I just bought a ticket to see 2013’s Gravity in a couple of weeks in IMAX 3D on Britain’s biggest movie screen, with a postfilm Q&A with director Alfonso Cuarón, in honor of its 10th anniversary next month. So I’m kinda floating in zero-gee right now. Even though that evening event coincides with the opening night of London Film Festival, which means I will most likely be up hella early that very same morning for the dawn press screening of the opening-night gala film. But who needs sleep?
This is how much I love Gravity, my best film of 2013, not least for how there is nothing science-fictional about it. This is an utterly realistic low-orbit survival adventure that could very well happen tomorrow. But it’s also notable for how it creates an indelible sense of the entirety of planet Earth, not merely one particular place here or there, as Home for humanity. The urgency of how vital it is to cultivate such a feeling among us upright apes has only deepened as yet another decade has passed with almost no action on the climate crisis that is making the only world we have uninhabitable. Yeah, Gravity is also a totally gripping, uniquely heartstopping, completely captivating movie experience, too, and that’s great. But this movie is so much more important than its entertainment value, as, ahem, sky-high as it is. (Read my 2013 review.)
US: stream on Max (via Prime); rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Prime; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See Gravity at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
