Christopher Nolan has made a career out of the big-time event movie, mixing epic scope and big issues with personal, character-driven stories. We all know the “Dark Knight” trilogy, where he redefined Batman (the problems with “The Dark Knight Rises” notwithstanding), and bending our minds like maybe they’ve never been bent before with films like “Inception,” “Memento,” and “The Prestige.”
Next he brings us “Interstellar,” a movie he has succeeded in, much like “Inception,” keeping under tight wraps. What we know is this: Matthew McConaughey plays an astronaut of some type with a daughter who embarks on a space mission to save humanity. Rumor has it wormholes and dimension-hopping may play a role, and knowing Nolan, nothing is off the table, and the mere fact that he can make “Matthew McConaughey, space man” a thing with no irony whatsoever is display enough that he has a grasp on his own work.
Give our newest auteur this: he knows how to drum up interest in his movies, he’s got every major star in Hollywood clamoring to work with him, and his movies make tons of bank (really, can you imagine, DiCaprio or not, ANY other filmmaker in Hollywood successfully pitching a movie about dream thieves, and actually managing to get it made?).
Nolan is our man now, able to blend the summer event movie and the introspective, contemplative picture. He’s our generation’s Stanley Kubrick, a mad genius behind the camera whose perfectionism and deliberate pacing is both maddening and utterly fascinating.
