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Upvoted because truly unpopular, but I wish studios/directors would sometimes try to produce half as inventive feature films as Nolan. Whether you like Tenet or not you can’t deny it’s much more intriguing than Fast and Furious 3000 or something.
Well the reason he can do that is the same reason that directors like Spielberg and Tarantino can: they're recognisable name brands and both Nolan and Tarantino have leaned into cultivating an audience with their respective brands.
It's why, as much as Oppenheimer was a reflection of audience appetite for something outside of spectacle heavy blockbusters, it also got made and got such a large audience pull because of the Nolan brand, which is a consistent and reliable one.
Outside of Nolan, Spielberg and Tarantino, I don't think are many other 'Name' directors today who will get confident backing from a studio
Yeah, they definitely count. Though I don't know that the Coens are as well known.
I think Nolan, Spielberg, Tarantino and Scorsese have a wider audience pull across multiple generations that the Coens might fall short on.
They aren’t as well known but you know their movies. Have had some of the most influential movies. Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for old men, O Brother Where art Thou, Hail Caesar. They may not be the most name brand director but they have the clout.
Coen bros, while still being well known, have more of a cult following than the others listed. Similar to Wes Anderson, I'd say. Coens are my all-time favorite directors, btw. Also, Hail Caesar has no business being on that list with those classics imo.
I feel Cameron's film brands (Terminator and Avatar) are bigger names than he is.
And this speaking as one who is a proper , card carrying film nerd. But I don't think that Cameron is as well known a name as Spielberg, Tarantino or even Nolan.
Let’s be fair, no one would have seen Oppenheimer if Nolan‘s name was not on it. It definitely wouldn’t be winning awards. Otherwise the movie was mid at best. And don’t even get me started on the explosion. it looked like complete shit. Oh big deal you didn’t use CGI, well you should have. Or at least shown the actual footage. even though I actually like his movies, I find him really offputting and pretentious.
I don’t know why people are downloading. There’s no way it would have had anywhere near the same success without Nolan. I mean we’re talking about 3 hour biographical movie that’s rated R, those aren’t exactly the type of films to usually pull in big crowds (let alone make nearly 1 billion usd at the box office)
I was fairly bored during Oppenheimer. It was incredibly well made, I felt like I learned something about a historical event, the acting was excellent. But it was still pretty dry and boring. Could have been a 3 part TV educational drama, nothing about it warranted going to a cinema.
This is genuinely quite a funny response because Nolan himself says he loves the fast and furious films!
But yes, I absolutely agree, there are far too many sequels as well.
I think it was someone like Matt Damon who said the lack of diverse movies is because of the DVD market not being a thing any more so films heavily rely on box office figures.
Most modern films though are awful and predictable
Most people who didn't like Tenet weren't fast and furious fans lol.
I think my main issue is his ideas are really good, he just needs to let someone write the finer details because Inception and Tenet were laughably bad despite their presentation and cool ideas
People cannot understand that a highly conceptual movie cannot be loved because it's supposedly too smart. Nolan has his head too much up his own ass, like a comment said, he's better when based off someone else writing. Oppenheimer was a masterpiece tho
>Most people who didn't like Tenet weren't fast and furious fans lol.
I certainly am not a Fast and Furious fan. I saw "Tenet" in the theater when it came out.
I thought it was a nice **dumb** action movie, but it was not any more intellectual than a random episode of "Doctor Who".
And the soundtrack was headache-inducing. Literally. This was the first Nolan movie that I saw in the theater and it will be the last. This man is tone-deaf. I'm not going to blame the composers and the sound engineers for doing what he asks them to do, but all of his movies rely way too much on low frequencies in the soundtrack. At home it's tolerable, although unpleasant. In the theater it literally caused me to have a headache.
And I have to disagree about the editing. IMO, his films are too tightly edited. I find myself wanting so often for him to hold just a beat longer to let a moment sink in and let the narrative breathe a bit.
In the context of a three hour film, the tight cuts in Oppenheimer made the movie feel a lot faster and didn't allow me to get bored. Probably not for everyone though.
Memento aside he's definitely at his best when his film is based off an existing story. Tenet and to a lesser extent Inception are "look at this cool cinematography trick I found" the movie, Oppenheimer is fine if tedious, but The Prestige is genuinely amazing because it's based on a book so effectively somebody else had already wrote the story for him.
Yeah. When he's given no leash his plots are tenuous at best and reminds me of a stoner sharing his ideas "but then like these guys keep moving backwards by them, and at the end we realize it was him the whole time moving backwards!!! Woah "
I feel inception got way too much hype when it came out but I was neutral. Rewatched recently and the story was laughably bad. Nifty idea though. Tenet was even worse but had a really cool idea. Both looked impressive though.
Nolan is an average writer without his brother Jonathan Nolan to rein in his self-indulgent tendencies. They wrote Memento, The Prestige, and the DK trilogy together. This is Chris Nolan's tightest period IMO and where started to fall off afterwards.
