Interstellar (2014)
In the not so distant future, a planet-wide blight has hurled humanity backwards into a semi-agrarian society.
Widowed former NASA astronaut Joseph “Coop” Cooper runs a farm with his daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy), son Tom, and father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow), but he still dreams of traveling to the stars.
Murphy believes a ghost is manipulating objects in her room. Coop is skeptical, but when he begrudgingly investigates, he realizes the “ghost” is using gravity to send a message with coordinates to a secret NASA installation where Coop’s former college professor, Dr. John Brand (Michael Caine), is leading a team searching for a solution to humanity’s existential crisis. After their meeting, Coop volunteers for a long mission into space, angering Murphy.
Years later, an adult Murphy (Jessica Chastain) works with Dr. Brand, while hopefully waiting to hear from her long missing father.
By film’s end, as the elderly Murphy (Ellen Burstyn) prepares for her next adventure in a world beyond, the two are finally, improbably reunited.
Christopher Nolan worked closely with physicist Kip Thorne to ensure scientific accuracy in everything from black holes, to tesseracts, to gravitational time dilation, but while the film’s devotion to authenticity is admirable, it soars because it uses this pristine, scientific narrative to explore a messy, human relationship.
Matthew McCounaughey continues his recent phenomenal run of quality films. Anne Hathaway’s subtle work as Dr. Brand’s daughter, Amelia, provides a compelling counter balance to Murphy’s devotion, demonstrating the danger and vulnerability of trust. And, in his eighties, Michael Caine continues his late career renaissance thanks to Christopher Nolan and his willingness to take less glamorous roles in his golden years.
The film’s only weak spot is Matt Damon as Dr. Hugh Mann. Damon does what he can, but the character is really just a plot device and the film bogs down when he’s in it.
Nolan’s name will always be associated with Batman, but this film will resonate for years to come. It’s an astounding achievement which renews our wonder at the beauty of science and harkens back to the oldest of fairy tales about the power and importance of love.
Mr. Arkadin (1955)
Claiming no memory of anything before 1927, multimillionaire Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles) hires Guy Van Stratten to investigate his early life. As Stratten unravels the complicated history of Arkadin’s shady early life, everyone he comes into contact with dies, and he realizes Arkadin is using him to eliminate anyone with knowledge of his past.
Welles claimed the film grew out of his experience playing Harry Lime, but while there are parallels between Arkadin and the unscrupulous Lime, Charles Foster Kane seems a better comparison. Both this and Citizen Kane feature Welles as an enigmatic central character whose life story is revealed via a series of haphazard interviews with ancillary players, but this is a weaker version of the earlier film.
It does remain interesting because of its tortured production. With seven different released versions, each edited by a different group, it provides a unique insight into the artistic process of one of the leading filmmakers of the twentieth century.
Nightcrawler (2014)
Enormously confident, but without any skill, Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhal) shifts from odd job to odd job until he meets Joe Loder (Bill Paxton), a freelancing cameraman. Inspired, Lou purchases a cheap camera and begins selling local crime scene footage to news editor Nina Romina (Renee Russo).
As Lou Bloom is a feral animal, a 21st century Travis Bickle. Once he has a taste of success, he seeks it at all costs, unwilling to let anything stand in his way.
Most critical attention has focused on Gyllenhall’s magnificent performance, but Russo is the heartbeat of the film. Her willingness to look unglamorous and old is commendable. Nina Romano is as desperate as Bloom, albeit less willing to embrace darkness as a means to achieve her goals. Bloom takes advantage of her desperation to initiate a sexual relationship, but she finds his naked ambition intoxicating.
This is not a great movie, but, like Taxi Driver (1976), it’s an unforgettable reminder of the power of desperation. I doubt I’ll watch it again, but I will never forget Lou Bloom.
Indochine (1992)
Élaine Devries (Catherina Deneuve) lives in French Indochina on her deceased father’s plantation. When her upper class Vietnamese friends die, she adopts their little girl, Camille.
Élaine has a torrid affair with a French lieutenant Jean-Baptiste, but when he rescues Camille from a gang of bullies, the impressionable girl pledges her love to him. To avoid embarrassment, Élaine uses her influence to have Jean-Baptiste transferred to a remote part of northern Vietnam.
The lovestruck Camille reunites with her erstwhile lover and eventually becomes a key figure in the Vietnamese communist party.
As the film ends, Vietnam is partitioned into a communist north and democratic south.
This film uses a doomed love affair and family drama to humanize the origin of the Vietnam conflict, arguing the North Vietnamese aligned themselves with communists to oppose French colonialists not because of a legitimate political awakening.
I’m not sure if the film’s politics are accurate, but it’s helpful to see the conflict as something more complex than capitalism versus communism. We tend to see wars in black and white; this reminds us the fog of war is more likely to be a shade of grey.