This is the Drivein Podcast. Take one but a big but a boom. Welcome to episode 248 of the Drivein Podcast. On today's episode, we have our throwback review of Interstellar from Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan. So use the bathroom. Now grab that popcorn and enjoy episode 248 of the Drivein Podcast. Howdy Doody, Welcome to episode 248 of TDI. This is Doctorow on the horn to start, per usual, And as always, I'm joined by my cohost, my best friend and Christopher Nolan aficionado.
How are you, my friend? Ricky Flicks? Are you ready to discuss black holes? Wormholes. Time. Dimensions? Alternate planets, Alternate realities with Interstellar today. This is my guy. This is my guy, Christopher Nolan. I got the book right here. You got me for Christmas and dad went getting ready for this week. This is the biggest week of the year for me movie wise, because this is my guy, my most anticipated movie and hopefully, as he always does, comes
correct. Hopefully it comes correct. And I'll tell you what you came correct for Interstellar, and this is a review where you throw it. You threw this idea at me. Of course I'm going to say yes, but I don't know if I've been excited for a review of a throwback like this, like Fallout. I it's tough. We just did Fallout. So like this, this is just below Fallout for me, as in, like excitement levels, but very close. So I'm really looking forward to it.
My guy, Christopher Nolan, Same birthday. Can't wait. You always love pointing out the birthday thing coming out in a couple weeks, right? July 30th, right? For those who are looking to send Ricky flicks a gift for all his contributions to the movie community, I thought this was going to be an interesting throwback review because we have a Christopher Nolan movie coming out this week, a much anticipated Oppenheimer that is going back to World War Two era. We're talking 1940s and then.
In opposition, we're going to be reviewing a movie that takes place in 2067, right in the not so distant future. So I thought it was like a like what you see as a theme in a lot of Christopher Nolan movies is the concept of time. So I thought like, hey, we cannot kind of have a little bit of fun with this and look at right how he sees the world decades from now and how like if any connections we can make to Oppenheimer, obviously a historical period piece.
Of a Ritchie Flex. You mentioned you're a huge Nolan guy. Okay. What is it about Christopher Nolan movies that makes you such a massive fan? When I think of Christopher Nolan, personally, I think of the director just with a massive brain, a swollen brain that is Pert. That is like swelling up and pushing against his skull, protruding through his head based on the concepts of his movies, the brainbreaking type of like. Experiences he gives audiences, but also the spectacle that he
provides them. So, Ricky Flex, what do you anticipate every time you go see a Christopher Nolan movie? Yeah, you you kind of hit the you kind of set it right there. You think about the stunning visuals. He always has to shoot like an IMAX, right? He wants the biggest screen possible. It's got to be loud. Everything's got to be loud. Tenant, Interstellar, Inception. Zimmer is his guy. Great score, great music. And again, he's one of the the most reliable author film makers that we have.
You think of Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Scorsese, all that, right? Direct, produce their movies, do all the the big things behind the scenes and no one's one of those guys. So I just have a great appreciation for him and again. The entertainment factor, he's
like a peep. The People's director, you know, it's very similar to Tarantino, where he's also like a audience member, you know, trying to see what great sequence that he could do, Action sequence, also that's a spectacle, but also with a story that's grounded at the same time. Packs an emotional punch, but he's going to throw some twists at you, some mysteries and twists psychological. Thrower aspects at us that we want to see. We want to be on the edge of our seat.
So he kind of does a little bit of everything that the audience wants to see when you go to the movie theater, you know. So that's why, like for me, he's the people's director. He touches everything. He does touch everything. That's a good way of like looking at it because he's made arguably the greatest comic book trilogy of all time. With Interstellar, he's made a space scifi epic that stands on its own and in one in the. Upper echelon of greatest like
scifi space movies. I think it's only aged better and better as time goes on. He's made a World War Two epic in a little a different type of fashion with Dunkirk and he's tried and then he's messed with Time and other types of films like Tenet and he always is trying to push the boundaries of what's already been seen in theaters and he's giving audiences a very unique experience and that's definitely
what Interstellar provides and. Before we get into an Interstellar, I want to talk a little bit more about Nolan like these past like 10 years. So after The Dark Knight trilogy ends, right, we have Nolan kind of spacing out his filmography and like when he's having these releases.
Like he goes on a freaking all time run in the late 2000s into the early twenty 10s where he is ripping off right starting in just 2008 with The Dark Knight. And then Inception 2010, Dark Knight Rises 2012, Interstellar 2014. Like to have the greatest comic book trilogy, right, Most grounded and most real that we've ever had in cinemas.
And then in the meantime make 2 groundbreaking scifi movies like as those are going On. That's what I'm talking about where like his brain, I just don't think I don't understand how it can handle that capacity because he's writing his stuff too. Like, he is conceived, like conceiving of all of these different concepts and ideas. Meanwhile, he's putting together like The Dark Knight Trilogy. That always blew my mind. And that's the moment really,
that I began to love movies. I associated with the Christopher Nolan peak. But these last 10 years he hasn't had that form. Like, he hasn't had that run where you had Interstellar when it came out. I think people. They didn't receive it as warmly as that Dark Knight trilogy as Inception, right? They thought like, okay. This guy thinks he's a little too smart for the audience, you know, And it takes a little bit of, like a high level of focus to go see his movies.
And then you have Dunkirk Okay in 2017 Tenant. Am I missing? I'm missing one in there. Well, Dark Knight Rises was kind of like. I would say the weakest part of The Dark Knight trilogy, but this last decade it seems like he's been trying to find something. I think we're going to see a real return to form. It's not like those movies are bad, all right? There's still top tier audience
and movie going experiences. But I think here's something like he's been trying to find his footing and we could be lining up for that much elusive best director, best picture win for our guy. This is going to be a tough on the wind, though. He's going to be going against Denny V Scorsese. You know, Fincher's going to be around, like he's going to go up against the best of the best and it's going to be tough. Gerwig at Barbie, get this, I'm not. So big Ricky.
I know, I know, I know. It's. I'm just, I'm being cautious because we've thought this before like look at the Interstellar. So like, yes, I I think critically this at the time. It was still like, OK, but the there was a huge buzz about it. Like, dude, this made over $700 million at the box office. Like huge amount of money. Like it made more than The Martian starring Matt Damon. A few like a year or two after this didn't make as much as Inception, which made 840
million, but still like. That's in the middle of The Dark Knight. Trailer. Yeah, exactly. So like, he's still like, everyone loved this movie for the most part. Like, at least like, they went to see it and they were. In awe, you know, that's like why you go to the movies, like this type of movie and like looking at the Ron Tomato score versus IMDb is just completely shocking.
If I had to guess like what the Ron Tomato score for this movie would have been, I would have been like high 80s, maybe low 90s. Because at the time when this came out and like 2014, it was like, Oh my God, have you seen an Interstellar? Have you seen an Interstellar? It was like a part of the culture to talk about. It only has a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes, 86%. Audience scored. So overall like I think you're right, but same time it's like it's just it did have it's run.
And the IMDb is one of the highest rated in Nolan's career at 8.7 out of 10 like. That crazy to see that. High, like The Dark Knight is a 9.0. It's one of the highest rated IMDb films of all time and in comparison like Dunkirk has like a 7.2 out of 10 on IMDb but has like a 90 plus percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But I think Interstellar. Is where Nolan got that negative stigma of thinking He is too smart for the audiences he creates movies for. I think this was the beginning.
Inception, you could argue, is like basically that, that entry point into that type of like idea or like that. Nolan is that type of dude where he's just too high concept. But I think Interstellar took it and ran with it, with all the astrology and the scientific jargon that goes with the movie,
but a part of like. What at my takeaways after re watching this like there's a bunch of like astrological jargon slash bullshit that's happening, but there is a surface level story that I think was relatively easy to follow. So I think like the idea of Interstellar being this movie that's impossible to understand. I think that's an overrated statement. At the end of the day, it's these people going on a journey. They want to make sure and try and find a way to save these people on Earth.
