How Interstellar Has Become One of Christopher Nolan's

Most Beloved Movies

Christopher Nolan is one of the most celebrated filmmakers of the 21st century. He’s one of the
few modern directors that has managed to find a dedicated following among both critics and
general audiences. He consistently produces movies that earn the perfect trifecta of rave reviews,
high audience scores and solid box office receipts. He made a name for himself through his work
on the Dark Knight trilogy, in addition to the mind-bending cinematic experience that
was Inception and other gems like Memento and The Prestige. After Nolan’s run with Batman
concluded in 2012 with The Dark Knight Rises, there was a lot of interest in what his career would
look like moving forward. Naturally, the first film he released post-Batman was Interstellar, a
nearly three-hour-long space opera starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica
Chastain.
The initial response to Interstellar was generally positive, but it wasn’t nearly as strong as most of
Nolan’s films had been up to that point. People mostly liked it, but it wasn't anybody's favorite
movie of Nolan's. Some people complained about how complicated the film’s overall narrative
was, while others zeroed in on technical aspects like the movie's sound mixing. Now, it has been
nearly a decade since Interstellar first hit theaters, and Nolan has continued to deliver the goods
with films like Dunkirk and Tenet. However, as time has gone on, Interstellar’s reputation has
changed dramatically. Instead of being seen as a low point in Nolan’s incredible career, the film is
now considered to be one of the director’s best works. It is one of three Nolan movies that has
earned a spot on Letterboxd’s Top 250 Highest Rated Films list. Interstellar sits at spot #106,
while Inception is #224 and The Dark Knight is #14. Here’s how Interstellar has aged over the last
decade, and why people have come to love the film so much over the years.
Repeat Viewings and Overall Ambiance

A key reason for the growing love for Interstellar over the years is because of how the film rewards
repeat viewings. It’s the kind of movie that gets better with every watch, which in turn keeps
people coming back to it year after year. The plot and science of the film are both incredibly
dense, and because of that it is hard to really understand everything in just one viewing. It’s easy
to leave the first viewing of Interstellar with a feeling of “What did I just watch?” or with more
questions than answers about how the film ends and what it means. However, as the film's layers
are peeled back upon a second or third viewing, the whole picture that Interstellar paints really
starts to come into focus.
As the story of Interstellar unfolds, there are a lot of individual moments that don’t make sense at
first. Without going into any spoilers, the ending of Interstellar revisits the events of the entire
movie and adds the necessary context to understand it all. It goes back and weaves its thread
through the holes that initially left questions in the viewer’s mind, before pulling it all together to
reveal one cohesive experience. With each additional viewing, Nolan’s vision for Interstellar and
the artistry behind it all become more and more clear. There’s no scene or visual detail in the film
that wasn’t painstakingly planned and executed. Everything in the movie is there for a reason,
even if that reason isn’t immediately apparent. While an argument can be made that a film should
be perfectly understandable upon its first viewing, it is more the complicated films
like Interstellar that prove themselves to have more long-standing reputations and impacts. In that
sense, the movie is a 21st-century equivalent to 2001: A Space Odyssey in more aspects than
just its genre.
Another aspect of Interstellar that makes the movie infinitely re-watchable is the incredible
aesthetic of the whole thing. Beyond the story and science of it all, the visual and auditory
experience of watching Interstellar is unparalleled. The cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema is
able to perfectly capture the grandiosity of space while still maintaining the emotional core and
personal touch of the film’s characters. Meanwhile, the score from Hans Zimmer is perhaps the
best that the composer has produced in his lengthy and legendary career. He brilliantly balances
the ethereal sound of the quieter and more personal moments with the sweeping and formidable
volume created with the use of an organ for the film’s most stunning sequences. Through both of
these avenues, the overall vibe of Interstellar is established as something that truly encapsulates
its audiences and leaves its viewers with their jaws on the floor. Nolan uses the music and visuals
of the film to suck the audience into the gravitational pull he has concocted, and once they are
within its reach, there's no escape from the experience that Interstellar provides.
A Grounded Sci-Fi Epic

Nolan’s venture into the world of science fiction differentiates itself from most of the genre by
focusing more on science than fiction. The film is considered to be one of the most scientifically
accurate films of this kind to ever be put on screen. That doesn’t happen by accident. Nolan went
out of his way to present and make the science in Interstellar as real as possible. He consulted
with many different physicists and experts to create a representation of space that is as close to
the real thing as could be done effectively on-screen. The theoretical physicist Kip Thorne,
specifically, was brought on board to serve as a consultant and executive producer for the film, in
order to help ensure the film’s consistently accurate approach.
Interstellar plays into the inherent fascination that mankind has with the celestial. The film tells a
gargantuan story that explores everything from our corner of the galaxy to the infinite. The film
features wormholes, supermassive black holes, Einstein’s theory of relativity at work, and
numerous other high-concept ideas that are typically reserved for endless chalkboard equations
and limitless imaginations. The realness of the science in Interstellar makes the film a wonder to
behold, as it makes the audience feel as if they are actually getting an inside look at how our
universe works. At times, it feels like the world’s most expensive documentary, rather than a
fictionalized narrative film. Now, that’s not to say that everything the film presents is 100%
accurate. There are a few aspects, such as the clouds of ice on an extraterrestrial planet and the
depiction of what can be found beyond the event horizon of a black hole, that have been singled
out as being fictionalized cinematic embellishments.
With all that said, Interstellar is more than just an endless stream of cool science stuff. The story
of the film is an immensely personal and human one. It’s a powerful tale of a father and his
relationship with his family, particularly his daughter. It explores the sacrifice that he and his family
have to make in order to save humanity and whether they felt it was actually worth it in the end. It’s
a balance between the never-ending desire to explore the stars and a man’s boundless love for
his family. The relationship between Cooper and his daughter, Murph, is the heart of the story that
everything orbits around. While the science of Interstellar builds the film’s events in reality, the
exploration of this relationship is responsible for the emotional grounding of the film,
transforming Interstellar from an awe-inspiring film to one that is genuinely affecting and will leave
its viewer with a long-standing impression.

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