Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, July 21st 2017) Movie • Page 32

Disagree

 

The narrative in most of his films are great. Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, etc

 

I personally just don’t care for them, I find a lot of them to be hokey or predictable.

 

I agree a lot of his movies can be hokey, interstellar especially, but the dude can tell a story. What he does with Dunkirk considering how little dialogue and exposition there is is pretty incredible.

 

I guess I’ll have to rewatch Dunkirk, my initial viewing had me being wowed at the technical aspects but I didn’t care for the story but I also had different tastes then too so I guess it worth seeing how I’d feel about it now.

 

There's nobody doing big-budget blockbusters better right now, I don't think that's too radical of a thing to say.

 

I can’t think of anyone who’s merged big-budget blockbuster and arthouse the way Christopher Nolan has.

 

He cares about his craft in a way that so few directors operating at his scale do. It shows in every single one of his films. It's why I will never understand the unbridled hatred people have for the guy, like even if you don't like his movies personally you have to respect his love of film and his dedication to the art of filmmaking.

 

What is arthouse about his films?

 

Nolan is an emotionally cold director. He’s more into the plot than characters, actually. I can imagine very driven, highly committed actors love him and the more laid-back, artsy actors being put off by his style.

 

It depends on one’s definition of arthouse I guess. I always thought of it as shorthand for not adhering to typical film conventions across the board but that could be a bad definition.

 

I actually disagree. I think with Nolan the emotion just takes a backseat to spectacle instead of being front and center (Interstellar tape scene aside).

Inception is always used as an example of thin characters and little emotion. It took me at least five watches for it to hit me how rich and emotional the movie is once you move past the world building and set pieces.

 

The last exchange between Cobb and Mal in Inception always gets me, emotionally. "We had our time together" is such a great line in context. The Cobb character is in emotional turmoil throughout that entire movie. I'd agree it's not really emphasized in the script or directing, but Leo brings it in his performance.

 

Leo’s performance gives me chills and doesn’t get enough credit. Cobb’s character is also given extra depth when you consider that Mal is a projection of his subconscious.

 

If your experience rewatching it will be like mine, you'd probably enjoy it more. The whole thing with the timeline was somewhat jarring for me at first, but I ended up getting on board with it once I saw it again

 

If only 50% of inception wasn't them telling me what was going on

 

I usually don't mind exposition as much in heist movies since it feels more natural, not to mention the visuals that accompany most of those expositional scenes.