Reel life: 'Interstellar' is not the place for IMAX

Taken to the IMAX?

The IMAX company didn't finance, market or distribute Christopher Nolan's new science-fiction drama “Interstellar.” Yet, the company is, according to Variety, spending millions on the release, hiring and training 143 projectionists to show old-fashioned $30,000 film prints on mothballed projectors put back into service. Despite that digital projection has bumped film out of the picture, Nolan has pushed IMAX to show “Interstellar” on film in at least 50 theaters.

Do you really need to see “Interstellar” on IMAX screens?

No.

I saw the movie Monday night at Chicago's Navy Pier IMAX. The massive spacescapes and action sequences work brilliantly in the big-image format that envelopes us in the vastness of the starry void.

But “Interstellar” also tells a personal family drama that uses a lot of close-ups of faces, and this is where the IMAX format fails. Actors' huge heads loom over us like intimidating giants, destroying the sense of intimacy that the close-ups are designed to create.

In this particular movie, there's simply too much visual information spread across too large an area for our eyes to collect, process and then emotionally respond to the way Nolan clearly intends.

So, if you want to witness the intimidating size and scope of outer space, see “Interstellar” in IMAX.

But for a fuller appreciation of the human connections, I'd opt for a regular movie theater. You still get the thrills and you won't feel like you're Dorothy the meek in the presence of the imposing Wizard.

Film critics notebook:

• How can you possibly miss reliving the thrilling adventures of Indiana Jones on the giant silver screen one more time? Steven Spielberg's “Raiders of the Lost Ark” will be shown at 1 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11, at the Elk Grove Theatre, 1050 Arlington Heights Road, Elk Grove Village. Admission costs $5 at the door or in advance at classiccinemas.com.

Erik Childress, an Elk Grove Village resident as well as a board member for the Chicago Film Critics Association, will introduce the movie and conduct a post-screening discussion with viewers. Presented in digital sound and projection.

• “Watch the Skies!” Dann & Raymond's Movie Club presents the first of a two-part presentation of the great science-fiction films from the silent era through the 1960s. Clips from such classics as “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “A Trip to the Moon,” “Fantastic Voyage,” “Them!” and 10 others. Free admission. It starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Dunton St., Arlington Heights. (847) 392-0100 or go to ahml.info.

• Dann Gire's Reel Life column runs Fridays in Time out! Follow him on Twitter at @DannGireDHFilm.