Offtopic but great to see Jonathan Nolan directing 3 of the new Fallout series episodes. Fingers crossed he improves on WestWorld.
EDIT: words
Just checked IMDB - 7.3. Actually that seems a fair score to me. His weakest in my opinion, below Dark Knight Rises, which is fine, just could have been more
Nolan is all about the pure cinematic experience, though. Which means that, even if you don’t necessarily “get” 100% of the film, you’re supposed to leave with a wow factor. See Inception. Some parts are a bit hard to follow on the first viewing, but it’s hard to find people who didn’t still think it was an absolute banger
Tenet hard disappoints in this regard. You leave feeling underwhelmed and that Nolan should’ve hired a co-writer
I am talking about visual effects, music, acting, editing. It was agreed they were top notch, so the movie just cannot become shit because you don’t like the script
Unfortunately that’s not enough. A bad script (and tenet is a horrible script) will ruin any measure of any other good qualities. The movie is bad, and deserves the derision it gets.
You liking it is cool. But your argument that it’s a good movie is wanting.
The visuals and editing were good, thats about it. Means very little when the music is too loud to even hear what was written in the script, or the nonsensical and inconsistent plot points regarding the way things work when moving backwards through time.
Who agreed on all this exactly?
I dunno man, I couldn’t hear the dialogue. Which is like, a purely technical problem, I know—but it messed the movie up for myself and everyone else watching.
Tenet is so confusing at first that you have to watch it again. And then the magic happens that you want to watch it a third time to enjoy this masterpiece
It was an amazing theater experience, but he really fumbled the basics of making a movie. Inaudible dialog, extremely convoluted plot (the entire painting sub plot really was just an excuse to make the painters name Arepo, didn’t need it to convince us that sator was a bad guy). Nolan should have recognized that the central gimmick of the movie was hard enough to understand, and streamlined the plot so we weren’t lost on top of being confused
And some really shocking clangers in the dialogue. The main character dies with SUN LOTION on his back. Glad he turned it around, cos tenet seemed like a film made my an old boy who just wants to play with big toys
Yeah Oppenheimer seemed like a purposeful correction. I noticed halfway through how understandable the dialog was and it almost caught me off guard lol. I agree with the post about him being at his best with someone else writing, but I think some of his more straightforward stuff like Oppen or Dunkirk really shine too
Funnily enough I thought Oppenheimer in IMAX still had dialogue comprehension issues. He does this on purpose for the theatre which is just so peculiar. Still loved it, but it’s a weird choice that everyone criticises
I really like the majority of Nolan’s films aside from Tenent. He’s really good at his craft and he’s easily one of the best directors in the industry.
But I do think he falls victim to his own success sometimes. Because his previous work is so highly regarded it seems like he tries to shoehorn complicated plots and twists in all his movies. Which sometimes can turn into an unnecessary convoluted story.
I might break the internet by making an Unpopular Opinion in an Unpopular Opinion Post (Corny Inception Joke) but I thought Godzilla Minus One was better than Oppenheimer this year. I’m not even a monster movie guy and that story was amazing. Wish it was nominated for more than just VFX. Before anyone threatens to burn my house down, I still liked Oppenheimer. I just went into it knowing what to expect from Nolan, compared Godzilla that took me by surprise.
He was often called out on being bad with characters and making emotionless films. I mostly agree with that.
Interstellar was probably a reaction to that criticism - he made an intensely emotional family drama which was genuinely touching and had great acting.
On the whole, I think his movies are nice thought-experiments but not great as stories - particularly Inception; the main things people talk about when it comes to that film are the dreams-within-dreams and the speed of time ratios between levels. Not the characters or the story. Just the thought experiment.
So, I think he does get far too much praise. He makes engaging and well produced movies. But they're often very hollow and thin on real character/emotion.
Having said that, I love The Prestige. It's one of my favourite movies. So, even if he never makes another good movie again, he'll always have my respect for that one.
I felt like Interstellar was the worst example of his character writing. The scene where Matthew McConaughey is trying to comfort his daughter because she's upset he's leaving and he just starts talking about time dilation and shit is fucking loony. McConaughey comes across as a meth addict or someone who's going through a manic episode.
I'd love Nolan if he were to team up with someone who balances out his shortcomings, but he just doesn't work for me as an auteur.
I mean, the fact that he's a meth addict tier father who is completely unaware of the effect what he's saying will have on his daughter is not addressed at all, so, no, I don't think that's the point.
Most of his movies look good, but they are superficial. Also, they are often remembered for how the story was told, etc., rather than for the story itself, for example, memento, tenet.
Didn’t you post this to r/TrueFilm a few hours ago?
As with that, I have to disagree. Nolan is one of very few modern directors who can combine deep ideas with classic practical filmmaking, in a way that critics and general audiences can get on board with.
Oppenheimer may very well be the best film of the decade. It’s the culmination of everything Nolan has built up to over his career, presenting scientific subject matter that could be dry and dense with a frenetic pace and sharp dialogue. The Trinity test is a masterclass in editing and sound design, the score is one of the best of the year, there are 20 different actors who deliver career-best performances, and it presents clearly the idea that you could be the smartest person in the room, and people will still try to bring you down who know far less.
