Here's the dilemma: I saw Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was 12 years old, and to say it was a formative experience is an understatement. The film fundamentally changed the way I thought about science fiction, narrative story-telling, and the nature of film itself. Not that I was cognizant of all of that at the time -- I was 12 fer chrissake -- but something in that film set the switch that eventually led to the obsessive film nerd you see before you today.So when Christopher Nolan lards copious references to that most hallowed of space epics throughout his own epically-proportioned Interstellar -- robots that look like monoliths; resonant organ chords that echo the last few seconds of Also Sprach Zarathustra, no less than two, maybe even three, stargate-like experiences, etc, etc. -- it's hard not to regard it as not so much heartfelt homage as a throwing down of the gauntlet. I was able to work my way around that impulse, and my review of the film for Jim Freund's Hour of the Wolf is able to regard the project for what it is, as well as what it aspires to. Click on the player to hear the review, or right-click the title to download.
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