Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi epic about two astronauts lost in space, won unanimous praise from top American film critics following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday.
Variety had particularly kind words for Cuaron, who premiered his first movie since 2006′s Children of Men, and his star, Sandra Bullock, who purportedly spends much of the film on her own.
“Suspending viewers alongside Bullock for a taut, transporting 91 minutes (with George Clooney in a sly supporting turn), the director’s long-overdue follow-up to “Children of Men” is at once a nervy experiment in blockbuster minimalism and a film of robust movie-movie thrills, restoring a sense of wonder, terror and possibility to the bigscreen that should inspire awe among critics and audiences worldwide,” Variety said.
Added The Hollywood Reporter:
At once the most realistic and beautifully choreographed film ever set in space, Gravity is a thrillingly realized survival story spiked with interludes of breath-catching tension and startling surprise. Not at all a science fiction film in the conventional sense, Alfonso Cuaron‘s first feature in seven years has no aliens, space ship battles or dystopian societies, just the intimate spectacle of a man and a woman trying to cope in the most hostile possible environment across a very tight 90 minutes.
Oh, and Twitter liked it, too.
Both Bullock and Clooney were on hand for the film’s premiere Wednesday. Bullock wore a colorful dress by Alex Perry, if you’re only reading this post for the fashion. (Clooney wore Bachelor.)
Gravity opens Oct. 4. In case you missed it, watch the effing insane trailer here.