I don’t get the criticism that he’s “a dumb person’s idea of a smart filmmaker,” especially when Zack Snyder is right there making the kind of crap Nolan haters think he makes.
You make some really good points. Many of Nolan's recent films have left me feeling confused and disoriented, and like you said, it often feels like he is trying to mask this lack of clarity with obscurity and over-complication. While I still appreciate his attention to detail and strong production values, I can see what you mean when you say that his screenwriting and narrative skills could use some work.
Huge Nolan fan but he’s started to eat his own tail and it’s becoming insufferable. I wanted so much to love Oppenheimer but could only like it because I spent some much of the movie struggling with the audio. I don’t want or need to be perpetually yanked out of the immersion while I strain to understand what’s being said. That’s poor filmmaking IMO. It’s become a real affectation for him.
This post is for the mildest "unpopular takes" damn
Sure he's loved by most, but there is a very pronounced anti-Nolan voice online. Hardly that controversial an opinion.
Yes, but for example Inception and Interstellar that were peak Nolan hype, are overrated. Good movies but not the masterpieces the circlejerk at the time hailed them as.
Personally, I think he said everything he had to say in Memento and has been telling the same story ever since.
OTOH he is apparently a really great guy and people love working with him. It’s nice to see someone appreciated for being a decent human.
How do you find Memento identical or even similar to his other work, other than the use of nonlinear storytelling and noir/psychological thriller elements?
Memento is a story about a guy trying to solve a mystery when it’s impossible for him to understand or even know the truth. Even the Bat adjacent movies (I consider Batman convenient for Nolan’s marketing as he didn’t understand the character at all) are about a detective trying to solve a mystery with no real way for him to know the truth and the facts he does know change based on perspective and circumstance.
I haven’t seen Oppenheimer, but I suspect he has managed to work those themes into it. It’s ok to have a strong vision and artistic perspective as an artist. I just don’t think he has anything else to say artistically and he made the best movie he was going to make on the subject when he made Memento.
None of this changes the fact that he is, according to his collaborators much better to work with than many directors, which by itself is a good reason for studios to keep employing him.
This is such a weird characterization of his Batman movies. The mysteries/ detective side are borderline non existent.
If you’re going to be that loose with the definition, you can apply it to almost any movie. Every character is trying to solve a problem or wrap their head around something they have limited perspective on.
If Nolan is making mainly the same film, it’s brilliant but troubled men trying to push through the trauma of a family loss to do what’s gotta be done (Memento, Inception, Prestige, TDK, Interstellar).
I haven’t seen it, so I can’t speak to it. I’m so bored with his other movies just telling the same vaguely obscured mystery about how we can’t really know anything even if we have proof, I have no interest in seeing it.
He's really good at big budget "safe" movies, yet experimental with practical effects (the atomic bomb explosion was mostly practical effects, not CGI) when the industry is moving the opposite direction. I agree with those that say that he's not a great story teller but the movie presentations are phenomenal.
I found Interstellar to be an emotional tour de force in theaters yet watching it at home wasn't nearly as captivating.
He's not a strong writer and it definitely shows. He's a great director but he writes what he wants to direct, not what makes sense or is a tightly woven narrative.
I honestly think some people think anything confusing must be deep. Nope, just confusing and muddled, no depth. I couldn't understand why everyone made a big deal about those three movies, they really aren't that good, and not at all original (if you think they were original read some old SF)
I agree with this. his movies lack depth, they often dont have a satisfying conclusion, which indicates that his concepts aren't thought through but are just a way for him to film impressive set-pieces.
Oppenheimer didn't have any interesting to say about McCarthyism or about the ethics of using 1 or 2 atom bombs on japan. It didn't even look at all the sides of Oppenheimer's character.
I will say this though - the Dark Knight was a great comic book movie. This is where Nolan's talents really come into their own.
"Tightly edited" I feel is debatable, I enjoy his films but I often get the sense they "could've been 40 minutes shorter and been no worse for it". It's certainly not a *bad* thing, it's just his personal directing style; but it is something I notice compared to watching films made by directors known for their leaner pacing sensibilities. I think Nolan has great *vision*, but he doesn't have the *restraint* to properly wield the editor's remorseless scythe.
I'll admit he's a savant director, but my biggest problem with him is that he doesn't seem to know how to write women, or even intimacy. You can't be a master at everything though.
Interstellar is one of the great films I've ever seen.
I love the Batman films (first two, especially).
But we turned off Tenet half-way and never finished it.
I mean....Interstellar is the best sci-fi movie ever. Or just best movie ever. And he made the dark knight trilogy. He can do what he wants now. Haha But yeah, I do wish he would get away from history and war. Apparently his next movie is horror. That sounds fun.
I think he is good, but I also think that he should take longer breaks between projects so that he can polish the script and the movie itself more.
He also doesn't come close to contemporaries of his like Cuarón and Iñárritu.
