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The Critic and the Referee are back! After a two-episode break, they’re excited to finally shift away from television in order to talk about Interstellar. Since Christopher Nolan’s latest film was officially released this past Friday, the Critic and the Referee didn’t want to wait any longer to share their opinions about it with you. Their contrasting perspectives will definitely help you to decide whether to rush out to see this film or stay at home.

Interstellar (Sci-fi/Fiction/Adventure)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan
Released on November 5, 2014 (N. America)
Released on November 7, 2014 (United Kingdom)

Plot:

In the near future, Earth is no longer able to sustain humanity. Crops are routinely ravaged by disease, dust storms scour the land, and humankind has regressed to a failing agrarian society. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former NASA test pilot and engineer-turned-farmer, lives with his family: his father-in-law, Donald (John Lithgow); his son, Tom (played as an adult by Casey Affleck); and his ten-year-old daughter, Murphy (played as an adult by Jessica Chastain)—better known as “Murph”—who believes that their house is haunted by a ghost that is trying to communicate with her. Cooper challenges Murph to prove the ghost’s existence through scientific inquiry. He later discovers that the “ghost” is actually an unknown form of intelligence that is sending them coded messages by means of gravitational waves. Those waves alter the dust on the floor of Murph’s bedroom into a binary pattern that directs them to the coordinates of a secret NASA installation led by Professor Brand (Michael Caine), formerly one of Cooper’s professors.

Brand reveals to Cooper that humanity’s current fight to survive is a losing battle, but the discovery of a wormhole orbiting Saturn has given mankind an alternative option. NASA scientists believe that extra-dimensional beings are communicating with them and have created the wormhole for humanity’s use. Cooper is recruited to pilot Endurance, an experimental spacecraft, to follow the Lazarus Mission, a series of manned capsules sent through the wormhole to survey the potential long-term habitability of a dozen planets. Once their viability is confirmed, humanity will be able to travel to the planet with the greatest potential to sustain life via NASA facilities that have been constructed on Earth to serve as gigantic space stations.

Critic – “This is not a film for everyone or the blockbuster you’ve been craving, so you must have patience.” “It’s a good film. It has its flaws…but I liked it!”

Referee – “I was bored!” “It’s like Christopher Nolan was trying to drive everything he’s ever seen in Sci-fi into 2hrs and 40mins.” “He fell short on this one.”