They want to try and find like this inhabitable planet, right? And at the anchor of the story, it's this relationship between this father and his genius daughter. That's, that's the story, you know. And I think there's just a lot of bullshit involved that people like always just say all the dialogue you can look down on a little bit like it's not the greatest. What I think this movie actually has a good amount of emotion and it's relatively accessible to audiences.
Do you agree? On this. So this movie gets better every time you rewatch it. And usually people like the part of the rhetoric around this movie when it came out. Like did you see it because of the twists, You know, like all these different, the cameo that happens, the big, the, the big twist with that, then the big twist at the end, time jumps, the ghost time jumps, things like that, right. So that's what you think
initially, like a Nolan movie. And so it's like, oh, it's never get better after you know what's going to happen, right? But this movie when when you rewatch it, you start picking up all the little pieces of dialogue that are alluding to that ending or alluding to something else down the road. The 90% honesty and these themes of honesty, love, loneliness, lost time, they all hit so hard because this movie.
You could make an I I'll say it this is most emotional to Christopher Nolan film there is. Yeah. Well, I wanted to get to it a little bit later, but we can have a little jumpstart to the conversation now because I agree 100%, yeah. And and it again I think you're right people got to at when this came out in 2014 people were two in the all like they're trying so or he's trying so hard to try to explain this to us you know and through the dialogue especially right yes it's way over stuffed.
Trying to be getting accurate as possible you. Know just again I appreciate it. As an audience, I appreciate that, but like again, like even though it did well on IMDb didn't do as well and Ron tomatoes 73% and at the Oscars like the only thing that got nominated for was sound mixing, production design, score, visual effects and sound editing. So basically everything around the sound of this movie, which is stunning. We call that the Nolan Awards. But like, not even cinematography.
Like, not even like, like some of the ones that you'd be like, Oh my God, like there's a lot of known things that aren't even attributed here, you know, original story. No, definitely not. You know, so like this got shut out, which makes me nervous for Oppenheimer and the no one's stigma, you know, like Dunkirk. He got not, I think, I don't think, I don't know if he got nominated for Dunkirk either. And that was like what Tarantino's is.
The best movie, 21st century. Yeah, so when I like, I think it's weird that it got shut out because. The other stigma was like him, like we talked about thinking he's smarter than the audience, right? But also the lack of emotion in his films. That's a people like tend to criticize him for and it's more about the spectacle and it's more about the jaw-dropping moments. And he does provide that.
But I think it's got to the point where it's actually underrated in his films, The emotionality. It certainly takes place in Interstellar and what I would say doesn't really work in Interstellar. Is the balancing of all the astrology with the emotion. It feels like a way. It weighs super heavy one way and super heavy in the other, and it doesn't find that happy medium to make it like a fully realized film. That's that's the way I feel about it.
But you need that emotional aspect that I think it's actually done through amazing performances, specifically by Matthew McConaughey. And we're going to get to him and we're going to talk about like this era for him because it's one of the greatest runs. By an actor ever.
But I thought he was at the peak of his powers in this film and he was just the perfect guy to lead a Christopher Nolan movie in 2014. You could not ask for a better blockbuster leading man for a nonsuperhero project before the superhero boom, like, takes that second wave in the second phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe like he was. It was just. The like the director coming off The Dark Knight, Matthew McConaughey, the strongest, acting like gravitational force in the industry.
It just seemed like a match made in heaven. And he was someone that I actually believed as the scientist and also the cool dad, you know, where there was a lot of emotionality. There's parts that rip me apart and like imagining him saying goodbye to his kid in the great reunion at the end, but also I believed him as being the best.
Astronaut or best pilot that NASA ever had to, which is really weird because if I said that about Matthew McConaughey in like 2009, you would have thought I was crazy, but I thought he was absolutely magnificent on this rewatch. Yeah, Cuz like he's a smart guy, you know, he's and he's clever, quick, widded, you know, But he's also like in the movie, he says like he's an explorer adventure in real life. He's explorer adventure in his role.
You know, pioneer, you know. So you buy that from a pilot, you know, Cuz again, he's not like. He is obviously very smart, but he's not like all the other people in the crew who are literally geniuses, right? You know, like they are. They are literally like the guys are studying black holes, for God's sakes, Like, like Magic County is like, how can I not use enough fuel? So we get down to that seven hour, every hour or seven, whatever, seven years, every hour planet in the least amount
of time. Like how well he's trying to do that versus this guy is trying to figure out how to save the Earth. Like, completely different types of genius level. But I'll, I'll say this, I can't say like, he should have been nominated for an Oscar. I can't say he should have won because Eddie Redmayne won for The Theory of Everything and that's just like a classic Oscar, Like you're going to win that. But Mcconney should have been nominated.
I thought he was stunning. Every time I watch this, he gets better and better every time. Like near perfect performance. This was the end of the Mcconnaissance. This was the last movie if you marked it in a timeline and we talked about a couple weeks back we did the Harrison Ford draft for Dial Destiny, which we reviewed, check it out on our
feed. But then we posed a question to you guys, right, the listeners on what actor could compete with a three-year run alongside Harrison Ford and the One. Viable response. The one that made sense the most shockingly was Matthew McConaughey. Some people tried to say like Arnold in the 80s, but there was like year gaps when you ripped off 2012, 1314. For Matthew McConaughey, it's one of the greatest runs of all time. 2012. He tries to divert, goes more in
the dramatic realm. Has mud right? Not seen by much but definitely well received. And then he has Magic Mike. Steven Soderbergh film. He does not the starring role, but he's certainly the scene stealer. And then he carries that over into 2013 with a scene stealing role in Wolf of Wall Street. Also Dallas Buyers Club gets nominated and then wins.
The Oscar has that phenomenal acceptance speech at the Oscars where he's already always chasing his ghost, which kind of connects to Interstellar. Then 2014 he comes with True Detective. Wins the Emmy for Best Lead Actor and then has Interstellar. That is an insane 6 project rip that he goes on and it ends with Interstellar and it's like he's not the same guy since and that's why Ricky flicks.
I want to bring back a segment for a second because it's hard to match that high and you could argue no actor will, but what has he done since? So Ricky flicks. There's a gun to your head right now. I want you to give me 5 movies from Matthew McConaughey post 2014. Go gold Free, State of Jones, Okay. That's a good start. I can't believe that was its first two. You ripped. That's crazy. Yeah, cuz Free State of Jones, dude. Like, I just. Talk, we'll get back to it.
Go ahead. Free State of Jones like that was like. Like, that was my Oscar. Like, that's like the oh, that movie's going to be insane. You're buying time. You're buying time. Let's go. Gun to your head. I'll do the Philip Seymour Hoffman countdown if I ask you well. He hasn't been doing a sing. He was in sing. Three. Let's go 10 seconds. Not like a in person role. Go 10 seconds. I don't know. Then yeah, I'm not going to win this. Weed. Oh, the the bomb Beach bomb.
Beach bomb. But not no other weed, White boy. Rick. Oh, OK that. OK, we'll give it to you. I was thinking the gentleman. Yeah, I was thinking The Dark Tower. Dark Tower, yes, but like it's it's it's cringe worthy to say out loud after I just gave you that 6 project run that he goes on. Like he's doing like an animated like Agent Elvis movie. You know that he's voicing Elvis as like.
This person that's recruited by the president to go on these, like go on these missions, it seems like he even recognizes, like I will never top that run. I will never be that guy again. And he's become just more of a persona than a performer or an actor. So I just, I don't know, I want to get your thoughts on this run because when we were in high school into our early years of college, he was bigger than Leonardo DiCaprio. That's how big Mcconaugh he was.
Like he was. Everywhere at the time. And he wasn't to be found in a superhero project, and that's what made it so cool. He was too cool to be in those projects. Everyone's was fan casting being this or that. He's now What is the McConaughey thing? I'm going to be in a Christopher Nolan epic scifi epic. That's going to be a movie that people talk about for years and people make comparisons to 2001. A Space Odyssey. What is the hell of a way to cap
this Mconnaissance? Yeah, like, I think going back to like the Run, like Wolf of Wall Street, like that's just a cameo, you know, glorified cameo role. You know, like if we're just being honest here and. Performance in the movie. OK, but you see what I'm saying? True Detectives is TV show, right? Even even though it's each BL Interstellar. Like he's leading a big budget $160 million budget movie. Like basically a superhero movie.