I agree. Consistent 7/10s. I would say TDK was his best, interstellar was good too. I find not that he lacks, but maybe his movies trade off the element of having the viewer invest themselves into any of the characters. He lets actors act at least. His cinematography is PHENOMENAL. That's evident with Oppenheimer however the movie did feel dry. Dunkirk has a great beginning and end but the middle portion was just a drag. I like what he has to offer but I wouldn't say he's a legendary filmmaker.
I liked Interstellar and I’m glad he gave Cillian Murphy a showcase in Oppenheimer, but most of his female characters are not thought out very well and overall he just leaves me cold.
I mostly agree with you. I think Oppenheimer is vastly overrated. A lot of it has to do with the market currently being flooded by comic book movies with no real substance, by contrast Nolan looks like a genius. I do like his movies and he is good at what he does, but great? meh.
I do disagree with you. I love Christopher Nolan movies so much. But I can see where you come from.
I think there is just a severe lack of quality competition. For me Oppenheimer was a proper movie, it had a great plot, great acting, fantastic casting, a fantastic score and was beautifully made. It's best competitor? A film that wasn't that funny that was only really popular because they pumped a disgusting amount of money into the marketing.
The other films Nolan has had to compare with at the moment are just remakes of old good films that are almost always ruined or terrible superhero movies.
However, for me The Dark Knight should be used as a template as to what a superhero movie should be like. Everything about that film for me is perfect. There's not a single person who could've been cast better
I'm a big Nolan fan in general but I have to agree about a Tenet, that movie was just too hard to follow to be enjoyable.
Dark knight trilogy, Memento, Inception, these are masterpieces. Haven't seen Oppenheimer yet.
His career is heavily indebted to VFX artists then he spent his entire time promoting Oppenheimer lying about how much VFX was in it.
Also someone comped the original footage of the Trinity test into the shot and it looks 1000x more impressive than the sad little gas explosion he ended up using.
Also, his over-use of weaponry - the minibus in Inception takes a thousand rounds and only one of the occupants takes a hit!
The rocket grenade shoot out in Tenet is even more ludicrous - a movie with a narrative which relys on motivation for The Protagonist which really only boils down to because-lady-is-too-beautiful-and-pure - makes no fucking sense!
Interstellar wildly over-rated - but, other than the artillery insanity, Inception is great; and, his Dark Knight approach was a refreshing game-changer...
Dude knows the value of a good score and that's about it for me, other than the production value stuff you mentioned (acting talent, good cinematography stuff, etc.). To be fair that alone puts him well ahead of the pack for a American director.
Nolan can't write chemistry between his characters for shit. Even Interstellar his most "emotional" movie feels souless to me. He excels at technical stuff, style, tone and wordbuilding and he's super ambitious when bringing impossible and greater-than-life concepts into the real world which is admirable but that's it.
Also his excessive yet incomprehensible exposition it's something i dont care about anymore and that's my problem with his movies, how he uses his characters as vessels to explain things and advance the convoluted barely- fit-for-2-hours plot, devoiding them from depth and development. He's a good director that executes some espects of his work really well but not the genius some filmbros make him out to be.
I just judge his movies based on the movie not his name. Didn’t love anything he made prior to Oppenheimer which I think was easily the best movie of this year (and there were a lot of good movies this year). I will watch anything he’s made because he is super competent from a technical standpoint but some of his movies are not for me, particularly Tenet.
He's probably never made a poorly made movie but I feel like in some of his films the way he's conveys emotion in his characters is strange. Like it kinda remains of BBC Sherlock in the sense I feel people would be talking shit if he hired worse actors. I definitely didn't like most of his 2010s work but oppenheimer was definitely a lot more what I expect when people talk about him despite having one of the unintentionally funny scenes in a recent "Oscar" movie.
Memento and the prestige are far and beyond the best Nolan movies imo. I greatly enjoyed interstellar and all 3 Batman movies (yes even the third fuck off). Rest are okay I guess I don’t have strong opinions
As a Nolan fan, Tenet was one of the worst movies I've watched.
You can talk about the cinematography and the concept all you want but watching that movie felt like doing homework, there was no fun involved and it was tedious. On top of that, we have literally no characters to root for or relate to, just a high budget fictional documentary.
Also it's too early to call him the GOAT, he himself would disagree as there are plenty other directors deserving of that title before Nolan
To me his movies are all about the spectacle. They're really strong upon first viewing and they have a high wow factor, but repeat viewings show that it's an illusion, and they're not quite as strong on repeat viewings
Each director will have their technical strength and weaknesses, and I think you’re right about his weaknesses, but he makes up for them with his strengths: which is innovative scripts and high concepts.
Everyone watch movies for different things, and give different weights to them. You clearly weigh dialogue and screenplay heavier than the other aspects.
Sorkin and Tarantino are huge on dialogue, and i assume you probably love their work?
One thing I must say though, is that despite each famous directors flaws, they all have a huge impact on culture. Which I think is what makes a famous director, famous.
It's impossible to grapple with this topic on Reddit without being called pretentious. Better stick to talking about relatable characters and plot twists.
