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"The Director We Deserve..." - The Christopher Nolan Thread


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I totally forgot about it. What's weird was that my girlfriend and I JUST watched The Dust Bowl two weeks ago. So when the movie starts with Burstyn talking about that experience, cut in with actual interviews from the Ken Burns documentary, we thought it was odd to have her look like she was part of that documentary. And then three hours of an intense movie passed. I forgot about Burstyn appearing in that video at the beginning until the credits, when it showed the actors in order of appearance and older Murph played by Burstyn was the first in the list. My girlfriend pointed out how that interview was made well before she reconnected with Cooper and how she saw her dad, without saying it was Cooper by name, was as a farmer who tried to take care of their family. This, after so many years of confusion and resentment. And then I remembered Cooper walking into his museum of a house and the look of confusion on his face as he watched a video of an older woman, someone he didn't realize was his daughter, speak about their dad as a father. Then he sees her in the hospital. I recalled all of that and just broke down. It was really beautiful.

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Strange, the idea that the first woman speaking in the documentary was anyone other than his daughter never crossed my mind, probably because they transitioned straight from her statement to his crash with her providing the segue.

I never recognized her as Burstyn, and had no idea that Ken Burns' Dustbowl' was a thing yet somehow I immediately knew that was his daughter and that was what she would look like come movie's end.  Which is really weird because I NEVER pick up on anything (Witness me congratulating myself during and after the movie when I figured out that was McConaughey shaking Hathaway's hand

 

I can totally understand people being under/overwhelmed by the movie, the metaphysics, whatever, but not the emotional stuff.  Was on another site where some guy said the emotional parts rang hollow to him and I was  all

what parts rang hollow?!  The part where the man watches a series of transmissions from his son as he grows older and sadder and less believing that his dad is out there and then finally lets him go and gets a message from his very disappointed daughter with both of them believing he basically abandoned them and died in space, not knowing he is watching every transmission and is unable to reply?!  Did that ring hollow to you?!  Because that was just a devastating scene, regardless of whether you have kids or not.

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Strange, the idea that the first woman speaking in the documentary was anyone other than his daughter never crossed my mind, probably because they transitioned straight from her statement to his crash with her providing the segue.

I never recognized her as Burstyn, and had no idea that Ken Burns' Dustbowl' was a thing yet somehow I immediately knew that was his daughter and that was what she would look like come movie's end.  Which is really weird because I NEVER pick up on anything (Witness me congratulating myself during and after the movie when I figured out that was McConaughey shaking Hathaway's hand

 

I can totally understand people being under/overwhelmed by the movie, the metaphysics, whatever, but not the emotional stuff.  Was on another site where some guy said the emotional parts rang hollow to him and I was  all

what parts rang hollow?!  The part where the man watches a series of transmissions from his son as he grows older and sadder and less believing that his dad is out there and then finally lets him go and gets a message from his very disappointed daughter with both of them believing he basically abandoned them and died in space, not knowing he is watching every transmission and is unable to reply?!  Did that ring hollow to you?!  Because that was just a devastating scene, regardless of whether you have kids or not.

 

 

 

Oh god yes.  That scene was the absolute peak of the movie, and I very nearly broke down during it.  Just fucking amazing construction by Nolan and possibly an even more amazing performance by McConaughey.

 

Honestly, I think the first act and change of the film was, for me, the best stretch by far.  Everything with Cooper still on Earth up til that scene with the backlogged messages was pretty much perfect in my opinion (and this seems to not be the consensus, I've seen more than a few complaints that the first act drags.)

 

After that, it became choppier to me, but the parts that work just flat out fucking WORK.

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I know it's pretty much a guarantee that McConaughey is going to knock it out of the park these days, but yeah... Nolan couldn't have found a better actor for that role.  I hope this is the first of a series of films they work on together.

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Also Captain America: The Winter Soldier isn't a brave political film either.

 

Winter Soldier was a Cold War spy novel with super heroes in it. 

 

Interstellar was pretty good.   I liked the human elements more than the lets play with wormhole elements.  It was nice to see Nolan go back to Memento / The Prestige / The Dark Knight and make a movie where the people weren't just cardboard cutouts or where only one or two characters were completely fleshed out.