You know, space movie, CRISPR, no one else from filmmaker and like the Dallas Bars Club, that's like a small budget movie. You know, that's like, oh, like like when Robert Pattinson needed to switch out from Twilight, need to go the indie route. Like that's kind of what he did with MUD. That's what he did. Not Magic Mike, but you know, Magic Mike with a glorified cameo. Like, you know what I'm saying? You kind of had to do that. Interstel was like put it all together.
All his charm, all his charisma, but yet his talent as an actor, the emotional punch, you know, like everything, like his whole career is encompassed around Interstellar. And that's why for me, like it's. I want to say his best performance too, but I'm not well I want to say. I was gonna say we can even rank them a connoissance right now. Like #1. Let's say True Detectives is best performance. Cuz it Yeah, Yeah, that. Sorry.
That's like. True detectives, his best performance and I honestly would like. Interstellar. I want to put in a store too. I do. I do. But I honestly want to put Wolf of Wall Street into bro. That's crazy. Why? Why is that crazy? Every 15 minutes I want 2 martinis and. Like what actor could have done what he did in that movie? It was like so Makana he it would just felt like no one else could have pulled off that.
Like basically Leo becomes like you had to be like Leo like Belfort before Belfort. Like how did he learn it all? And like the way that Mark Hanna is in that movie, then you buy that Leo makes that transformation into him. This guy was his mentor and this guy, it's like I am following this guy like. Follow the leader. Like it just felt like a perfect cameo for Scorsese movie.
I don't know. I just think it's just literally probably the best thing he's done in a film, despite the size of it. OK. But if you want to say like actual large scale True Detective and then I'm OK with Interstellar and then Dallas Buyers Club, you know, and that's where he wins his Oscar, which is. Kind of wild and it's and I think it is obviously was exceptional but like I'm not trying to take away Dallas Buyers Club phenomenal.
Also, Jerry Leto, phenomenal. You know, that was just like an unreal, like just duo that's going at it. Both win the, both win Oscars. Like that's just rarely been done like less than five times or something Like when both the actor and supporting actor win the Oscar, you know, like absurd. But overall, like Mcconney just during that time, like, you're right, like his height was so high. Right. And it felt like that Oscars won that picture.
When he, like, leans back in the chair after they say his name, you know, it's just like. This is owned if he was on top of the. World dude. Like literally at when he won that Oscar, he like I think he saw God. He liked dude. He. Beat out Leo. Like, that was like one of the greatest best actors that we've ever had. Like at the Oscars. The 2014 Oscars. Let me pull it up. Insane, dude. That McConaughey would win an Oscar before Leo if you said that in the late 2000s would be
nuts. So like, obviously Mcconney wins. We Leo Wolf of Wall Street again. Leo not having an Oscar to his name, yet he wouldn't win till then. The next year, so. Or two years from that and that. So like, he still hasn't like the greatest actors ever lived and still hasn't gotten an Oscar and they give it to Mcconney for Dallas Buyers Club. And just two years earlier he's doing ROM coms like goes to Girlfriends past.
That's how good he was in that. But Bruce Dern, who's like a Hollywood legend, Shatwill Oak to 412 Years a Slave, obviously a huge movie Best Picture winner. And then none other than Christian Bale also nominated. God beats up legend after legend, dude. Just insane. So like you got to give him credit and like. He's like the one who doesn't
belong on that list. When you looked at that that list of names, you're like, you're this is not an Oscar name and he's the guy who comes down on top. That's nuts. But like, when you look back at Oscar wins, you know, we always say like, oh, like they shouldn't have won. You know, like we might do that. Everything, everywhere, all once, to be honest. Like Shape of Water, like Dunkirk was the same year as that. Dunkirk's a better movie.
The Shape of Water. No bias, I'm saying that, but like Shape of Water. Won the Ice Green Book, you know, But other movies shouldn't have won Matthew. Connie should have won this Oscar for most people still 10 years later, You know, like, it's not like one of those where it's like, oh, like they just gave it to him. No, like he deserved. Yeah, No. So we'll talk about his performance a little bit later when we get to like the cast and everything.
But jumping into Interstellar a little bit, I want to know your circumstances, Ricky. Did you see this in theaters? Personally, I did not. And it was one of the greatest tragedies in my life that I never saw Interstellar in a theater. I feel like it's like, you're going against. I'm going against my morals if I don't see a Christopher Nolan movie in a theater. But the first time I saw it, I was in college. I was. I was actually like a sophomore,
I think, in college. And it was years after the movie had come out, maybe one or two, and we got it on Red Box at Stop and Shop. And I was with our former cohost, Nez, and I was just like, hey. Let's watch Interstellar tonight. Nobody else cared. They fell asleep in the first hour. But Nick and I were locked in, and I don't think I blinked From the moment you had the docking station spinning and then trying to dock right?
The shuttle. And literally for the next hour and a half, I don't think I blinked. I was totally mesmerized by the film. The black hole Gargantua, like, literally owned my brain in real estate, in my brain for the next like. Two weeks and I couldn't stop talking about the film and I was just crushed inside. I didn't get to see it in theaters. Did you get to see an experienced Interstellar at the cinema? Alright, I have a two-part answer to this.
So it was after the week opening week of this movie. OK and I'm planning to see this in theaters. I couldn't see it opening weekend. I forget what I was doing. I was in high school and I remember like you our other brother Big Mike. Former guest of the pod and like some of your your buddies were down in our basement. Oh my God. And like chitchat and like I just went downstairs to grab something that stir up conversation with somebody and you guys talk about Interstellar.
I was like, crap, I haven't seen it. I've always say it out loud or something and then big Mike just reveals the big cameo. Just spoils it for me. Just absolutely spoils the movie. The biggest cameo surprise. Appearance from one of our favorite actors. It's just like. Yeah, everyone was just like, bro, like what are you doing? And I was just crushed. So I didn't see in theaters after that. I just decided not to. Like I didn't. I don't know.
I just, I was so butt hurt about that and it was just a tragedy. So then I didn't see in theaters and the first time I watched it wasn't until years later I couldn't get over that. I I literally couldn't. I didn't watch it until 2017 and I watched it with Johnny Sims, another guest of the pod and. I was a junior in college and I remember we blacked out the whole dorm and we had these huge speakers, like massive speakers
that we had. So we blacked out our whole room late at night, put the speakers full blast and watching A star in the complete darkness like a movie theater. We try to make it as much like an IMAX screening as possible. And I was blown away. It lives up the expectations. Still pissed that big mic to this day about that, but but Oh well, let bygones be bygones, I guess. Yeah, and Mike didn't only spoil it for you, he spoiled it for my other friends who had not seen the movie either.
And they're Boston guys until like, this is spoiler review and this throwback review. So like, we're just like, we're talking about Matt Damon, obviously. So like when our brother mentions that Matt Damon's in the movie, my buddy who's like just he went to school in Boston just north of Boston. Massive Red Sox fan. When he hears that Matt Damon was in the movie, he his jaw dropped because. He was just flabbergasted
because like, that's his guy. Him and Affleck, like he'll watch anything that they do. And he couldn't believe it because obviously Matt Damon wasn't promoted to be in the film, right? Has a bit relatively small part. But if you rewatch Interstellar, like if you know Matt Damon is coming and you haven't seen the film, it's very easy to forecast when he's coming and you know what character he's playing.
