Nolan makes highbrow popcorn flicks. I don’t understand what the whole issue with that is.

It’s like you guys see some lame Le Reddit ok buddy cinephile take and then must ish all over the movie because some idiot gushed over it and you need to be contrarian about it lest you lose the last piece of identity you had.

Just turn your brain off and watch the movie.

On 7/8/2025 at 6:33 PM, Bill said:

Nolan makes highbrow popcorn flicks. I don’t understand what the whole issue with that is.

It’s like you guys see some lame Le Reddit ok buddy cinephile take and then must ish all over the movie because some idiot gushed over it and you need to be contrarian about it lest you lose the last piece of identity you had.

Just turn your brain off and watch the movie.

No issue at all. I'm a big fan of some of his movies; Dunkirk, Memento, Dark knight. I love most of Inception too. His fanbois do let him get away with cheap tricks is all I'm saying. He disguises a lot of really stupid shite as 'high brow".

On 7/8/2025 at 4:58 PM, dawkins4prez said:

Oh yeah, kill the messenger Bill. The 3rd act of Oppenheimer was a cop out and that's one of those takes I'm taking to the grave.

I wouldn't call it a cop out, he just decided to make a different movie. And that's what it was, a movie, not a TV series where you could've included a variety of subjects in the scope of what you're covering rather than focus on one like you usually have to with a feature film.

Your accusation is akin to blaming the director of The Imitation Game for not framing Turing's work within the context of the Holocaust, thereby showing how his achievements indirectly spared horrific human suffering. Would it have been a better movie had they done that? Maybe, but that's not what they set out to do. It was just a different movie than that.

And to be clear, I think Nolan's terribly overrated too. Outside of Batman Begins and Dark Knight, I don't really find myself needing to go back and watch anything else a second time.

6 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

I wouldn't call it a cop out, he just decided to make a different movie. And that's what it was, a movie, not a TV series where you could've included a variety of subjects in the scope of what you're covering rather than focus on one like you usually have to with a feature film.

Your accusation is akin to blaming the director of The Imitation Game for not framing Turing's work within the context of the Holocaust, thereby showing how his achievements indirectly spared horrific human suffering. Would it have been a better movie had they done that? Maybe, but that's not what they set out to do. It was just a different movie than that.

And to be clear, I think Nolan's terribly overrated too. Outside of Batman Begins and Dark Knight, I don't really find myself needing to go back and watch anything else a second time.

I think the biggest thing that Nolan has going for him is that he does stories that are different.

The writing vis a vis the dialog is always the worst part of his movies.

To me you see them for the story, the visuals, and the score. It’s like when I saw Tenet for the first time I wondered what the F I watched, then on rewatch I realized that it was just a straight up action movie. The muddled dialog was a choice to get people to focus on the action (not a choice I agree with, but it was the reason).

I think the reason why he gets so much flack is the fact that we are very much in a dry age of quality cinema, to the point where an above average flick like a typical Nolan joint gets elevated to a higher level than it would be in any other era, so people attack his films for not being something that they weren’t trying to be in the first place.

FWIW I think Villeneuve is the best modern director, but admittedly I haven’t seen the Dune movies so I have no thoughts on them (I’m not much of a sci-fi guy). Gerwig is up there too; her movies are always impeccably well written.

Unfortunately studios are putting out slop to generate content for their streaming services, so good movies are getting increasingly few and far between. Until that changes, good movies are going to be held by many as great ones.

10 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

And to be clear, I think Nolan's terribly overrated too. Outside of Batman Begins and Dark Knight, I don't really find myself needing to go back and watch anything else a second time.

You should watch, or rewatch, The Prestige

10 hours ago, Bill said:

FWIW I think Villeneuve is the best modern director, but admittedly I haven’t seen the Dune movies so I have no thoughts on them (I’m not much of a sci-fi guy). Gerwig is up there too; her movies are always impeccably well written.

Mods, please ban this guy until he’s finished watching the dune films

10 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

I wouldn't call it a cop out, he just decided to make a different movie. And that's what it was, a movie, not a TV series where you could've included a variety of subjects in the scope of what you're covering rather than focus on one like you usually have to with a feature film.

Your accusation is akin to blaming the director of The Imitation Game for not framing Turing's work within the context of the Holocaust, thereby showing how his achievements indirectly spared horrific human suffering. Would it have been a better movie had they done that? Maybe, but that's not what they set out to do. It was just a different movie than that.

And to be clear, I think Nolan's terribly overrated too. Outside of Batman Begins and Dark Knight, I don't really find myself needing to go back and watch anything else a second time.

I get the gist of what your saying, but some of his movies, especially Oppenheimer & Interstellar are way more than that. They are deliberate switch and baits where he sets up an heady premise only to switch it out in the 3rd act for utter hot garbage with nothing of intellectual or emotional value to tether it. I'd say the same for Inception but he manages to save that one at the end.

55 minutes ago, dawkins4prez said:

I get the gist of what your saying, but some of his movies, especially Oppenheimer & Interstellar are way more than that. They are deliberate switch and baits where he sets up an heady premise only to switch it out in the 3rd act for utter hot garbage with nothing of intellectual or emotional value to tether it. I'd say the same for Inception but he manages to save that one at the end.

You already gave a better example of it, The Prestige was a true bait and switch. Maybe one of the most frustrating ever because of how F'ing good the first two acts were. The only other movie I can remember have similar feelings about was Million Dollar Baby.

So maybe Interstellar suffers from some of the issues with how it decided to wrap up some of the plotlines but I really don't see how you can accuse Oppenheimer of that at all. It never set out to give you a perspective on anything other than the titular character.

1 hour ago, Agent23 said:

You should watch, or rewatch, The Prestige

Oh I have, and I'll forever maintain that the ending was garbage. I'm fine with a rug pull if you set it up well, but it just wasn't. It was a college-level midstream genre switch dressed up a plot twist. Yes, we get it, it's so "meta" because he spends almost two hours reinforcing the premise that magic isn't real until the big reveal when he's like, "just kidding, it was real magic all along!" Big edge lord energy.

I think we all know that the best part of all Nolan films is the score - am I right @dawkins4prez ?

16 hours ago, Agent23 said:

You should watch, or rewatch, The Prestige

That one’s a great movie.

16 hours ago, Agent23 said:

Mods, please ban this guy until he’s finished watching the dune films

Based on the premise, and I admit that I’m probably wrong, it seems to be Space Dances With Wolves, not to be confused with Animated Space Dances With Wolves.

15 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Oh I have, and I'll forever maintain that the ending was garbage. I'm fine with a rug pull if you set it up well, but it just wasn't. It was a college-level midstream genre switch dressed up a plot twist. Yes, we get it, it's so "meta" because he spends almost two hours reinforcing the premise that magic isn't real until the big reveal when he's like, "just kidding, it was real magic all along!" Big edge lord energy.

Yeah but the premise of the movie had nothing to do with magic. It was about the pitfalls of obsession. The magic and the rug pull devices were just used to further that theme.

2 hours ago, mikemack8 said:

I think we all know that the best part of all Nolan films is the score - am I right @dawkins4prez ?

BWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOONN. unintelligible dialogue BWWWOOOOOOOOOONNNNNN

1 hour ago, Bill said:

Yeah but the premise of the movie had nothing to do with magic. It was about the pitfalls of obsession. The magic and the rug pull devices were just used to further that theme.

I would say obsession, and it's destructive consequences, was more of a theme. But in any case there can be more than one premise or theme. My point is the title of the movie is The Prestige and the big reveal they built up to was trying to be way too meta and edgy.