This film was very interesting. In the first 5 minutes I saw Mr. Dougall playing basketball and then he got punched in the face. elev the hype: "Gravity" is as jaw-droopingly spectacular as you've heard — magnificent from a technical perspective but also a marvel of controlled acting and precise tone. This is not hyperbole: This is the best film I've seen so far this year.
I seriously have no idea how Alfonso Cuaron made this movie. I mean, I have some idea, and it involves many, many talented people in front of many, many computers. But the fact that we genuinely feel like we're watching George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in space — floating, tumbling, hurtling, clinging to each other for life — is just a mind-bogglingly impressive thing. We forget that these are A-list stars and become totally immersed in their characters' struggle to survive.
My good friend Justin Chang at Variety put it best when he said: "See it in 3D, on the biggest screen you can find." If there's an IMAX th eater near you, get there. If there isn't an IMAX th eater, hop in your car and drive to one. I saw it in plain-old 3-D and was blown away — I can't even imagine how much more mesmerizing it would have been in IMAX.
"Gravity" does everything right in ways that are both big and small. It's beautiful and horrifying, detailed yet enormous, specific yet universally relocatable. Yes, it's about how space can be a wondrous and unforgiving place but it's also about earthly human truths: love and loss, perseverance and redemption.