And that's, that's something I noticed on my rewatch, where they talk about Doctor Man, they talk about the Lazarus missions, right? The first data that's accumulated to try and, like send from like, this alternate worlds to Earth, right, and prove this gravitational theory for Michael Caine's character. Like there is, they point to a picture of the Lazarus missions. They go through like a couple of the scientists and the astronauts, and they don't go to
the glass guy and they zoom out. And like, Okay, that's Doctor man, we're going to be seeing this guy, right? And it has one of the great twists, I think, in movie recent movie history, right? Not only because of like the star that is there, but also like, when I was rewatching, I was thinking about it, like, what would I done if I was this scientist who had been stranded on this planet for years? And maybe I would not have gone to the lengths of, like, making
up all this data. Maybe I would have been a little more blunt or straightforward. But the fact that there's a chance they don't go home after this, right? I'm going to do whatever it takes to make it back because I've lost my entire life. You know, I like, did you think about it any differently, like the decisions from Damon? It was painful to watch. Then it was still hurt, like,
hard to watch here. But I was trying to think about what I would have done in this situation, What a hard life this guy has lived because of these Lazarus missions. It's so it's such a amazing cameo because I'm not saying Matt Damon, like, is at the level of acting like Matt Conay wasn't his cameo and Wolf of Wall Street. I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying is Matt Damon, if you view that day before Interstellar, he only plays good guys. Like he's the good guy, you
know? Everyone loves Matt Damon. That's why him and the Jimmy Kimmel riff is funny. It's like everyone loves Matt Damon, makes him look like kind of a jerk so and then a star. They just completely use that to their advantage and flip it. That's why the twist is so good. He's. Never been more hateable ever. Yeah. This is the only movie he does play like quote UN quote bad guy like Euro trip that cameo but like not just funny. This is just like he's a truly
bad person and. And he's not even that. Bad. You know, like he, like, obviously he's not servicing the mission like he said he was going to initially. But like, it's more about like he still thinks he's doing things in the name of science. You know, that's how he grounds his character, right?
He's trying to come off as like he's not acting selfishly, but he is. Like, like he when he knocks out McConaughey, he goes like, I want to be able to be with you when you die, but I can't, so I'm sorry. And then he's saying, like, so weird kids, Do you see your kids? It really is a weird performance. Honestly, yes, it's good, but it's really awkward and weird how he like just trying to justify every decision that he does, despite it being like the
morally wrong one at every turn. And it's it's also like really weird. Sorry, but it's really weird that this comes. The head of The Martian, and it's kind of just like almost like a reciprocal of the character that he plays in The Martian. The Martians. Like a good guy you root for alone on a planet. He is an asshole, interstellar alone on a planet that is found right. It's almost like we wish we didn't find him and we were working so hard to find him in The Martian.
It's just two opposite ends of the spectrum, but still like like surface level, same character. Yeah, exactly. And like, at the end, his end, I should say, when he's about to die, he's like, I'm doing this for mankind. It's like, bro, you literally fake data, so people will come pick you up and then you were going to kill one of them just so you could leave, you know, and continue living and not be alone and go back to Earth. Like, what were we doing? Like a complete, what's the word
I'm looking for? Just like totally like, insane, insane. Yeah, he's delusional. Delusional. Thank you. He becomes delusional. And like that is one of the great after that twist and after he does that head button cracks Mcconaughey's helmet the next 30 minutes of the movie. It's breathtaking in the Hans Zimmer score. We haven't talked about Hans Zimmer yet when that sets in. And the greatest moment of the Hans Zimmer score is the docking scene in my eyes. Right.
You could do a pinpoint a few scenes here, but the tension of that moment, even when I was watching it last night, my heart was absolutely racing. Absolutely racing. And then before they even get to the docking and where he's trying to make this miraculous parking of the shuttle like you have the race like to stop Matt Damon from taking over and docking his shuttle. It's just to me, it was just it was it was it was great because also it's like we just lost.
Like Romney, which I think like Romney was out, like he was a great like glue guy for the team, you know, and I think that he has some interesting moments here. But when they like, it's basically just Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey partners. And like partners. Like we have to do this together now and then coming together, right, to overtake Matt Damon in that moment and then them overcoming the odds, just it's really like just fantastic moment. But I would say like.
They kind of forgot about Romney. They forgot about the people who died in this movie. Like they were like, OK, we got stuff to do, like we're there's no burials. There's no memorials here. We're on to the next mission. You know that part, like, I get it, where lack of emotion and Nolan movies. Yeah, but like at the same time, like you know, they were out
there for a long ass time. Like even just like like think about it like let's just say like not human years like earth years, but their years that they're out there. They're still there for several years. You know, so like throughout time you have to assume that they did do that at some point. It's already a two hour, 50 minute movie. Like, we can't just be like Romney died. Like let's grieve him. No, let's get to the black hole running out of fuel.
That integral of a character, Like, honestly, his best moment. It's not his best moment, but like the one that my jaw dropped is where they go to the first planet and they come back and he's been right at the docking station the entire time and they come back and he's 23 years older. That's like the one of those moments where I'm like, holy shit, like, Oh my God, now you're starting to feel the stakes of what they're dealing with. And like, yeah, we have to do this fast.
And once they did that, that's when, like, the science started to set in. You're like, Oh my God, like this is bad because, like, you can't. You look at Romney with a Gray beard and all you do is think about Murph and Timothy Shalame slash Casey Affleck character, right. You just think about, like, his kids at home, how old they're becoming and how they're caught up already with McConaughey. It's just it's honestly a tragic moment, right? Yeah, the tragic moment with
Romney being old. Yeah, yeah, that was the turning. That was like that whole scene sequence arguing, my favorite scene in the movie when they're on that planet. And then when they get back, that was the turning point in the movie where it's like, holy crap. This isn't going to be as easy as we thought. We're not going to visit three planets. Not going to be. Yeah, like we just lost Wes Bentley, another rip. Like he finally gets a quote, UN quote bigger movie here for
himself. A bigger role I should say, and he just dies in the 1st, at the end of the first act or the beginning of the second act. Like it's classic. Tough, tough. Go for him. Classic W Bentley. But overall, like, you're right. Like that was like the moment to hit off the audience and obviously the characters. That was like, all right, we got
to get going here. It's like those moments though, like the jaw-dropping ones, but like the line where it's like, hey, we have to view time as we view like all these necessary resources like like we oxygen food. Like time is a resource like that that is something that we have a finite amount of and we need to like keep that in mind that you don't really sense it until that moment. But this is like a movie that has so many spectacular.
Visuals inside of it and like other times where I was just blown away. Obviously you think of literally, I think Interstellar, everyone would say you think of visual effects immediately and whether it be initially with Anne Hathaway with her hand like becoming a blur, right. And like Christopher Nolan, What I love about Christopher Nolan, he thinks his audience, he takes his audiences as smart. Right. Like he doesn't just tell them
something. They might be confused at one point, but it's gonna be explained later. Like, you have to have patience with Christopher Nolan. Like you might be looking at Anne Hathaway. Like, why is her hand like a black sludge right now? Like, what the hell is going on? But then, like, you have that
amazing payoff. When you get to 2 and 2 1/2 hours later and McConaughey is the one that is moving her hand when he's in a different time dimension, like it's those type of moments where you're like God damn that was amazing. And that when the book scenes and everything, but the way that he captures the black holes in this movie, whether on the periphery or going inside the black hole, I don't know how the hell. He designed what the black hole
was going to look like. He must have talked to so many different astrophysicists in preparation for this. It should have done a little more backward research on that. But to me, I have never seen a scifi space movie attempt to attack a black hole. Usually we are amazed by just, oh, we're inside the space shuttle, They're floating. Oh my God, that looks so cool. Oh, they went outside the space shuttle. Oh, they reenacted someone
stepping on the moon. And then Chris Nolan says I'm going to make a like a scifi space epic. And we're going into black holes, like, we are just going to do something that has never been seen on the big screen. And he really amazed audiences. And that's what we're talking about. He'll dip into different genres, but he's going to give you something that is going to absolutely blow your mind, right?
And you're going to want to like, tell your friends about it. Did you have that, like, similar type of spectacle feeling when you're seeing this film compared to others like scifi epics? Yeah, because, like, you know, this movies. Has its slow moments, but usually, like when you see like, like Gravity, the Sandra Bullock movie, that movie's slow. And The space, when they do the shots of space. Yes, it's incredible, whatever. But like, it's not like and like breathtaking.