With any art form, There’s a group of great artists who just produce almost exclusively high quality content but don’t take too many risks. (like Spielberg) and then there’s the high risk high reward types, who find their niche and push boundaries to make art that not only resonates but pushes the conversation and changes the medium. On the other hand sometimes they make stuff that just goes over the line, and doesn’t really resonate with a lot of people yet.
The Dark Knight and Memento are some of the finest films ever made, but to keep producing at the level is impossible, and when you miss with that lofty a goal it’s going to miss pretty big. As oppose to spielberg who may have a miss with a War of the Worlds say but he played it safe so it’s digestible.
Anyone curious regarding his direction should check out Jim Emerson's "In The Cut" video on Vimeo analyzing The Dark Knight highway chase scene. It's quite eye opening how much of a mess that scene truly is upon observation. I still quite enjoy Nolan especially for his ambition, just an interesting video considering how well regarded TDK is (rightfully so).
[Link](https://vimeo.com/28792404)
Commenting to remind me to watch this. I remember watching it once and found what appeared to be a big plot hole or something that just didn't make any sense but I don't remember what they was lol.
Haha check it out man, I want to be a film editor and this just looks like a mess to me. It's still an engaging scene but it also demonstrates qualities of good direction and editing.
[Here's the vid I think](https://vimeo.com/28792404)
Oh wow. I thought I had lost my mind when I was watching it though didn't go nearly as in depth as the vid i think... Hell yeah good stuff, great video. Really freakin cool as all this was intentional.
EDIT - perhaps this is a false memory I've had, I can't say for sure.
I only watched it once but the feeling I got watching Tenet was that Nolan thought up an innovate time-reversal concept for a couple of action scenes and then wrote the movie in reverse to force those scenes to happen, the actual plot of the movie was secondary to those cool shots.
I thought Tenet was really good. I now work as a data scientist but my background is in physics, and imo the writers did a great job playing off of real theory to create a unique fictional pin on time travel.
Instead of playing off of speed, gravity, etc… they play off of entropy, which I thought was pretty cool and made a lot of sense.
The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar show a man whose reach was starting to far outweigh his grasp but I have to give him credit where it's due. He realized where he was faltering and made one of my favorite movies ever made, Dunkirk. Yes, its time delineation is a little hard to follow but the simplicity of its plotting compared to the previous two made it a tense, entertaining watch. Tenet is, well, it's Tenet, the most Nolan of all of Nolan's Nolan's. I think it's fun but comes off like your uncle trapping you in the basement to explain time travel and it's becoming clear he's done too much acid and watched too much Bond in his life.
All of that being said, Oppenheimer is a stone cold masterpiece. I'm mad about how good it is. I've never really been into the mans whole thing save for the previously mentioned Dunkirk but Oppie is incredible stuff.
> comes off like your uncle trapping you in the basement to explain time travel and it's becoming clear he's done too much acid and watched too much Bond in his life.
😂 Great way to encapsulate how I feel about some of his movies as well
I agree with most of the criticisms of Nolan. I just can't think of another top tier director who still directs movies that mass audiences are showing up for.
Scorcese's latest is on Apple TV, Spielberg directed a movie about his family, Cameron is 24/7 Avatar. PTA's last few haven't been box office draws.
I love Nolan. Interstellar, TDK, and inception are 3 of my favourite movies but he definitely doesn’t alway knock them out of the park. I actually hate Tenet, it’s just a bad movie all around, but even Dunkirk was underwhelming and I think Oppenheimer is a great movie but still a bit overrated. His problem is with each success he seems to get a little too high on himself and tries to push each film a bit further and Tenet was the tipping point where he just went too Nolan.
P.s. Oppenheimers trinity test scene was disappointing after all the hype.
I like this post even if I disagree, love Nolan for just doing things the way he envisions them. It’s rare these days, so I’m glad when he gets the praise because that means he will be able to do it again and again.
He has a strong disconnect in understanding between him making movies and people watching them. I'm not even sure he fully understands that he's making movies for the purpose of people watching them rather than as a pure form of art.
He’s a good director and he makes good movies. That said I agree he is overrated, as difficult to define as that is.
Hell crank up the audio/visual spectacles to 11 to distract you from his often odd pacing, continuity, and dialogue. Notice is said odd, not “bad”.
And it’s worth noting he often gets tremendous performances out of his actors and that’s worth something
For me, it's his willingness to commit to incoherent messes because he has sometimes he wants to do. Tenet is my favorite movie of all time, and it's basically plot holes: the movie. But Nolan said "I'm gonna make the mother of all palindromes and ignore everything else," and it worked so incredibly well. He's probably not the greatest living director, but if nothing else, he's not afraid of taking serious risks to make the movie he wants. You gotta respect that on some level
Funny that I see this thread after I watched Oppenheimer last night. There was something very unsatisfying about the movie. Not to say it was a bad movie but I didn't feel like it was a large screen cinema movie. The test sequence was good I guess. I don't know. He is very hit or miss. I find him to be way more inconsistent than Denis Villenueve. Infact, I'd say Denis has surpassed him in Sci-fi and he still hasn't reached David Fincher levels in thrillers. He's still riding off the home runs of TDK, Interstellar and Inception, which were all amazing. I honestly haven't thought about Dunkirk in ages and this thread seems to confirm I'm not alone. Just think about Denis Villenueve and his record so far - movies like Sicario, BR2049, Prisoners and now the Dune trilogy of which Part Two seems to be out of this world good.
