By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
While it’s a very good problem for a director to have, you could say that Christopher Nolan is a victim of his own success. He’s crafted so many unique and mindblowing movies (including The Dark Knight, Inception, and Oppenheimer) that when he creates a quirkier picture, it’s easy for it to get lost in the shuffle of his other blockbusters. The best example of this is Interstellar, Nolan’s most overlooked film, which you can now stream on Netflix.
The Plot Of Interstellar
Interstellar has a much bleaker plot than other sci-fi offerings on Netflix: it features a world where humanity is on the cusp of extinction, and everyone’s collective survival depends on one brave pilot’s ability to navigate a state-of-the-art spacecraft through a nearby wormhole. Habitable planets await him in another galaxy, and a ship full of frozen embryos gives him a chance to potentially save his species. But his journey will ultimately take him through time as well as space, giving this intrepid pilot a chance to save himself even as he focuses on saving humanity.
If you’re a big fan of Christopher Nolan films, streaming Interstellar on Netflix will reveal some familiar faces, including The Dark Knight Rises alumni Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway. They are joined by other big-name actors, including Matt Damon (no stranger to weird space missions), Jessica Chastain (her Academy Award-winning acting on full display), Casey Affleck (the Affleck you don’t see in all those exasperation memes), and Timothée Chalamet (getting his early space legs well before he starred in Dune). But the best performance comes from lead performer Matthew McConaughey, whose charisma and Space Daddy charm help anchor the movie whenever it feels too much like Star Trek.
The Success Of Interstellar
While Interstellar is currently exploring strange new worlds on Netflix, it originally launched at the box office to immense success. Against a budget of $165 million, the movie went on to earn an impressive $743 million. Despite this success, Interstellar never really became part of our collective culture in the way that The Dark Knight, Inception, and Oppenheimer did, making this one of those rare smash hits that are rarely talked about anymore.
However, the critics never stopped talking about Interstellar, and Nolan’s ambitious sci-fi effort impressed them long before it went through the streaming wormhole and ended up on Netflix. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critical score of 73 percent, with critics generally praising the film for being a visual feast guaranteed to make you think. Impressively, it also has (via the Popcornmeter) an audience rating of 87 percent, making this the rare sci-fi film that impressed even the snobbiest critics while still being an outright crowdpleaser.
If nothing else, Interstellar is likely to be the most beautiful science fiction movie you watch on Netflix. After all, the movie earned an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Speaking of awards, it swept many different categories at the prestigious and genre-centric Saturn Awards. When all was said and done, Interstellar took home six Saturn Awards, including those for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Writing, Best Music, and Best Special Effects.
It’s not hard to see why Interstellar impressed everyone so much….as long as they go into it with an open mind, this is the kind of movie you show your Netflix-loving friend who insists he doesn’t really like sci-fi. That’s because the movie is about more than spaceships and black holes…it’s also about the human condition, including the fact that the bonds of family are greater than any cosmic forces. By the time our hero completes his epic journey, don’t be surprised if you let out the breath you didn’t know you were holding in.
INTERSTELLAR REVIEW SCORE
Will you share my breathless enjoyment of Interstellar when you stream it on Netflix, or is this the kind of operatic sci-fi flick you’d rather toss into the nearest black hole? You won’t know until you stream it yourself from the edge of your seat. Just be warned: it might be a little difficult to read all the credits through the tears streaming down your face.
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