But it's not like, holy crap, I'm on the edge of my seat here. It's like docking station, you know, the Zimmer scores going, but then like, it stops. Like it like sometimes like there's like they they they cut the sound when they're in space. Do you really feel the effect of the visuals?
You know like they you really get that intensity from either the score but without the score even just because it's so stunning and the black hole is a great example or the bookshelf 5 fifth dimensional humans created for Cooper or whatever. Like that's what you feel that so much more in this movie versus other scifi movies like a gravity that's just like stars, you know. Yeah. It's just they're just they're floating and they're moving in
cool fashions. But like, I felt like I was being hypnotized when I looked at that black hole. Every single time I saw it and it looked so like scary and intimidating and like you see like how small McConaughey feels when he enters it and that a man who's appeared so fearless and all knowing throughout the film, like he doesn't make a wrong turn when he becomes so unsure of himself. I think it goes into the performance as well from McConaughey. It's really special stuff.
We talked about the score a little bit. We'll go into more like visuals in a SEC because obviously it's going to be a. Moments that we return to when we talk about Interstellar. But Hans Zimmer? Wow, this score nominated for an Oscar. We know Hans Zimmer doesn't get an Oscar until Dune, which he won for last year. A much deserved Oscar way too long. But we did get a score. He scooted. An Oscar.
An Oscar win. You had me thinking, personally, this is my favorite Chris Hans Zimmer score ever. It's just something about it. It feels like you are on the precipice, precipice of something spectacular, Like it feels like it's a sense of wonderment that goes with it, but also tension and stakes that go with the score. And it's something that I will listen to whether I'm getting.
Piped up to go to the gym or something I'm studying for like a test for or trying to get something done that I know needs to get done. It can be. It's like a really versatile one in my eyes and also amazing like on TikTok and short form video. I think it works every single time, but do you have this as one of the best Hans ever? Scores of all time. It's my #2, maybe one, it's my one. Yeah, I'm gonna. See the The Dark Knight that just hits every time, you know.
And the ending to The Dark Knight and when the score hits one last time. I just think of that all the time. But this honestly should be number. 1. Because it encapsulates this movie so perfectly and it's everything I've said, but it's also like just what's going on, you know, like the emotional weight between the characters and then the score hits like, oh, he did it, Zimmer did it to. Did it to us again or like just when it's space, it captures space so well.
The score, it sounds so stupid to say, but it's like, oh, that's a that would be good for a space adventure movie, you know, boom. The score hits like it's it captures so many different elements of the characters of this story, the different plot lines going on. It just hits them those beats so perfectly. And again, it's like, it's just an epic score. It's it's at an epic level because this movie is. An epic in length, but also in scale.
Right. It also like when the first time it really hits and I notice it, it's where they're actually on Earth and they have the drone that goes flying through the air and all of a sudden Cooper cuts through with his kids the cornfields. And then it's the sense of wonder that it provides. And like to me, it's something about it. It goes well with like the Cooper character where it's this guy. In a world that has abandoned science, he still believes in
it, right? And he doesn't believe in like they talk about, like ghosts or magic. He believes in like science and proving and having hypothesis and trying to prove those hypothesis. And it seems like you're on the press bit like the score just gives you a sense of you're trying to achieve something, right? There's something on the other side. And like when it's that first time, you know you're in for a ride. You know, courtesy of Hans Zimmer.
But I was curious, Ricky, if we can just go on a quick tangent like you mentioned The Dark Knight as one of your your favorite scores. I think maybe we should create a Mount Rushmore of Hans Zimmer scores. And if you want to put The Dark Knight on there potentially, I think we can keep in the discussion. But I have Interstellar as a lock on the Mount Rushmore. What would be in your one nomination if you could, to put on the Mount Rushmore aside from those two films?
Probably Inception. It would probably have to be Inception. That one's very similar to Interstellar or just captures that like dream that that dream state, but also Chaos. It's so good. And so when you mentioned the surveillance drone scene and the score hits there when they're going through the cornfield fantastic in the Inception, it's like when like that they're in France and then they realize they're in a they're in a dream. Elliot Page in a dream and the score hits when everything's
exploding there. It's just like, holy crap, the score was amazing. Or it's like JGL fighting in the hallway, then it's like done, done, it's. Like at the end when Killian Murphy's like make trying to make a decision at the end, yeah, that's like and it felt like that score was going on for like 45 minutes. It felt like the weight of the world was on these characters. Yes, like he provides the stakes just by the sound that he provides. That's crazy.
That's good. I think Inception should be up there there. But what's weird about is like doing it for me is not on the Mount Rushmore, you know, it's it's just so different and it's so like warrior battle like type of sounds he's using totally different sounds. I don't think anyone has ever put together right or mixed together for a film, but it's somehow fits perfectly, but it's not something I find myself returning to. I need let it sit with me for a bit.
In terms of most iconic like dude, Pirates of the Caribbean, bro. Yeah. That's got to be one of the most recognizable scores in movie history. And talk about you see, you hear that use picture like a drunk Jack Sparrow running with his hands above his head. You know that's what you think
of immediately. Or him like grabbing on the sails like on the Black Pearl and saying let's ride and then Lion King, like Lion King's. Also to me, I think of like Pride Rock and I think of Simba at the end. Like rising in slow motion, right? It's just to me it's he just knows how to capture big moments better than any. Like composer of all time.
Like John Williams has amazing themes that will can like be prevalent throughout a movie, but Hans Zimmer can capture an exact moment and elevate it better than any other composer ever seen. Yeah, I I think John Williams, like, understands like the movie itself and like what this movie needs. Like, just the generic, like basic. This is Indiana Jones, right? This is Star Wars Zimmer's like, now let me just breakdown every individual scene and just alter the score so you feel.
That yeah, Murph thinks that her father left her to die or they're trying to get the surveillance drone. But this is the first throwing scene in the movie. We got to get your heart race pumping as we're giving you a lot of expositions, dystopian society. Like you go more in the weeds than like a John Williams, I would say. So I I love that. Take that. And it's the correct take. I love that. Yeah, and then? Hans was just a goat man, like like gladiator.
We didn't even bring up which is 1. Of the I was, I was going to bring up a couple others. Gladiator Man of Steel I love. Man of Steel is fantastic. Sherlock Holmes I think has a fantastic score as well. But my personal Mount Rushmore I'll say is I'll go Interstellar, I'll go Pirates of the Caribbean Lion King I. Thought you were going to say Dunkirk? Dunkirk's up there, too, and that's a huge part of the movie, a huge technical movie. And it's.
I like I'll get to Dunkirk in a second, but The Dark Knight means so much to me. Yeah, so Dunkirk there. I like you so I can talk about Dunkirk a little bit. Dunkirk so different, though, than other like Nolan movies. I understand why people don't like it as much because like McConaughey is a strong lead to hold down the movie, right. And then. DiCaprio is a strong lead to hold down Inception, right? Batman is strong enough character to hold down like The Dark Knight trilogy.
It's Dunkirk. It's more about like the event itself, more so than the actual performances from the characters, right? It feels like more like a tribute than like a fantastic like insertion into the filmography of Christopher Nolan. It feels like more like this is the movie that Dunkirk deserves and what it means to maybe right a Christopher Nolan who is from England if I'm not mistaken. Right.
So it's like something that means a lot to him and I think he wanted to do justice, right and he did it in the best way by taking his technical abilities and what he does with IMAX and what he do is sound and put it towards right. Some kick ass like that makes England look amazing, right with those dog fighting see those dog fight sequences right like in the air or it's like the the civilians of England coming over
to like save these soldiers. It just feels like more like a full like a. A tribute then, like, as I said before, like the huge spectacle that like, we usually get or typically. Yeah, it's almost more like a documentary almost. But like, you know, showing the scenes inside the documentary, like, oh, like if they're doing a World War 2 Dunkirk documentary, they can't, they don't have they knock me footage, but they're trying to explain something that happens. They use like fake people.