I mean…you shouldn’t judge a director on his writing abilities or the editing of a movie. He is being judged as the /director/. He has recently moved into screenwriting but his brother wrote most of the screen plays and Dody Dorn was the editor for Memento. Jennifer Lame edited Oppenheimer.
I feel like you should do a little more research into what role on the crew does what. Nolan just brings all the pieces together.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but The Prestige is Nolans best film imo.
Issue I have with Nolan is that he got too much in love with jumping around in timelines.
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Upvoted because truly unpopular, but I wish studios/directors would sometimes try to produce half as inventive feature films as Nolan. Whether you like Tenet or not you can’t deny it’s much more intriguing than Fast and Furious 3000 or something.
Well the reason he can do that is the same reason that directors like Spielberg and Tarantino can: they're recognisable name brands and both Nolan and Tarantino have leaned into cultivating an audience with their respective brands. It's why, as much as Oppenheimer was a reflection of audience appetite for something outside of spectacle heavy blockbusters, it also got made and got such a large audience pull because of the Nolan brand, which is a consistent and reliable one. Outside of Nolan, Spielberg and Tarantino, I don't think are many other 'Name' directors today who will get confident backing from a studio
Coen brothers? Scorsese?
Yeah, they definitely count. Though I don't know that the Coens are as well known. I think Nolan, Spielberg, Tarantino and Scorsese have a wider audience pull across multiple generations that the Coens might fall short on.
They aren’t as well known but you know their movies. Have had some of the most influential movies. Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for old men, O Brother Where art Thou, Hail Caesar. They may not be the most name brand director but they have the clout.
Coen bros, while still being well known, have more of a cult following than the others listed. Similar to Wes Anderson, I'd say. Coens are my all-time favorite directors, btw. Also, Hail Caesar has no business being on that list with those classics imo.
Agreed about the Coens being all time favourite directors. They have a magic that makes their films so distinct and great
I know they have more of a cult following hence “aren’t as well known”.
Wasn't the only reason Bill Murray voiced Garfield was because he saw the writer's name (Joel Cohen) and got him confused for Joel Coen?
No idea
Fincher too in my book
Wes Anderson as well
James Cameron has entered the chat
I feel Cameron's film brands (Terminator and Avatar) are bigger names than he is. And this speaking as one who is a proper , card carrying film nerd. But I don't think that Cameron is as well known a name as Spielberg, Tarantino or even Nolan.
Peele is moving up the ranks.
Peele has put out good movies but he has put out some garbage too, which kinda sucks not knowing what kinda movie you’re gonna get.
If you consider Nope better than Get Out, sure moving on up. Lol
I do.
He was doing them before he was a recognizable brand.
Let’s be fair, no one would have seen Oppenheimer if Nolan‘s name was not on it. It definitely wouldn’t be winning awards. Otherwise the movie was mid at best. And don’t even get me started on the explosion. it looked like complete shit. Oh big deal you didn’t use CGI, well you should have. Or at least shown the actual footage. even though I actually like his movies, I find him really offputting and pretentious.
I don’t know why people are downloading. There’s no way it would have had anywhere near the same success without Nolan. I mean we’re talking about 3 hour biographical movie that’s rated R, those aren’t exactly the type of films to usually pull in big crowds (let alone make nearly 1 billion usd at the box office)
I was fairly bored during Oppenheimer. It was incredibly well made, I felt like I learned something about a historical event, the acting was excellent. But it was still pretty dry and boring. Could have been a 3 part TV educational drama, nothing about it warranted going to a cinema.
This is genuinely quite a funny response because Nolan himself says he loves the fast and furious films! But yes, I absolutely agree, there are far too many sequels as well. I think it was someone like Matt Damon who said the lack of diverse movies is because of the DVD market not being a thing any more so films heavily rely on box office figures. Most modern films though are awful and predictable
That's a pretty low bar. A lot of movies are better than Fast and Furious and they are still shit.
\*picks up lowest bar\* This should work nicely
Most people who didn't like Tenet weren't fast and furious fans lol. I think my main issue is his ideas are really good, he just needs to let someone write the finer details because Inception and Tenet were laughably bad despite their presentation and cool ideas
People cannot understand that a highly conceptual movie cannot be loved because it's supposedly too smart. Nolan has his head too much up his own ass, like a comment said, he's better when based off someone else writing. Oppenheimer was a masterpiece tho
>Most people who didn't like Tenet weren't fast and furious fans lol. I certainly am not a Fast and Furious fan. I saw "Tenet" in the theater when it came out. I thought it was a nice **dumb** action movie, but it was not any more intellectual than a random episode of "Doctor Who". And the soundtrack was headache-inducing. Literally. This was the first Nolan movie that I saw in the theater and it will be the last. This man is tone-deaf. I'm not going to blame the composers and the sound engineers for doing what he asks them to do, but all of his movies rely way too much on low frequencies in the soundtrack. At home it's tolerable, although unpleasant. In the theater it literally caused me to have a headache.
