Youth (2015)

I didn't really get this comedy-drama from director Paolo Sorrentino. Maybe I am not old enough to appreciate youth or Youth. There are lots of metaphors and I just couldn't follow all of them. I'm not sure what to make of the ending when Fred conducts his "Simple Song #3." The music and lyrics are both quite simple, but it is a delightfully beautiful song. Soprano Sumi Jo gives a dazzling performance. All of the main actors give strong performances. They get to speak their minds in monologues that allow them to shine. Jane Fonda gets just one scene towards the end but she plays up her inner diva.

The film has some dazzling images. Filmed on location at Waldhaus Films hotel in Switzerland, the scenery is breathtaking. The garden has a circular turntable that hosts nightly performances. The movie opens with a song (reminiscent of Florence and the Machine) filmed while rotating. One of the more memorable images is of a performer creating a large bubble. And there's a great scene in which Caine imagines conducting a herd of cows as he sits on a rock atop a hill. 

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

Kingsman is to spy movies as Guardians of the Galaxy is to superhero movies.  It is raucous fun, pure action, and unapologetic in its parody of 007.  It is slick and stylish and fraught with graphic comical violence.  Amidst the slew of spy movies we get nowadays (though admittedly not in quite the numbers we get superhero movies), it is refreshing to find a film that can poke fun and lighten the mood of the typical modern spy movie a la dark and serious Daniel Craig.  The interplay between Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson is so over the top.  You must take the movie for what it is and just enjoy. 

Interstellar (2014)

Christopher Nolan makes some really special movies.  The unique ideas that he comes up with are always thrilling, mind blowing and thought provoking.  This is no exception.

Interstellar presents some really ambitious, out-there science fiction (in science fiction, you just have to roll with it).  Granted, some of the ideas are unbelievable, especially as you get further into the movie, but I feel like I followed it up to the last 20 minutes or so.  Without giving too much away, the story falls apart a bit at the conclusion.  Nonetheless, the film triumphs at integrating powerfully emotional scenes and human drama with a confusing and complex plot.  

On the creativity front, I was most impressed by the conception of the planets that they visit.  It's hard for us to imagine what the environment of other planets might be like, and Nolan shows us two interesting, well conceived theoretical planets.  The robots are not anthropomorphic, rather they are made up of four bars, that can arrange into different useful formations.  Perhaps the wackiest creative freedoms were taken in the physical representation of higher dimensions.

The visuals are stunning and are especially incredible in the IMAX 70mm format.  The visual effects, especially when in the emptiness of space, or in the unreal environments of the planets, or looking in a black hole or a worm hole, are breathtaking.

Hans Zimmer, as always, has composed a magnificently fitting score for the film.  With the backdrop of empty space, or the varied environments of the different planets, or the expansive corn fields on Earth marred by dust storms, Zimmer's score adapts and shines.

Interstellar features a star-studded cast, from frequent Nolan collaborator Michael Caine, to Hollywood's current it-man Matthew McConaughey.  McConaughey's character and dialogue resemble the soft philosophical ramblings that we've come to know him for in the Lincoln ads and True Detective. Anne Hathaway is also excellent, though she has way too much makeup for someone going to lonely outer space.  I appreciated the casting of Mackenzie Foy as a young Jessica Chastain.  The resemblance is uncanny and Foy proved to be a very capable young actress.

In summary, despite some problems with the plot and the science, Interstellar is a solid film that truly embodies the magic of the movies, featuring imagination, spectacle, and pure entertainment.