Like it's like kind of doing that. Like it's. About like the team, not one person, right? That's why it's like. Like it's about the allies. It's not just about like one person being the hero, like it's about like the full effort that went into it. So you can't just have like one guy leading the movie. That's why Tom Hardy's in a mask. Killian Murphy is just like abandoned soldier, like there is not like Fion Whitehead's a relatively unknown actor because like the relatively unknown
people. Or just like like like everyday common folk that are just like being thrust into this impossible situation. You know, so I think it made sense for the casting. But I understand why it's not like one of those movies people like return to in the filmography. Yeah, that's why, for those reasons. That's why it's lower on my no one rankings, my personal rankings. But again, technically, it's stunning.
It's it's amazing. That's why those Tarantino comments about it, like, oh, like that makes sense. But for me, it's just like you don't have someone that holds down the movie or that you can cling on to, you know, like you can cling on to Mack McConaughey or if you don't, if you don't feel as. In touch with that character, you can go to Anne Hathaway. You know, I I think both of them just give powerhouse performances and Dunkirk, we
don't have that, you know? And then knowing movies, yes, it's about the visuals most of the time and the story itself. And in Dunkirk those do play. But you need people to execute in the movie, you know, with the performances to help you connect to the audience and elevate, eventually elevate the movie. I just don't think Dunkirk has that. I agree. OK, performances you brought up like this does have strong performances.
We talked about McConaughey and how great he is and like this era that he's going through and why he was the great anchor for this film. You know who I thought was really awesome in this movie was Murph as a child, played by Mackenzie Foy. I thought, this is some of the best child acting I've seen. I don't like, honestly maybe ever like seeing the. Connection that her and McConaughey had, it makes it all the more heartbreaking when they separate from one another, right?
And she is such a rootable character from the gecko because she is someone that believes in science. And Speaking of hateable characters, the teacher in this movie has never been a more punchable like character where she's saying when she said like the moon landings were were were fabricated. Right. And then she's teaching that to the kids because they don't want to fund NASA anymore. They moved on. And she, she truly believes that the moon landings were
fabricated. It's like those type of people. This is when, like, the theory started to come up again. This is like Twitter starts to make a turn and then it becomes people having like the most outlandish takes on the moon landing and space exploration. So I technically blame Christopher Nolan for Kyrie Irving's comment. But the kid was awesome. That was the point. Like the kid, the kid was the kid was awesome.
I I liked her and I thought it was a great through line to Jessica Chastain. I truly believe that's like if Murph grew up, she became Jessica Chastain. Like I thought it was a great through line. And the same thing goes for like Shalame into Casey Affleck's character. I just thought it was perfectly acted from where one character the next. I think it's an underrated aspect of the movie. Yeah, the castings were perfect. You know, like, it's really hard
to cast young actors. We talked about on the iPod a lot. Shalame was fine, you know, Angsty teen. And then going into puberty, but I'm fine. But the girl was really to stand up because she had a lot more to do. And she did incredibly well, persuading us like, hey, there's a huge, real connection here with her father.
So they lost their mother, you know, and now they just relate to each other in this dystopian society where they both are outcast and they find the similarities between each other, obviously, versus like Timothy Shaw may just like, you know. Just another farmer, you know? So like that is just like a huge part of this movie. The parents teacher conference. I'm glad you brought it up. I was going to bring it up.
Obviously it can't be my favorite scene because doesn't have like the visuals or the big, you know, importance. But it is my favorite scene. Like kind of I love rewalking. Human like this dude is, despite being a genius, right? Like the McConaughey character and how likeable he is from the get go and what a great daddy is.
I just love watching that scene and then like her trying to the teacher, trying to persuade him like that the Apollo missions were fabricated and then the county's like, oh, what's your waistline, 3233? And like you're going to judge my kid off of 1 number, but I can't judge your own ass. Like, it's just like it was a perfect.
Like some summation of Mcconaughey's performance a little bit because had a little emotion at the end with the MRI and saying how important it is to have those stupid machines. But also has the clever, the wit, the quick wit of the McConaughey that we know from like a Wolf of Wall Street and that charisma. And like when he walks in the room and everything, like, it's fantastic.
So I don't know, like that is just one of my favorite scene in this movie and I love rewatching that, like if you go for rewatch ability scenes. Like that's up there for me. It just felt like that moment you could have imagined, like a moment where Matthew McConaughey wrote it in his memoir, You know, like the way he responded in the lines that he had. But then, like, when he goes back to the truck and he said she merv says what happened? And he's like, I got you
suspended. And she's like, what's it like? It just it's a special type of relationship that you saw. And I think one of the best acted moments of this movie, and it got me emotional. I was like shockingly like. On the verge of, like, shedding a tear. It's the goodbye between Murph and McConaughey.
Like with McConaughey. Like you automatically think of the heartbreaking moments when he's on the shuttle looking at the videos from Shalame as it as like his son saying he finished second in his class, but then he has to let him go eventually. And then you think of like him and behind the bookshelf, you know, in the time dimension saying, Murph, don't let me go, Don't let me go. Like, really? Like really heartfelt and a little over the top at points,
but still amazing. It's that moment, I think, that was established in the beginning, where he is leaving and driving away through the dusk in the court, like through the cornfields, and he is like holding back tears, right? His eyes are watering to an extent, where it's like it's the it's it feels like it is like at the brim of a cup of water and if you tap it once it's just going to come flooding out. It's like the most impressive emotional acting.
It's up there with the most impressive ever seen. You know it just it with him driving the truck with the one hand you make you on it. You kind of think of like the McConaughey, like Lincoln commercials, right? But imagine he's just on the verge of tears the entire time and like, just waiting to erupt it. It's such a heartbreaking moment because it's the last time he sees his kid until his kids 98 years old.
The the Lincoln commercials is like that's just Matthew County driving to Lincoln. But here it's like this is American County, but acting. You know, the one hand on the wheel, you know, that's, that's what I mean. Right. And yeah, the one I had that written down in my notes too, just like when he lifts up the blanket to see, you know, maybe she's there. That's that's great character. Details though. Yeah, but like that's like, but that's what we know no one for.
That's why no one's like our guy like my guy. Like you know, these little things that they say or do. They always come back and like not in a like some in a subtle. So in an obvious way but you know like the obvious ones are like the big hitters, the big the plot beats. But like the littlest ones passwords, like no one is so careful and and he is specific and everything he does. Everything's meant for a reason. The time on the clock or a watch
everything. There's a reason behind everything he writes and is on the screen. And it's done that emotional aspect. It does circles around Inception in my eyes. Like to me, that is where Inception falls. Like, I have no emotional stakes when I watch Inception. Like I don't feel anything for Dom Cobb's wife.
I don't like think anything any like like it's great that he reunites with his kids at the end of the film, but it's nowhere near the satisfaction of seeing Mcconaugh, he returned to his daughter in Interstellar like that. Get you going that that's where it's like this three hour runtime in this jargon that we had to sit through you want you you you had that moment you had that happy ending despite like the repercussions that came as a result like that move this has
that as like a Nolan movie. It's not all doom and gloom. It does end in a way where the audiences can go home happy and satisfied. That's why I think it has that over inceptions just emotionality just hits in a different way and it gets underrated at this point Interstellar. Yeah, for sure. This movie is like now underrated. But again, just if you rewatch, it just gets better every time you watch it, even though it it's like known for the twist, right? Which it just makes it even
better. Did you feel like you got caught up in the jargon a little bit, You know, did you feel like that held back your experience at all when they talk about when you, when he first goes to NASA talking about all these Lazarus missions and these astronauts and this?
Gravitational theory and when we go talk about black holes with Rami and then we talk about time dimensions, when he's stuck in the different time dimensions inside the black hole, do you think it held back your viewing experience at? All in some aspects, yes. Like in the first act, I thought it was fine for the most part. The one thing in the first act, like before they jump into space.
