It’s 12 a.m. and you’re on the hood of your car, looking up at the biggest most beautiful screen of all; the sparkling clear night sky. Your thoughts expand and you lose yourself to the curiosity of your mind.
Enter Gravity. Alfonso Cuarón’s answer to Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 phenomena 2001: A Space Odyssey.
As a blockbuster film that takes place 99.9% in space, there are no lasers, no extra-terrestrials, and no intergalactic war against the empire. This is the most entertaining space movie of the year.
Gravity presents us with a minimal cast that slowly decreases in size and an emotionally staggering story regarding hope, moving on and the struggle of humankind.
Medical engineer Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is on her first shuttle mission in space with the accompaniment of veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney). When a Russian missile strike on a dead satellite causes a chain reaction forming a haze of space debris, it contacts and destroys Stone and Kowalsky’s shuttle. Tethered to nothing but each other, Stone and Kowalsky embark on a journey through the black abyss of space and venture through the most exhilarating and emotional ride of their lives, with hope to reach the little blueberry we’ve all come to know as home.
The performances in the film are stellar, most notably Sandra Bullock who gives us the most heart wrenching execution of her career. The direction from Cuarón is majestic and the special effects demand us to witness this spectacle on the big screen.
Here is a film that is meshed together profoundly, from an unflinching story to a beautifully eerie soundtrack.
Cuarón has a catalogue like no other, creating movies that move us and open our minds. His breakthrough Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mother Too) gained him massive critical and underground success. In 2004, Cuarón went on to direct the most mature and spectacular Harry Potter film, The Prisoner of Azkaban, although the franchise collapsed after taking a different route from Cuarón’s vision.
In 2006, he released the groundbreaking Children of Men, which has recently been hailed as one of the best films of the last decade.
The year is 2013 and we’ve been granted another spectacle. Don’t miss it.