 

Jesus, but the ending made my temples hurt.  I am not sure if the world really needs The Theory of Relativity to become the cornerstone of a dramatic moment.

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I haven't seen a film this far up its own ass in a long time.  I could feel the Nolan brothers screaming "THIS IS IMPORTANT AND DEEP STUFF" in my face for three hours.  When Anne Hathaway started her soliloquy about love, I tapped out.  How many times did we need to hear Yoda Michael Caine read that poem?  This was like a self-satisfied 17 year old art school kid took 2001, Solaris, Gravity and Event Horizon and threw them in one of those pretentious $300 blenders.  This was sci fi for people who think they're above "genre films."

 

Also, I think we have all had enough of Matthew McConaheyheyhey playing the everyman used car salesman bro philosopher in every film and TV show.

 

I was hoping Jodie Foster would show up in the wormhole just to bring the "pretentious sci fi" bookends together. 

 

I caught the last hour of The Terminator on TV when I got home and that was infinitely better.

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I haven't seen a film this far up its own ass in a long time.  I could feel the Nolan brothers screaming "THIS IS IMPORTANT AND DEEP STUFF"

I see this criticism a lot but it comes off as people wanting to see nothing but mindless action or comedy and limiting what topics should be explored in film.

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I haven't seen a film this far up its own ass in a long time.  I could feel the Nolan brothers screaming "THIS IS IMPORTANT AND DEEP STUFF"

I see this criticism a lot but it comes off as people wanting to see nothing but mindless action or comedy and limiting what topics should be explored in film.

 

 

Nah, it can be, and often is, a legitimate criticism. There are plenty of great philosophical films, that broach on a number of topics. There are even more that are not fully fleshed out, barely touch upon the topic, or present an aura of depth where there is none. Of course, it's all subjective, so your deep philosophy may be my shallow dreck.

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You don't make a three hour movie, with a ridiculously slow pace, with all the portentous music and the allusions to intellectuality and your characters musing on the meaning of life and mankind's place in the universe, unless you want people to think you've got something to say.

 

Nowt wrong with basing a movie around science. The Fly is based around science, that's a good movie.

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Anybody who calls this movie pretentious doesn't know what that word really means and is likely using it because that's just a common go-to word when you want to criticize Nolan. It's actually the opposite of pretentious. At no point does it assume anything resembling an authoritative position over the viewer, and in fact spends most of its run time basically on its hands and knees begging you to get emotionally involved with it.

I think maybe a lot of people went in assuming it was gong to be Nolan's big pretentious space movie and let that color their perspective.

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 pretentious
prɪˈtɛnʃəs/
adjective
 
  1. attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed.

 

 I don't dislike Nolan, I just think he needs someone to let him know that he does not actually shit gold. 

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I knew somebody would go with the ol' "let me google the definition real quick-like" response. Except you missed the key point of the definition: "impress." This is not a movie that's trying to impress you intellectually or emotionally. Visually, sure, but nobody has complaints about that and so does every high-dollar movie. But intellectually, philosophically, whatever....Nope. It just wants to be loved like a shelter puppy.

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I think Tabe complained about the visuals so we do have that box checked off as well. I don't think Nolan was trying to impress anyone intellectually. He made a space movie and tried to be realistic in its approach. Some have said he hit the mark. Others have said he didn't. What you can always bet on is that scientists will always shit on other scientists.

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In much the same way all of the time travel and killer machines in TERMINATOR were just as an excuse to have an impossible threat for people to run away from, so too is all the space travel and dimension hopping in INTERSTELLAR just an excuse to take a father an impossible distance from his family and make him find his way back. That's all it is, and it isn't trying to be much else besides really awesome to look at.

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I knew somebody would go with the ol' "let me google the definition real quick-like" response. Except you missed the key point of the definition: "impress." This is not a movie that's trying to impress you intellectually or emotionally. Visually, sure, but nobody has complaints about that and so does every high-dollar movie. But intellectually, philosophically, whatever....Nope. It just wants to be loved like a shelter puppy.

 

Were talking about Interstellar, not fucking Twilight.

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