Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/421389
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 NOVEMBER 2014 THIS WEEK 36 St James Cavalier Valletta Tel. 21 223200 German Film Festival 2014 – Sputnik (U) 17:00 German Film Festival 2014 - Zwischen Welten (12A) 19:00 Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Interstellar (PG) 10:00, 13:45, 17:15, 20:50 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (12A) 10:30, 13:45, 16:10, 18:35, 21:10 The Imitation Game (12A) 10:15, 13:15, 16:00, 18:40, 21:15 The Best of Me (12A) 10:10, 13:00, 15:45, 18:30, 21:10 The Maze Runner (12A) 10:20, 13:30, 16:05, 18:35, 21:05 Dracula Untold (15) 16:45, 19:00, 21:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1(12A) 14:30, 18:10, 21:00, 23:45 The Imitation Game (12A) 14:00, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15, 23:45 The Book of life (U) 14:05, 16:15, 18:25, 20:30 Mr Morgan's Last Love (12A) 21:05, 23:30 Interstellar (PG) 14:15, 17:45, 21:15, 22:30 Two Days, One Night (15) 14:20, 16:25, 18:40, 20:50, 23:00 Dracula Untold (15) 14:25, 16:30, 18:45, 21:05, 23:10 The Maze Runner (12A) 14:05, 16:25, 18:50, 21:10, 23:40 Gone Girl (18) 14:20, 17:55, 20:50, 23:45 The Best of Me (12A) 14:30, 18:25, 21:00, 23:35 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (12A) 14:10, 16:25, 18:40 Maps to the Stars (18) 14:10, 16:30, 18:50, 21:10, 23:30 Alexander and the Terrible, Hor- rible, No Good, Very Bad Day (PG) 14:20, 16:30, 18:30, 20:45, 22:45 Fury (15) 14:30, 18:20, 23:55, 23:30 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (12A) 10:55, 12:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:05 Interstellar (PG) 11:05, 14:25, 17:50, 21:10 The Best of Me (12A) 11:00, 13:35, 16:00. 18:25, 20:50 Imitation Game (12A) 11:00, 13:30, 15:50, 20:50 21:15 21:05 19:00, 23:45 23:30 23:00 23:10 23:10 23:40 "WITH great power comes great responsibility," runs the life phi- losophy espoused by Peter Parker/ Spider-Man. Many high-calibre Hollywood directors would do well to adopt the same adage when it comes to their own work, though so few of them actually do. Instead of focusing their new- found success to undertake risky but rewarding projects that could potentially enrich the cinematic landscape, a lot of them are con- tent to just drift along and churn out increasingly paler versions of their former successes. Not so Christopher Nolan. After the British writer-pro- ducer, already slated as an heir to Hitchcock in the wake of intense high-concept suspense pieces like Memento (2000) and The Pres- tige (2006), undertook his Batman sequel The Dark Knight (2008), it went on to rake in over $1 billion and inspire a trend of 'grimdark' superhero films bearing a similar stylistic stamp. Shooting in high-definition IMAX and staunchly refusing to submit his films to the indignity of 3D gimmicks, Nolan carefully cu- rates full-on sensorial experiences for his viewers. But he's sometimes a hollow and clumsy storyteller, choosing set pieces over emotional resonance (Inception) and garbled political subtext over narrative co- hesion (The Dark Knight Rises), while also never draining his films of humour – resulting in visually impressive and thematically rich blockbusters that are engaging but ultimately a bit po-faced. Ironically, with Interstellar he fixes these problems by going big- ger. In the near future, the world is struggling with famine, with the majority of the world's effort shift- ing to farming. The atmosphere has become rich in nitrogen but poor in oxygen, and soon global starvation will give way to global asphyxiation. Former NASA pilot and widower Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) still dreams of flight, while doing his best to eke out an existence for him and his children Tom (Timo- thée Chalamet) and Murphy (Mac- kenzie Foy). Meanwhile, physicist Professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his team, including his scientist daugh- ter (Anne Hathaway) have two po- tential plans to save mankind, but only one involves saving the six bil- lion plus people on Earth. That Interstellar a breathtaking experience almost through and through will become evident pretty early on, but part of the reason the film breaks out of familiar block- buster comfort zones is that Nolan takes risks, and not all of them pay off. While its commitment to science remains admirable, a lot of it is con- veyed in long talking heads scenes – which would have been less of a problem had Nolan not opted to muffle a lot of the dialogue. A claustrophobic soundscape makes sense for a space-bound epic, but it shouldn't come at the price of coherence. It's not that dialogue is its forte either. Admittedly, having characters who are mouthpieces for the film's concepts is a staple of the 'hard science fiction' sub-genre of which Interstellar is a shining ex- ample, but having a warm, affable actor like Jon Lithgow intone dry, world-building exposition is a bit of a let down. Nolan's perennial balancing act between mainstream and arthouse also leads to some awkward gear- changes, particularly as the lei- surely expanding first half narrows towards a more breakneck-paced conclusion. A thriller-laden penul- timate act feels welcome after all that talk and ambling exploration, and though the final act makes good on the intellectually tangled experiments of one of the film's most evident predecessors – Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – it doesn't grow out of the story naturally, and instead feels like a last minute dash to the finish line. It's a thrown-together, accelerated chapter, so much so that it almost seems as though Nolan is rush- ing along to cover any mistakes… which he may very well have made for all we know, as at that point the science becomes to tangled that lay people may be tempted to just write it off with, "eeh, okay, it's basically magic". But Nolan's film could comfort- ably be called a masterpiece, if only because these problems – crippling structural issues in any other fea- ture – feel like minor niggles in the grand scheme of things. And make no mistake, it is a grand scheme, arguably the grandest of all. It lacks the esoteric mystery of '2001', but its valiant attempts at maintaining scientific accuracy – famed astro- physicist Kip Thorne was involved every step of the way – arguably make it a more magical experi- ence throughout. Just as Nolan's Batman trilogy, at its best, used realism to inject convincing, gritty thrills to a foundation of superhero silliness, here a comparatively rig- orous adherence to science lends an immersive immediacy to the (literally) outlandish adventure that frames it. But the adventure elements – the broad-brush strokes of the story, if the science is the detail that makes it – aren't slapdash either. Nolan had made it clear that he was in- spired by old school sci-fi films of his youth, and the hunger for ex- ploration, and the yearning hope to exploit humanity's intellect and in- vention in the pursuit of survival, is culled from that heartfelt, nostalgic source. For all his reputation of be- ing a dour merchant of joyless grit, here Nolan is taps into a disarming- ly child-like sense of wonder. A nod to Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars is a clear ac- knowledgement of the film's generic history ('Tars', the resourceful an- droid on board the ship, shares his name with a character from Bur- rghous's boy's own space adven- ture), and for all its stylistic links to the sombre '2001', the dusty farm- lands that give the film its starting point bring to mind not only Super- man – the last filmic instalment of which Nolan produced – but also Wizard of Oz. Frank Baum may be the artistic opposite to what Interstellar tries to do as a whole, but a nod in his direction proves that despite all his previous grit, fury and seriousness, Nolan still has a capacity for won- der and optimism. An entrancing, uplifting experi- ence. FILM IN CINEMAS TODAY By Teodor Reljic Do not go gentle into that good night ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ STARSTRUCK ★ ★ ★ ★ STAR-STUDDED ★ ★ ★ STARRY-EYED ★ ★ SORRY ★ STARRING ADAM SANDLER To the wonder: Anne Hathaway in Christopher Nolan's awe-inspiring trek through space and time INTERSTELLAR (PG) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★