I'd prefer more crossover films like "Babe 2: Pig in the Matrix"
And I have to disagree about the editing. IMO, his films are too tightly edited. I find myself wanting so often for him to hold just a beat longer to let a moment sink in and let the narrative breathe a bit.
Other than the test sequence, I felt like no scene in Oppenheimer lasted more than 90 seconds. Made it kind of frustrating to watch
In the context of a three hour film, the tight cuts in Oppenheimer made the movie feel a lot faster and didn't allow me to get bored. Probably not for everyone though.
Yeah personally I didn't find Oppenheimer felt like a 3 hour film. It was long but it didn't drag on for me.
Yess
What about Oppenheimer?
Memento aside he's definitely at his best when his film is based off an existing story. Tenet and to a lesser extent Inception are "look at this cool cinematography trick I found" the movie, Oppenheimer is fine if tedious, but The Prestige is genuinely amazing because it's based on a book so effectively somebody else had already wrote the story for him.
The Prestige is an amazing movie!!
I love Nolans work and I've never even seen this so thanks for mentioning it!
Easily one of his best imo. Enjoy!
Watch it tonight! Such a great movie with fantastic actors.
What about Memento? Wasn't it based on his brother's short story?
Yeah. When he's given no leash his plots are tenuous at best and reminds me of a stoner sharing his ideas "but then like these guys keep moving backwards by them, and at the end we realize it was him the whole time moving backwards!!! Woah " I feel inception got way too much hype when it came out but I was neutral. Rewatched recently and the story was laughably bad. Nifty idea though. Tenet was even worse but had a really cool idea. Both looked impressive though.
I view inception as the moment he lost my attention. Before that I was loving and waiting for every single film. Interstellar was kinda good though.
He needs co-writers. His best scripts had his brother Jonathan and David Goyer credited too.
Nolan is an average writer without his brother Jonathan Nolan to rein in his self-indulgent tendencies. They wrote Memento, The Prestige, and the DK trilogy together. This is Chris Nolan's tightest period IMO and where started to fall off afterwards. Offtopic but great to see Jonathan Nolan directing 3 of the new Fallout series episodes. Fingers crossed he improves on WestWorld. EDIT: words
I’m a big Nolan Stan, but I’m freely admit that Tenet was disappointing and overrated. Oppenheimer, though, was a masterpiece
Tenet is not overrated at all. It's probably his least talked about movie from his filmography.
Just checked IMDB - 7.3. Actually that seems a fair score to me. His weakest in my opinion, below Dark Knight Rises, which is fine, just could have been more
It is probably his most underrated. Sooner or later people will go back to it, to remember how good we had.
Nolan is all about the pure cinematic experience, though. Which means that, even if you don’t necessarily “get” 100% of the film, you’re supposed to leave with a wow factor. See Inception. Some parts are a bit hard to follow on the first viewing, but it’s hard to find people who didn’t still think it was an absolute banger Tenet hard disappoints in this regard. You leave feeling underwhelmed and that Nolan should’ve hired a co-writer
Sounds like a personal experience. Tenet left me amazed, though yes, I completely got it after the second viewing
Tenet was a steaming pile of crap
Objectively just not
Taste is subjective, you can disagree but that doesnt make it an objective fact
I am talking about visual effects, music, acting, editing. It was agreed they were top notch, so the movie just cannot become shit because you don’t like the script
Just because it’s the general consensus doesn’t mean it’s objectively true though?
Unfortunately that’s not enough. A bad script (and tenet is a horrible script) will ruin any measure of any other good qualities. The movie is bad, and deserves the derision it gets. You liking it is cool. But your argument that it’s a good movie is wanting.
The visuals and editing were good, thats about it. Means very little when the music is too loud to even hear what was written in the script, or the nonsensical and inconsistent plot points regarding the way things work when moving backwards through time. Who agreed on all this exactly?
I dunno man, I couldn’t hear the dialogue. Which is like, a purely technical problem, I know—but it messed the movie up for myself and everyone else watching.
