Gravity (2013)

This just made a bajillion dollars and you've probably already seen it so is a plot synopsis really necessary? If you haven't seen it, stop reading this and go see it.

*      *      * 

I have literally been waiting years for this film. As a devotee of Alfonso Cuarón, I started tracking this film as soon as it was first announced. Remember when Angelina Jolie and Robert Downey Jr. were originally attached to star? I do! Remember when the release date got pushed an entire year? I remember that too. So I guess it goes without saying that I am not an impartial critic. I am hardwired to love this film. So deal with it! Anyhow...

This film is like a beautiful magic trick. And I'm not talking about some cheap, David Blaine street magic, I'm talking full-on David Copperfield! No expense is spared. You know deep down inside that they didn't actually shoot this film in space, but rather than try to figure out how they pulled it off, your brain just accepts it. And you want to know why that is? Two words: Sandra Bullock.

Sure Cuarón and Emmanuel Lubezki's visuals are stunning, but not just anyone can hold an audience's attention for as long as Sandra does here. Watching her fight to survive for 91 minutes, you absolutely get why she is a movie star. She can make you laugh just as easily as she can make you cry. Her performance is (pardon the pun) stellar.

And despite the harrowing nature of this expertly taut narrative, I have zero doubt that this film and Bullock's performance in it are on course to inspire a whole generation of kids to take up an interest in space. I don't care what Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson says. Just you wait and see!