ask; why did Mann want to kill Cooper and the others? I mean, they all wanted to leave. I just can't see what he thought it would help. If you have an idea about that I'd love to hear it. The only possibility I see is that he was just plain crazy. Cooper's daughter Murph was best when being played by Jessica Chastain, who handled the potentially annoying characteristics of the character much better than the younger portrayal. As for the son, Tom, he was set up for development as the younger, but once he grew into Casey Affleck, no use was made of it. I was sad for him though because Cooper never seemed to care one iota about him compared with Murph. Michael Caine was around, which was a good thing, and so was Topher Grace all of a sudden, and I spent a lot of time wondering where he came from... and who he was.

Woman, please, pull yourself together.

So since the entertainment "backup" of the cast was so slight and so often absent, I had to almost solely rely on the entertaining elements of the plot to involve and impress me. On that score the film skews toward to positive side. The movie was overlong in my opinion, but it was able to keep me interested while waiting for the cool things to happen. When the cool things did happen they weren't so exciting as to change the tone which helped. If they had been, the slow parts in between would have been more boring by comparison, and since there was more time spent in the in between, that wouldn't have been good.

Visually, the movie was pretty fantastic, with consistently great cinematography, even during the scenes that weren't really going for the "wow" factor. Hoyte Van Hoytema is cinematographer instead of Nolan's usual Wally Pfister, and he gives the movie a fresh look, but it still maintains that Chris Nolan flavor too. You know what I mean. In the big "wow" scenes the effects live up to the hype and the vision they are portraying. Even if there isn't much to see that the trailer didn't show us. The most memorable part of the whole film is how creatively beautiful it is.

Here's something I don't usually mention: the score. Typically, unless they're particularly good or particularly bad, they don't stand out to me. Well this one stands out. In a particularly bad way. I suppose I should give Nolan and Hans Zimmer credit for attempting something bold, but for me it wound up being mostly ineffective, almost always distracting and nerve-grating, and often way too loud, covering up dialogue. In fact, the sound in this movie was just the pits. Characters would mumble and whisper, barely audible, and then five minutes later would scream their heads off with no evidence of dampening. I spent the whole movie adjusting the volume. I don't care what realistic, dramatic, or edgy effect you're going for; if it causes your viewers to rewind to hear a line right before blowing their eardrums out, it's a bad idea.

Usually we take a film's sound for granted; here it's the biggest downfall. Such a little thing...

I would have liked the characters if they'd been played by different actors; I may have liked the actors if their characters were better written. The science would have impressed me more if not for random gaps in logic, and everything that happens after Cooper goes into a black hole the second time. But, the big twist would have been cooler if it didn't take itself so seriously. The big twist also would have been less predictable if less time had been spent hinting at it... And I would probably want to see it again -- if I didn't have to sit through it all again.

A little too ambitious for its own good, Interstellar never settles on what it wants to be. It winds up in an awkward middle ground of incomplete brilliant ideas and deeply thoughtful hogwash. It's too serious and focused on the theories and the science to be thoroughly entertaining as a sci-fi space adventure; too out there and theatrical with its elaborate fiction to be taken seriously for its theories and science. A grand and beautiful mess.

The Giant Mechanical Man

This review is spoiler-free.

The Giant Mechanical Man is a pretty much completely unknown movie, and the title doesn't represent it very well if you don't know what it's about, so just bear with me on this.

And no, this has nothing to do with transformers. It doesn't even have any literal robots.

Jenna Fischer is, as anyone who has seen The Office will know, the perfect embodiment of an everygirl. An everyman is easy enough to find in movies, but "everygirl" apparently isn't even a word. But Jenna Fischer is one. Or at least she can play one. And so Janice is one. Janice is a 30-somthing New Yorker with an unfulfilling job, and has a hard time paying her bills, and she doesn't know what she wants out of life.

Tim is very similar to Janice in many ways, but an everyman he is not. He's a street performer. Every day he gets up, coats his face is shiny silver paint, puts on stilts and a shiny silver suit, and goes to work where he stands like a statue, and only moves as if he were a machine. But underneath that paint he is pretty much exactly the same as Janice. His job is unfulfilling -- the common-folk don't understand the artistry, and it doesn't make him much money -- and he is being pressured to move on in his life, but can't see any direction to go.

Oh, did I mention? This is a romantic comedy.

And with that one sentence, you have made at least one prediction that you are probably right about. But if you've gotten this far, don't give up on me yet, because if this were a typical cheesy rom-com, I wouldn't be bothering to review it.

First of all, on the comic side, there is some quality comedy. No stale, reused slap-stick here. This film is funny -- truly, laugh-out loud-funny -- because that's what it is, naturally. It couldn't not be. It's releasing and comfortable to watch, and wonderfully refreshing to see.

And then to balance the comedy, there's a surprisingly deep (and even darkish) and thoughtful side as well. Movies feature all the time characters who aren't satisfied with their regular or middling lives. And those people inevitably go out and chase their dreams and find fulfillment, and I have no problem with that. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty did that, and it was great. However, this movie presents them in a way that feels almost taboo; because in our culture it is not okay to not know what you want out of life. To not have clear dream to pursue. But Janice and Tim -- they don't. Their lives are at a crossroad, except they can't even see where the new paths start. And the film suggests that it is okay. And if you're thinking that's uncharacteristically deep for a rom-com you're absolutely right.

Did I mention that this film is also an independent?

That leads me perfectly into the romance, because indies have a certain quality about them that is used particularly well here; our two leads -- you know, the ordinary, unsure everypeople? -- they sound like real people too. I love the conversations they have; in a typical rom-com, you might call them "awkward," but they're not, just realistic really. So even when the film takes slight turns into the cute sappiness, it feels comparatively more real, and makes those moments all the more sweeter. And the two do make a very cute couple. The "genre" of an indie film doesn't by nature mix well with the traditional rom-com genre, but this movie finds a way to blend them and not leave anything wanting from either side.

Jenna Fischer as Janice, as I said, makes for a very relatable, everygirl kind of character. She is sweet and charming, and truly funny in a not at all obvious or abrasive kind of way. You just suddenly find yourself laughing at her -- or with her. And Chris Messina as Tim, I never noticed before I saw this film. I've seen him in several films, but didn't recognize him. At first I even figured he was an unknown cast for his talent as a mime (which is very good) but no. This makes it even more impressive how quickly he won me over. His Tim is more of a defeatist than Janice, but in his way is every bit as sweet, charming, funny, and relatable as she.

Both give more the kind of performances you expect from an indie rather than a rom-com.

But fine performances and small amounts of deeper meaning don't at all dampen the rom-com effect. I watched this expecting some cute and sweet romance and that's what I was satisfied with at the end. Some of it was downright adorable. Some of it was maddeningly relatable. Some was strangely illuminating. A lot was uniquely amusing, or even hilarious. All simply, neatly made. And of course, revolving around a giant mechanical man, wandering aimlessly through life, it is entirely unlike anything else.

Oh, and did I mention? The Giant Mechanical Man is available for instant streaming on Netflix...