So the 1st 45 minutes in the movie, the one thing I kept coming back and he's like, what's wrong with gravity? Things are falling. We're all still on the ground. What is wrong with Earth's gravity right now? And that's what I couldn't get. And they must have said gravity 1000 freaking times and like in the in the room and it's like, oh, it's not a ghost, it's gravity. I'm like. Everywhere is gravity, he goes In the time dimension he goes like gravity.
I'm like, what do you mean what does it mean? Like, I don't get that. Ass yet it's still to this day. Yeah, to this day I don't get it. There's other things throughout like with Rami, the black hole, 5th dimensional beings that like I get, I get Interstellar and I get like what? Just for no one wrote. But it's just still, it's just like, you know it's like those little X that I just don't like, you know, like come on, like future beings like what do we It just doesn't have a good taste
in your whole. Movie at the end where it's like, wow, we have a lot on our plate already. Right. And like it's a time travel movie, but like the reason why it's so good is that it's so big in scale but grounded with its story in the connection with either Murph and her father is Coop or in Hathaway's character looking for planet Edmonds. You know, like there's always some sort of emotional weight here in connection, but yet we have a time travel 5th dimensional humans.
That's why I'm glad it wasn't aliens though, because they always felt like aliens or other being set up. The black hole Gargantua, right? Is that that's the right name of it. Gargantua. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like they think aliens or other being set it up and to have it being like other humans doing so. I like that more. You know, to be it's like there's enough with wormholes, black holes, time jumps that like I can't deal with aliens. That's just too much on my plate right now.
Like I I can't deal with my my brain will explode right to for be like a future McConaughey or a future like astronaut. I believe that a little bit more because of the time jump that's established earlier, right? It's it's kind of like something you just buy into as you're going because of spectacles, like you just want to see more, you know? And even in that time dimension, you may not fully understand the gravity and everything happening.
It just comes to like the idea of we're talking about Mission Impossible movies where it's like the plot. Sometimes they'll say things you can pay attention if you want, but more about let's look at the stunts happening, I think. At times in this movie, Nolan doesn't really care if you understand what they're saying, right? Doesn't really, doesn't really, doesn't play a vital part of your viewing experience. Like, we're going to try and
make it as accurate as possible. Scientifically, it might break your brain for a second, but let's just watch us go through a black hole, right? Or let's watch some incredible visuals in this time dimension of Matthew McConaughey falling endlessly, you know? And that's where. That's where it's the Nolan tropes that come in or the criticisms where it's like this dialogue that pulls you out or at times this was the beginning where some of the dialogue is
inaudible, you cannot hear. And sometimes you have to either turn the volume up or I think it's intentional from Nolan that he doesn't want you to hear it because he's trying to tell you it's not important. And obviously we see that in tenant with like obviously in 20/21/2021, right, 2020. 2020
OK, yeah, that year. But yeah, when I think Tenet kind of like, takes that idea from Interstellar and runs with it to an extent where it really inhibits people's experiences, it just makes them frustrated from watching the movie. This doesn't have that in my eyes. I didn't feel frustrated afterwards. But it is in a tiny sense like inaccessible to audiences. Yeah, not much though, it doesn't. I still think at the end of the day, man like.
I think critics might might just take more weight into or put that more into like they're a negative reaction. Just because like all like literally 60% of the dialogue in this movie is trying to explain something, whether it's about Earth, why dust is here, why crops are failing. Like there's always something beginning explained to us. It's like a we're in class almost. But at the end of the day audiences like us, we take away from the movies like holy crap that was like.
Insane to watch the twist, the look, the score like the like you just take, you just leave the theater and you're like, holy crap that was a sick movie. Yeah, you're in awe of it versus like critics are like what the hell just happened, even though like simplistically you get it. Yeah, no, 100%. And like it's not a. It's not a real criticism for me because just doesn't take away from my experience. Like I I am the jaw-dropping. It doesn't take much to really
like like. Flip the switch for me like you. Like once. Once like you, I saw Gargantua. I'm like, okay. This is like one of the best things I've ever seen. Like no other space movies attempted like black holes in this fashion or to this much effort, this extent, and it's just godly when you're looking at it. Other things that stuck out during your rewatch. Wikiflex that maybe that you didn't catch the first time or maybe something that I just want to talk about as we wrap up. I'll say.
This did feel slow at times. I'll say it sometimes did. Like when they get the space 42 minutes in the movie 42 minutes, they finally get the space okay and like they're showing off basically all this, like the space sequences, right? I'm fine with it. I'm just saying. I understand. You know, we've, if you've already seen the movie and you're rewatching, it's like, all right, let's just keep going here. The three hour movie, like, I kind of want to this could have
been 2 1/2 hours really. So like, I'll just say it was slow at times for sure. But again, it was just trying to add weight to the movie, you know, add to that epicness, that scale, that huge scale. So, but on this rewatch I did, I kind of get a sense of like, yeah, let's pick it up a little bit. Yeah, they add slow moments and that's also. When it's bogged down, that's when, like those slow moments is when you felt like, OK, like I'm getting like, bogged down with the jargon a little.
Bit like, it's not like Gravity where like that whole movie is slow for the most part. And it was just a year before, which I think hurts this movie because it was such an Oscar nominated for 10 Oscars, got cinematography, got Best Director if I was a Quran. So like it's like that kind of hurts this movie. I think the next year was like, oh, we just got a space movie that did incredibly well at the box office. Sandra Bullock, George Clooney,
like. Now we have this, like I think that kind of heard this as well, just a sidebar. But yeah, like overall, yeah, just slow at times. This movie also, it's more about what's happening outside of the shuttle or the docking station. It's more about what's happening on these different planets and whenever we went to a planet I was in. I was in with that first planet with the huge tidal wave, right? And the ticking score from Hans Zimmer. Like you're running out of time.
You're running out of time. My favorite scene. Genius genius score. And to have the consequences, the stakes set early on when they lose W Bentley and then you have go back and you see Romney's 30 years older. That's like holy crap, the team is gone. But what happened? I will say it's kind of wild to me that there's four. People on this mission, the mission to save the world, the people on Earth, and there's
only four people there. I'm just thinking like, you might want to bring a bigger squad in case, I don't know, two people die right in the first two planets that you visit. That's a pretty dangerous mission that you're going on. How do you only bring 4 people? And I, in terms of storytelling, I get it because you want to make it like intimate. And you want to focus more on like maybe a McConaughey and then like his interactions with an Anne Hathaway or him with his
daughter on Earth, right. And you might not want to like have to develop all these different things because there's so much going on. But to me, it's crazy that four people are trying to save the world right now. I. Again, they sent out a twelve person mission before, once at each of the possible planets. So there was going to be a person on each of the three planets that they were going to visit, all right? Supposed to be. Supposed to be.
And as also like I I think for like when you're just going out there just this like you're you're not going to like spend years at this planet like unintended a little bit. Like you're just going to be there and be like, all right give me the data and let's go back to earth. Like you. You're just there to pick up. You're not there to stay. So like, why you need a huge squad if you're not expecting to fight anything, you're just expecting to meet somebody pick up data and go back.
Dude, it's it's you gotta you gotta expect the unexpected like you like. If you can't access the data that the Lazarus missions have, you have to be. I have all hands on deck. If you haven't gotten the data, that means shit is going wrong, you know, that's where it's like, you got to make sure, like, we have backups. You know. They don't have to be anything in the movie, put them in a different shuttle, whatever.
But to have a two men? Two person mission by the end where they have to separate and go. One man going into the black hole that is, that is, that is you. You really need the right guy. And luckily enough we were stuck with Matthew McConaughey. But you needed the right guy to be successful. That is wild to me that they chose to do that, especially when you're trying to make it as accurate as possible. Yeah, let's take four people to go into like into the black hole. That's enough.
What else? Another another little thing here. So you mentioned this takes place in 2067, Okay. Where in the United States are they? It says New York Yankees, dude, that was. The Yankees, right? And it says home of the New York Yankees. But like they clearly like there's mountain terrain. You know NASA's and driving distance so are they in Texas. But then there's again it looks very.
