christopher nolan

Maybe There’s a Hidden Story Behind All Of Christopher Nolan’s Films After All

Interstellar hidden story

If you’ve been keeping up with my latest ramblings, then you know that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Interstellar, despite my feverish love of Nolan’s past work. And I’ve never considered much about the underlying themes or connections between his movies. Until now.

No, this isn’t like a “shared universe” theory. No one has time for that. This is something better.

Akshay Seth | The Michigan Daily

And I realized something. The film’s final act, like its labyrinthine middle, rushed start or organ-blasting score, isn’t meant to inspire. Because this film is a farce. It is Nolan’s letter to Flora, his daughter. Stretched to the grandest scales, this movie is his most withering self-critique. Here’s why.

I think Akshay’s on to something. And after reading through his admittedly long arguments, I’m a believer.

If anyone’s capable of doing something like this across multiple movies over 16 years, it’s Christopher Nolan.

Review: ‘Interstellar’

interstellar worth watching

Is Interstellar worth watching?

Yes, but manage your expectations.

I watched the film in its best format — 70mm IMAX on one of the biggest screens in the country. I couldn’t have been any closer to the content.

It’s a spectacle of a movie. It uses a lot of flair and constrained visual effects to justify its ridiculously long runtime. And it’s best feature is the emotional story that evolves between Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his daughter Murphy (played by Jessica Chastain as an adult).

But the fantastic performances and literally epic world-building is undercut by the science of it all. The ultimate story. It doesn’t wrap up as nicely as it ought to, as the final act tries to be a deserved payoff, but for me it felt confusing and underwhelming.

But it’s still a blast of a movie, and among Nolan’s most ambitious. It’s just not his best.

The trick with Nolan is that he’s often misunderstood as more of a thinking filmmaker than he really is. The director excels most at spectacle that is raised by high concepts, so it’s easy to expect a little too much out of his offerings. 2001, this isn’t.

In other words, he’s very serious, but you shouldn’t take him too seriously. Here, he scatters his near-future world with interesting locations, a race against time, and deep familial relationships, but the only matter truly at the center here is the latter. Otherwise, it’s a lot of exposition carried on by mostly relaxed scientists placed in a hopeless situation. Interstellar gets much of this drama right, but it comes sparsely within the meat of the movie’s middle.

By the end, the power and mystery of love get a little too much attention, as the film trades its interesting themes of man versus nature for a strange admission that both are one in the same. For most moviegoers, this message won’t resonate. But perhaps they’ll be too enthralled by the gorgeous vistas and raw human emotions that are also in play.

Interstellar speaks a lot of sacrifice, both unseen and through our main character, Cooper. Strangely, a lot of the sacrifice he undergoes is written out of the story in favor of a convenient resolution. That said, Nolan shouldn’t be faulted for putting so much effort into injecting spirituality into a film void of hardly anything else.

If the tide continues to turn in favor of Christopher Nolan being one of our most overrated filmmakers, then Interstellar will likely be one of the jewels of that argument. Strangely, it’s probably Nolan’s boldest work.

Grade: B-

Christopher Nolan: Real Movies Don’t Have a Post-Credits Scene

Christopher Nolan credits

Tom Shone| The Guardian: 

[In regards to Man of Steel] When the studio asked if Snyder would add a comedy coda ending, in the style of Marvel, Nolan’s reply was “A real movie wouldn’t do that.”

I guess we can count this as confirmation that Interstellar doesn’t have an “after-the-credits” scene, though that was to be expected. I’ve never left a Nolan film feeling anxious for a post-credits scene, to be honest.

Nolan is getting a lot of heat for this remark, which is to be expected. Many media outlets are filled to the brim with Marvel fans who are quick to defend the MCU’s reliance on comedy coda endings, after all.

Strangely, I don’t find Nolan’s comment all that insulting to the scores of great and “real” movies that do utilize post-credit wrap-ups. Obviously, Marvel movies come to mind, but so do Disney films as well. I didn’t even catch the secret clip at the end of Brave until my second viewing.

The man’s a great director, and brilliant minds are bound to be a little elitist. In his framework for making good movies, post-credit stingers aren’t necessary, hence a real movie doesn’t need one. I don’t think that’s true all the time, but it probably is for Nolan films.

Why Inception Is One of the Best Movies of Our Generation

 

 

inception

What You Missed About Inception:

For me, a truly great film isn’t really like a masterpiece. A masterpiece, after all, is more about critical praise and the apex of one’s career. Inception is great in a different way. It’s just smart. It didn’t receive universal, critical praise (though it got some) because it completely went over the heads of almost everyone.

For all of you who think you “get” the movie, I sincerely doubt that more than a handful actually caught everything that was going on in the story.

Here’s a test to see if you did: do you think the ending was a cliffhanger? Because if you did, you are dead wrong.

With Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar coming out this week, I thought it would be fun to revisit one of the first fan theories I ever wrote. I wrote this piece about Inception and it’s myriad secrets back in 2013, and I’m still finding more reasons for why it’s one of the best films, period. And why most people don’t seem to fully grasp how important it was.

Check it out here in case you haven’t had a chance to read it.

Early Review For ‘Interstellar,’ Christopher Nolan’s Next Big Movie.

Interstellar review

Evan Lee | Interstellar Has Oscar Written All Over it:

People are going to like this movie the first time they watch it, but they won’t fully love it until a second viewing. Like Inception, it’s going to take some people a second time to warm up to this movie due to all the twists and turns.

I know it’s saying a lot, but this is – without a doubt – Christopher Nolan’s best film. If you’re looking for great performances, a magnificent score, mind-blowing special effects, plus sound and cinematography to match, then look no further because Interstellar has arrived on planet Earth.

This is a fun write-up by one of my good friends, Evan Lee, who had the opportunity to catch Interstellar at the world premier in LA. I highly recommend reading his review in its entirety, as he did a great job of not spoiling anything for the truly curious.

Interstellar releases this weekend, and based on early demand and ticket sales, I suggest you plan ahead and reserve your seat.

Inside the Incredible Mind of Christopher Nolan.

christopher nolan

Gideon Lewis-Kraus | The Exacting, Expansive Mind of Christopher Nolan:

Nolan’s movies are often about people doing their best to get back in touch with consensus reality — against our tendency to be swept away by delusion (“Inception”) or demagogy (“The Dark Knight Rises”) — so it feels organic, rather than gimmicky, that they would periodically gesture toward their own stagy conceits. 

“Interstellar” regrets the diminished ambitions of the space age, but it also regrets the diminished ambitions of the same age in cinema — the art form that, for the moment at least, reaches the most disparate people in the most far-flung places. “Interstellar” is about the recovery, in the greatest mass medium, of hope and drive and intelligence, about the very promise of a robust, elevating middlebrow. Perhaps all Nolan does, as one of his critics has put it, is “invest grandeur and novelty into conventional themes.” But at interstellar scale, that’s good enough.

This is quite easily the best, most complete analysis I’ve ever read about Christopher Nolan, who is rapidly becoming the next generation’s Spielberg. I highly suggest you give it a read, especially with Nolan’s Interstellar only being a week away (of which I’ve heard remarkably good things).

One highlight from Gideon’s piece is that Nolan’s last three movies have a place in the top 100 movies of all time (in box office sales). And eight of his fourteen films have accrued over $3 billion. And that’s without making movies about transforming robots.