A Christopher Nolan masterpiece turns 10

Christopher Nolan has a lot of movies that people love. Especially when you get into his Batman trilogy. But one of his original films turns 10 years old this year and it still remains a classic for fans of the director.

The film itself is Interstellar, Nolan’s exploration of a world on the brink of extinction and one man’s determination to save it for his children. Starring Matthew McConaughey as Cooper, our characters and their society are on the brink of collapse. After a second Dust Bowl and crop blight, food barely exists and the future is dire. Cooper goes to space to try and fix the world and create a better future for his children, Murphy (Mackenzie Foy) and Tom (Timothée Chalamet).

For all the science and the timey-whimeyness of a movie like Interstellar, what lives at the core of this Nolan movie is what makes it special. Yeah, sure, the planet where time barely movies there but you waste years of someone else’s life in an hour is cool in theory, but that’s not what draws me back to this movie over and over again.

It is the relationship between Murph and Cooper.

A story of fathers and daughters

Interstellar has a soft spot in my heart because I watched it after my father passed away. It was one of the only Christopher Nolan films I hadn’t seen and I was worried about watching after my dad passed. I heard a lot about it but wasn’t prepared. What I found was a movie that gave me connection, a father and daughter relationship that reminded me a lot of my own with my father, and an ending that still wrecks me to watch.

Murph loves her father, that’s why she is so upset when he has to leave. She doesn’t talk to him in a childish act but she is just that: A child. Her determination to find him as an adult reflects just how much she did love and appreciate Cooper for who he was.

The moments at the end of the movie when she realizes that her father was always there with her, that the dust on the shelf and the books were him communicating from a place he was stuck in? That still hits for me. Call it the old adage that those we love are still watching over us but it stayed with me and I think about it every time I think about Interstellar.

Cooper and Murph make this movie one of my favorites from Nolan but it isn’t just about the father and daughter relationship. The film also has plenty of female characters who get to use their own intelligence to try and save the world and I really loved seeing it.

Women who get to use their intelligence

Anne Hathaway plays Amelia Brand, a NASA scientist who works with Cooper to go through the wormhole to try and find a new home for mankind. Her father, John Brand (Michael Caine) is trusting in her and Cooper to find a way to save them all.

Amelia’s strength and Murphy’s tenacity are qualities that the movie praises. No one second guesses the women for their intelligence, they’re not belittled. Instead, they are both people that others turn to for guidance and help. I really loved seeing Hathaway in the role of Amelia and I think it pairs well with Jessica Chastain’s turn as an older Murphy later in the film too.

Overall, I just think that Interstellar is one of Nolan’s more captivating films and one that many claim as his best and…for good reason. So happy birthday, you beautiful film. We love you.