Inside with Wilem Defoe is about 40 minutes too long and has a garbage fucking ending.
Did he have magnet hands to climb up the inside of the verticle vent shaft?
1 Like
Yes. They were left over from the corn bin shaft he used to cure himself of vampirism.
1 Like
Now we are getting into it.
Other things I thought I liked about Nolan films that were actually due to other people:
The music? Hans Zimmer
The cinematography? Wally Pfister
The screenplays? Jonathan Nolan
The editing? Lee Smith
Say what you will about Nolan, but heās one of the only people out there bringing big budget non-franchise films to theaters: Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet, Oppenheimer
3 Likes
Grinding my way through Criterionās AI collection. I was hyped for John Carpenterās early sci-fi- stoner comedy Dark Star, which had some interesting stuff going on but the humor didnāt quite land for me. You can totally imagine James Cameron taking notes for his Alien franchise I would bet real money this was an influence. I would for sure recommend this if you are super high, I mean even higher than I was.
Iām halfway through After Yang, so far a very sweet story about raising a family in the age of internet/technology addiction. If you liked Colin Farrel in Banshees, itās a similar vibe.
Not much to say about Zardoz/Ghost in the Shell, those are obvious must-see cult masterpieces if you havenāt already seen them.
Nolan is my least favourite famous director but Oppenheimer is worth seeing. Itās his best movie since Dark Knight. Really itās his only good movie since then imo.
I suppose I shouldnāt just remark on Inception being #15 all-time on IMDb without acknowledging the ludicrousness of The Dark Knight being #3. Thatās a really strong movie, but cāmon now.
The Nolan fans, in a coordinated effort, tried desperately for The Dark Knight to be #1 overall, and in doing so knocked The Godfather from its rightful perch permanently. I remember when this was happening, I wandered into a message board somewhere with some poster giving a rallying cry to get people to keep making new accounts to do this. I distinctly remember the poster saying, āLetās get fucking aggressive!ā I was only left to hold my head in my hands in sadness that such people exist. I hadnāt encountered review-bombing before. And to think, this would prove to be the least toxic rendition of it, since then the nerd-culture fanbases took over and started bullying women/POC/members of the LGBTQ community every time a nerd movie included them.
Anyway, it does put it in my head that he has a bunch of goddamn weirdos in his fanbase, and while I try not to hold such things against him, these weirdos have invariably made themselves part of the discourse of every movie of his that gets released.
(To be clear: still going to see Oppenheimer. Still optimistic that Iāll hopefully like it. Still likely to watch Nolanās movies in general. Definitely not participating in any us vs. them shit about Oppenheimer vis a vis Barbie, which I will also watch; itās obviously not an either/or choice.)
1 Like
You didnāt think Interstellar was good? I enjoyed the hell out of that one.
Hard for me to understand how people donāt like Inception, but I think I just like most movies and others are more picky
2 Likes
I loathed it. The sound mix is a crime against cinema.
At least Inception had a fresh sci-fi concept. Itās a heist movie where dudes break into someoneās dreams, dude what? I think if weāre going to be mad at the constant flow of repetitive Disney/Marvel stuff we have to be forgiving when someone comes in with a fun new idea.
8 Likes
Sure, I appreciate the uniqueness of the idea. I would prefer the result be that I like the movie, which is why I tried twice.
1 Like
Inception was ok. I didnāt hate it. Never had any desire to see it again though. It basically instantly left my memory. Only thing I think of now is how bad Elliot Page was treated and the MC Eicher buildings which was cool.
The Barbieheimer jokes are overplayed at this point, but still this is just a cool freaking poster. Incredible how random fans are making professional-quality stuff just for fun.
2 Likes
I do find it to be a feel-good thing in general for people to have gotten this hyped up for movies in the theater again for the first time in I donāt know how long. While the memes passed the saturation point, I do like that this weekend has such a big feeling even if my reaction is to at least wait it out for a bit.
And letās not poo poo superhero movies by default. Some of them are guilty by association. Others are amazing and itās fine that they pull from the comic book versions of popular myths instead of endlessly tweaking the opening lines of the Iliad.
I donāt think The Dark Knight deserves to be higher than Heat, but I do think itās up there. Itās an amazing crime fiction movie AND maybe the best live action Batman movie.
1 Like
Yeah, Iām fond of many superhero movies and Iām desperately hoping that the MCU can pull out of its current tailspin. If not, I sure hope the James Gunn DCU goes well.
I do fear that Marvel is threatening to kill the golden goose by not slowing down at all.
1 Like
By the way, there is video of this hilarious exchange now. The moment in question is at the 1:45 mark.
1 Like
I hope so too. Reports are that theyāve been humbled and are drastically scaling back, particularly the television arm. I bailed on Secret Invasion and sighed a little when a podcast said they had abandoned their recap side-cast because the show was just that bad.
And the thing is that sometimes, they truly deliver unique cinematic experiences beyond the genre. Kenneth Branagh brought a bizarre gravitas to Thor when juxtaposed against the goofy nature of super people in costumes.
And then thereās Scott Derickson, whose work for Doctor Strange brings us back to Nolan and Inception. One of the only complaints about Inception was that it failed to deliver on the promise of lucid dreaming, even if the explanation why you couldnāt push stuff too far worked in the context of the movie.
Then we get Doctor Strange, which the director said deliberately expands the boundaries of what Inception achieved.
