Watched: Gravity
This was brilliant, and I mean that in the old-school sense of the word - there is so much technical mastery on display here that it’s a marvel and a joy to watch. It’s a film that convinced me to like Sandra Bullock, that made my legs ache from how often they would tense up, and felt like a thrill ride throughout without ever losing the emotional beats.
A lot of stories surrounding this film focused on how the technology required for this film to exist had to catch up to Alfonso Cuarón’s vision; it’s worth mentioning that when we talk about catching up, we’re talking about creating as immersive an experience as possible. This film relied heavily on post-production and animation sequences - we know that - but where the film excels is in convincing you that everything you’re watching is utterly real.
The camera (virtual sometimes, real augmented by CG at others) never stops moving, and what results from that is something that feels incredibly kinetic - there are several shifts from frenzied action to soft meditation in the film, but never total stillness. It’s hard to stop moving entirely in space.
The whole film is augmented powerfully by a score from Steven Price, a man with only two composing jobs under his belt (the other being The World’s End, where he stepped in whenever Edgar Wright wasn’t conjuring up nostalgia with songs from the 90s). It doesn’t show - it perhaps helps that he’s worked with Hans Zimmer and Howard Shore before, but it’s a masterwork from start to finish, not afraid to bring in melodies despite all the on-screen tension.
Performance-wise, this was Sandra Bullock’s film through and through - Clooney’s character is important, but the emotional heart and core of the film remained in Bullock’s court throughout. She never overplays the character, and it’s one that I’ve never seen her play before; her sometimes-overwhelmed but aggressively determined scientist is a far cry from the accidental racist she played in The Blind Side.
If there’s one weak link, it has to be the script, which does its best work when it gets out of the way and allows faces and visuals to do the job. There is one emotional hook in particular that treads the line on the edge of cloying, and missteps once or twice; all that said, it never detracts enough to break immersion.
I saw this in 3D on an IMAX screen, and while I’d acknowledge that the latter is often an impossibility, seeing this in 3D at a cinema rather than waiting for the home release is a must. This film demands scale, and you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’re waiting to see it on TV. It’d still be fantastic reduced to that size, but there’s more merit in seeing this blown up than usual. Watch this. Right now.