Interstellar (12A, 166 mins)

Interstellar (12A, 166 mins)

Director: Christopher Nolan

4 stars

There are very few directors out there who would be given a budget the size of Interstellar's for a non-franchise or non-adaptation movie.

But very few directors are Christopher Nolan, and this is 2014's most anticipated movie, and has been since it was first announced.

It's also been a fine year for Matthew McConaughey, and he caps it with the lead in this vastly ambitious sci-fi epic that's two parts magnificence to one part frustration.

He plays Cooper, a one-time pilot who is now a farmer, as are many people since a crop blight led to a world food shortage and turned many parts into a dustbowl.

But life has to go on in this near-future world for Cooper and his son and daughter. He's all about the pioneer spirit, living in a world where he's no longer able to use his skills, until he encounters a team of scientists led by Professor Brand and his daughter Amelia (Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway).

They have a plan to leave earth in order to find new inhabitable worlds since, as Brand puts it, "mankind was born on earth, it wasn't meant to die here".

This sends Cooper, Amelia and another pair of astronauts on a two-year journey to a wormhole that's been discovered near Saturn, and to whatever lies beyond that.

That's all you really need to know, because from this point in there are many thrills and surprises to be discovered in a film that's all about what we leave behind for future generations. There are echoes of 2001 in its silent, balletic space sequences, as well as in some of the more surreal imagery that Nolan unleashes in the later stages.

A lot of the time it's hard science, as actual rocket scientists come up with plans for how to save mankind.

Questions of relative time may scramble the brain, but it's done with the utmost sincerity and not without humour, which is a welcome touch.

It's not an action film, certainly not a single-minded one like Gravity, so that shouldn't be expected, but when Nolan does throw some in, he runs with ideas and visuals that make for jaw-dropping sequences.

For all its spectacle though, it's the immense force of the human drama that gives Interstellar its impact.

The implications and the scale of what we're dealing with here can be difficult to contemplate, and when it concentrates on its profound examination of humanity, it approaches brilliance.

In most regards, this is exactly what we should be demanding from our blockbusters. It's conceived with intelligence and far-reaching intent and executed with immense skill, yet it never quite achieves that moment of transcendence that it seems to threaten for the first two hours.

There's plenty of room for trimming in its much too generous running time, and Nolan throws into the mix the kinds of characters and plot developments you might expect from lesser filmmakers, undoing a lot of good work in a final hour that at times can be sluggish and ponderous.

So the year's most anticipated film has turned out to be a good one, at times a very good one. But in the end does it really amount to much more than you might find in the very best episodes of Star Trek?

See it if you liked: Gravity, 2001, Inception

The Skeleton Twins (15, 93 mins)

Director: Craig Johnson

4 stars

In supporting roles, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader have been stealing films together for years (Knocked Up, Adventureland), and it's great to see them have the chance to shine as the leads of this wonderful comedy drama.

Their perfectly judged performances are at the heart of it, playing twin brother and sister Maggie and Milo, both of whom make suicide attempts which sees them reunited for the first time in a decade.

As portraits of family dysfunction go, this is unquestionably the pick of the recent batch, thanks to characters who come across as damaged and flawed but who we come to care deeply about.

It deals unflinchingly but sensitively with mental illness, and blends comedy with drama so well that they become pretty much the same thing.

We knew Hader and Wiig could make us laugh, but their dramatic acting chops are a revelation, and this is simply one of the best films of the year.

See it if you liked: Silver Linings Playbook, Adventureland, This Is Where I Leave You

Say When (15, 99 mins)

Director: Lynn Shelton

3 stars

Megan (Keira Knightley) was a free spirit in high school and is now something of a slacker as she approaches 30.

Her friends are getting married and she's still looking for some direction in her life, a story starting point that could hardly be described as fresh, nor could the script of this indie comedy that's initially rather on the nose about its characters and themes.

Where Say When does manage to strike out on its own is when Megan makes friends with a teenager (Chloe Grace Moretz) who lives with her divorced father (Sam Rockwell), and the complications arising from this play out.

Megan learning to grow up offers some quirkily amusing incidental moments, but it's not done with much oomph and can generally be just a little bland, with the drama feeling inconsequential at times.

But there's a grounded quality and honesty about it that helps, and it's something different from Knightley, who gives an expressive and heartfelt performance.

As ever, Rockwell is masterful in everything he does, and it's their sprightly interplay that makes this worth a look.

See it if you liked: Your Sister's Sister, Obvious Child, In a World

Set Fire to the Stars (15, 97 mins)

Director: Andy Goddard

3 stars

Celyn Jones, who also co-writes, stars as celebrated poet Dylan Thomas in this modest biography that recounts his time spent in New York in the early 1950s, as he embarks on a tour of universities while a young academic (Elijah Wood) tries to control him.

Much of it takes place at a secluded cabin, and this can grow a little tiresome, although a central sequence with a pair of fellow writers is a highlight.

It never quite gets a handle on Thomas's rabble rousing, but it's distinguished by its fine black and white photography and the terrific Jones, and is certainly timely in this centenary year of Thomas' birth.

See it if you liked: The Edge of Love, Me and Orson Welles, My Week with Marilyn

Leviathan (15, 141 mins)

Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev

4 stars

In a gloomy and decaying Russian town, hard-working, hard-drinking, re-married Kolya is involved in a land dispute with local government officials.

His lawyer friend has come from Moscow to help him, and as court decisions are made, they come up against corruption and bureaucracy at every turn.

These characters, etched from stone and vodka, make for gripping drama as what seems like a minor squabble escalates with force, as dark deeds are brewed and betrayals unleashed.

There's something of a lull in the middle when the plot takes some side tracks away from the main issue, until the bigger picture emerges and we see what the filmmakers have in store for Kolya.

It's hefty stuff, this vision of the little man swimming against the tide of an all-crushing system, richly berating a rotten state in ways that are powerful and grim as can be.