by Joseph Rossi
Gravity is why people go to the movies. It is an amazing experience that fires up the imagination and literally leaves you gasping for air. It is visual masterpiece made by a director known for walking the line between genius and audacity. In 1967, Stanley Kubrick shook the world with 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 1977 George Lucas gave us something fresh and new with Star Wars. Now in 2013, Alfonso Cuaron takes us further within the possibly of cinema and made a film for the ages.
The film is not original in its concept. It’s the standard Hollywood premise, the “everything goes wrong” scenario. What is original is its presentation. Cuaron uses every trick in the book to put us miles above the earth. Never at one moment did I feel like I was watching actors glide around a set, never at all was I watching anything phony like that. I was in outer space and for a filmmaker to create such a feeling is a filmmaker that knows exactly what he is doing.
Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star as astronauts on a routine space walk that turns disastrous. Bullock’s Stone is the rookie while Clooney’s Kowalski is the seasoned veteran. Both are excellent. Bullock is primed for a heck of an awards season because she carries the film with a performance of extreme mental and physical complexities. But in all honesty the true stars of the film are the people behind the scenes.
The effects work is some of the best I have ever seen. For 90 minutes I sat there, stunned, asking myself how did they do that because the work is so mind bogglingly complex and beautiful. The great cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezski (Sleepy Hollow, Tree of Life) uses all his powers to meld the effects work with his lighting scheme and it is truly wonderful. All the elements truly come together. See it on the biggest screen possible. This is one movie that’ll be studied and reflected on for years.