I don't know, like it looks like it's you're in the Rocky Mountains or Appalachians or you're in Iowa, like in cornfields. Like it really couldn't decide where in the US they were. You'd be lying if you didn't think it was like Field of Dreams immediately. Yeah, but then like, they're they're supposedly in New York, but then it's like, oh, it's a town setting. But then it's like, oh wait, there's NASA right here. And these huge Rocky Mountains, like in terrains, beautiful
views. It made no sense on a setting basis where they were. It was a made made-up spot in the US. Yeah. Geographically, it makes zero sense. I don't know why. Why did? He include the Yankees like that. To me that was just dumb. Like what? You could have made-up a team? Just make up a team, dude. Like don't confuse audiences like that.
And then like have the different stadium and this is this because it opens up a can of worms, opens up a wormhole as you might say, but it opens up a bunch of questions to be answered like that really aren't important whatsoever. What a terrible place Earth was at that time. Dude, imagine flipping over your like having dust covering
everything. And like, that's where I also was thinking Casey Affleck and Timothy Shalame, that character, him letting his kids, like, just get cancer, lung cancer, and die. It's just to me, it's like, why? Like, just because your dad's because your grandpa's buried in the back, you got to stay in this house and you already lost the kid. And then you need Topher Grace setting the place on fire. You know, like to like Italian to really drive home the point that you are killing your kids.
To me, it's like, yeah, you could be a grouch, but not killing your kids. Like, what are you talking about? And toy forget about him at the end like I don't mention. A hole in this. Movie and like at the very end when Cooper returns to Cooper station and. He doesn't ask about his son. He's. Only about I was thinking like, I mean, he must have assumed that someone's dead, but like, yeah, that never came up in conversation.
Like maybe just like he's. Only a few years older than Murph. Like, it's not crazy. Like, yeah, I don't know, it's weird how long? It's got to be effed. Yeah, for sure. But I just one other thing that was a real bot like this was actually a problem for me on the rewatch here. Ours and cases, voices like the the actual aircraft. They sound so similar and they also sound like Matt Damon at
the same time. They're all, they're all like it was way too they need to make it more robotic or something. It was way too confusing. I honestly thought at times it goes a cast member. So you but you were also confusing. Like that's a huge difference between Damon and his motives versus Atars. Well, like so, like I was. Just the greatest non like Star Wars. Like robot that we've.
Had dude the long planet scene when it's app like carrying Anne Hathaway and just absolutely moving like insane. No wonder it was in the marines but. It felt like Star Wars a little bit when he has like the comedic relief, he's like 90% honesty and then at the end where he's like has the basically transmitting like TARS is in like his data into a different into a different machine, right McConaughey, he's like 65%, he's a make that 60% comedy.
It's just really awesome. Supporting character, but continue. Yeah. And you felt like that weight when like at the end when he's like, yeah, give me the power source. Like I'll fix him. And like basically saying, like, he could. He offered him a new one, but he goes like, no, I want this one, basically. But no, what I was trying to say, like, it sounded like the actor Matt Damon was voicing tars like it's for me, it was like weird and like, so Josh Stewart, who's in tenant.
A bad guy in tenant and is in a couple other movies here, The Finest Hours and whatnot. He voiced Case the aircraft and Bill Irwin voiced TARS. I just, I don't know, I needed something more robotic. Like we know, like if if like C3PO is talking, we know that C3PO, even though we're not looking at him. When TARS was talking and they weren't showing TARS, I honestly at times was like, who's talking right now? We got to get a better actor than Bill Irwin to be voicing TARS.
Well, he did a good job. I just couldn't. Did a good job. But, like, I feel like it'd be nice if we got a more recognized. Like we have so many frequent collaborators with Chris for Nolan. You can tell me Kelly Murphy wasn't available just to voice TARS. Come on. But the honesty? Or like W you should have been West Bentley's. Care I I know I didn't focus. I didn't really get that as
much. As you. But I understand what you're saying because they're communicating so much, you know, with the transmitters, you know. You can't just have them all be human voices like when they're not humans. You guys sound a little more Robtronic, so I don't. Care like how realistic it would be in 2067, like you got to make it like distinguishable for the audience. Yeah, OK. Yeah. So that's your beef. What do you think about all them scores?
Like, unless you have something else to add, I think we should jump to it. What do you give Interstellar on your rewatch? This is a tough one because I love it so much. Again, like I think we went over some of the nitpicks that are the bigger ones related to the
plot and exposition and stuff. But like I do love this movie and I do think the Gravity aspect being the year before being an Oscar darling there and I think just the no one ISM of it all, just I kind of heard it on a. On a macro level versus now, I just feel like it's age so well versus like a gravity as an age well I I'll give this a 90. Wow, I really like this movie. I originally like if I after the first watch probably would have only done like 85.
But I was really impressed on this rewatch. Just the actual performances and everything just encompassed together. Wow, I'm going over the 88 like. Yeah, this movie just the what really stood out the second time is me. Me feeling something after watching it, right? It's just me feeling that it was anchored by the emotionality display, all the science that surrounds it, right? It does.
You kind of get lost in the jargon, but it all comes down to it. A lot of it does have to do alongside the spectacle, power, math and McConaughey. One thing that really stuck out too as we wrap up is that Mackenzie Foy who plays Young Murph. Hasn't gone on to be that successful of an actor and obviously she's still very young.
But Timothy Shalame, you would have never guessed based on this performance that he would have the start to the career that he has over these last couple years like he is him combined with Casey Affleck are the ultimate buzzkill of character they like. They are just like vibe killer, party killer, right. I think I would have thought she was going to have this insane run afterwards or be like, oh Next up.
But instead it's this kid, right, who goes on to become the next Leonardo DiCaprio and you just didn't see it at the time. To me, that just stuck out immensely on the rewatch as well. Any other thoughts, Tricky folks? Now I just, again, I'm through Oppenheimer, the huge cast. So I don't know if we'll get like a shocking cameo in Oppenheimer, but. No, I'm. I'm really pumped for that. I'm seeing it this Thursday. Before Barbie.
Yes, before Barbie. But yes, I am doing the Barbenheimer same day seeing both of them Cannot wait. Christopher Nolan, is this the Oscar? Is this is what is this the time for him? That's going to be the big question. Yeah. And I wish I was doing the Barbenheimer same day like you were. Unfortunately, I have class. I won't be able to do so, but I will be seeing as much as like it.
Pains me to say I'll be watching Barbie on Thursday and then I'll be watching Oppenheimer on Friday and maybe it's okay that I can sit with one one night at a time. But in hindsight I've been looking forward to this day for a couple years now and the fact that I'm not going to be able to experience it the same way you are, it doesn't sit right with me. But Ricky flicks that's our review can you preview what we got. So we got Wednesday, we got a draft coming Friday we got check
up and then. Tell us what's going on so Wednesday, what kind of draft we're doing? Barbenheimer Draft We're drafting all the actors in both Barbie and Oppenheimer. Excellent. And it's going to be sick. Barbieheimer draft. Check up on Friday and then Sunday's the Yeah on Friday then Monday's the day Oppenheimer Barbie double reveal. We have to do both. Yeah. No, no, I haven't. It's the Barbenheimer pot. It's the Barbenheimer pot, right? We're gonna try and get a guest on.
We'll see what happens on that Monday. We might even drop it Sunday night, right? Just to make sure to give you something special. Lots of. It's gonna be hot in the streets. So be on the lookout Sunday night for Barbenheimer. A lot of hype going in. Check up as usual on Friday. We'll see what's going on with the SAG after a strike and see if there's any update at this
point. We got some Guillermo del Toro news coming with Frankenstein with Andrew Garfield, Mia Goth, Oscar Isaac. A lot of good stuff still coming despite the strike, so stay locked in. Make sure you're following us on whichever platform you prefer to listen to. Make sure you raise five stars and subscribe to the pod and subscribe to our YouTube as well. If you're watching on there,
like comment. And if we if you comment, we'll comment back, we'll have to talk to y'all and then social media at the Driving pod on Twitter and Instagram stay up to date so before we can flex the doctor row until next time we will smell ya.
