This post-Kubrick sci-fi epic from writer/director Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Knight trilogy) is his most ambitious film yet, and in my opinion, also his best.

In the near future, Earth is running drastically low on food, which forces almost everyone to be a farmer. Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, a widowed former NASA pilot who is recruited to head a mission to seek out new potentially habitable worlds in a distant galaxy accesssible via a newly-discovered wormhole.

The nature of relativity means time will pass by faster on Earth while he is away. Despite having two young kids, Cooper accepts the mission in the name of saving humanity.

There can be no overstating how much Interstellar benefits from Nolan’s classical filmmaking style — the surfeit of practical special effects and sets combined with the use of actual film stock gives the proceedings a weightiness missing from most contemporary epics.

And Nolan has never been more successful at infusing his macro-storytelling style with a genuine emotional undercurrent.

Against all odds, it is the relationships between the characters that resonate the most here, a remarkable achievement considering the scope of the tale being told.

That said, the film is positively overflowing with the kind of glorious sci-fi gravy that renders it a worthy successor to Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Nolan portrays things here that have never been portrayed on-screen before, and he does so with considerable creativity. Certain storytelling challenges met by an expanding conception of how to tell a story visually.

McConaughey is a grounding presence amongst all the wonder, and Jessica Chastain is fantastic as a secondary audience proxy. Ignore the nitpickers and detractors — a film of this size is all too easy to attack. If you’re someone even remotely excited by the possibilities, Interstellar is an absolute must-see.