Chicago – There used to be a stronger sense that films could take us someplace new. From the days of audience members screaming at the train coming at the camera because they didn’t understand that they wouldn’t be run over to Dorothy’s trip to Oz to young Skywalker’s family problems, movies captured a sense of wonder that’s been lost in an era when CGI is in KFC commercials and it feels like Hollywood has run out of new places to take us.

This sense of spectacle returns in Alfonso Cuaron’s stunning “Gravity,” a movie that transcends form and becomes an “experience.” It is a technical marvel that moves beyond many of the recent visual effects stunners like “Life of Pi” and “Avatar” by giving you a heroine with whom to identify, cheer for, and sit beside. It’s a great film, one of the best of 2013.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

The first,...