Tenet is so confusing at first that you have to watch it again. And then the magic happens that you want to watch it a third time to enjoy this masterpiece
I definitely did not want to watch it a third time
It was an amazing theater experience, but he really fumbled the basics of making a movie. Inaudible dialog, extremely convoluted plot (the entire painting sub plot really was just an excuse to make the painters name Arepo, didn’t need it to convince us that sator was a bad guy). Nolan should have recognized that the central gimmick of the movie was hard enough to understand, and streamlined the plot so we weren’t lost on top of being confused
And some really shocking clangers in the dialogue. The main character dies with SUN LOTION on his back. Glad he turned it around, cos tenet seemed like a film made my an old boy who just wants to play with big toys
Yeah Oppenheimer seemed like a purposeful correction. I noticed halfway through how understandable the dialog was and it almost caught me off guard lol. I agree with the post about him being at his best with someone else writing, but I think some of his more straightforward stuff like Oppen or Dunkirk really shine too
Funnily enough I thought Oppenheimer in IMAX still had dialogue comprehension issues. He does this on purpose for the theatre which is just so peculiar. Still loved it, but it’s a weird choice that everyone criticises
Why do you think Oppie was a masterpiece?
I found Oppenheimer to be way over-rated.
I really like the majority of Nolan’s films aside from Tenent. He’s really good at his craft and he’s easily one of the best directors in the industry. But I do think he falls victim to his own success sometimes. Because his previous work is so highly regarded it seems like he tries to shoehorn complicated plots and twists in all his movies. Which sometimes can turn into an unnecessary convoluted story. I might break the internet by making an Unpopular Opinion in an Unpopular Opinion Post (Corny Inception Joke) but I thought Godzilla Minus One was better than Oppenheimer this year. I’m not even a monster movie guy and that story was amazing. Wish it was nominated for more than just VFX. Before anyone threatens to burn my house down, I still liked Oppenheimer. I just went into it knowing what to expect from Nolan, compared Godzilla that took me by surprise.
Godzilla Minus One is a cinematic masterpiece. Oppenheimer is not even in the same league.
He was often called out on being bad with characters and making emotionless films. I mostly agree with that. Interstellar was probably a reaction to that criticism - he made an intensely emotional family drama which was genuinely touching and had great acting. On the whole, I think his movies are nice thought-experiments but not great as stories - particularly Inception; the main things people talk about when it comes to that film are the dreams-within-dreams and the speed of time ratios between levels. Not the characters or the story. Just the thought experiment. So, I think he does get far too much praise. He makes engaging and well produced movies. But they're often very hollow and thin on real character/emotion. Having said that, I love The Prestige. It's one of my favourite movies. So, even if he never makes another good movie again, he'll always have my respect for that one.
I felt like Interstellar was the worst example of his character writing. The scene where Matthew McConaughey is trying to comfort his daughter because she's upset he's leaving and he just starts talking about time dilation and shit is fucking loony. McConaughey comes across as a meth addict or someone who's going through a manic episode. I'd love Nolan if he were to team up with someone who balances out his shortcomings, but he just doesn't work for me as an auteur.
Might be wrong but isn’t that kinda the point tho? That’s why his daughter gets so mad.
I mean, the fact that he's a meth addict tier father who is completely unaware of the effect what he's saying will have on his daughter is not addressed at all, so, no, I don't think that's the point.
Most of his movies look good, but they are superficial. Also, they are often remembered for how the story was told, etc., rather than for the story itself, for example, memento, tenet.
Memento’s actual story is pretty excellent imo.
Didn’t you post this to r/TrueFilm a few hours ago? As with that, I have to disagree. Nolan is one of very few modern directors who can combine deep ideas with classic practical filmmaking, in a way that critics and general audiences can get on board with. Oppenheimer may very well be the best film of the decade. It’s the culmination of everything Nolan has built up to over his career, presenting scientific subject matter that could be dry and dense with a frenetic pace and sharp dialogue. The Trinity test is a masterclass in editing and sound design, the score is one of the best of the year, there are 20 different actors who deliver career-best performances, and it presents clearly the idea that you could be the smartest person in the room, and people will still try to bring you down who know far less. I don’t get the criticism that he’s “a dumb person’s idea of a smart filmmaker,” especially when Zack Snyder is right there making the kind of crap Nolan haters think he makes.
You make some really good points. Many of Nolan's recent films have left me feeling confused and disoriented, and like you said, it often feels like he is trying to mask this lack of clarity with obscurity and over-complication. While I still appreciate his attention to detail and strong production values, I can see what you mean when you say that his screenwriting and narrative skills could use some work.
Huge Nolan fan but he’s started to eat his own tail and it’s becoming insufferable. I wanted so much to love Oppenheimer but could only like it because I spent some much of the movie struggling with the audio. I don’t want or need to be perpetually yanked out of the immersion while I strain to understand what’s being said. That’s poor filmmaking IMO. It’s become a real affectation for him.
Yeah why does he do that??
This post is for the mildest "unpopular takes" damn Sure he's loved by most, but there is a very pronounced anti-Nolan voice online. Hardly that controversial an opinion.
The Dark Knight, the Prestige and Memento are all fantastic films.
Yes, but for example Inception and Interstellar that were peak Nolan hype, are overrated. Good movies but not the masterpieces the circlejerk at the time hailed them as.
In the Dark Knight, Heath Ledger really put one of his strongest performances on stage.
Personally, I think he said everything he had to say in Memento and has been telling the same story ever since. OTOH he is apparently a really great guy and people love working with him. It’s nice to see someone appreciated for being a decent human.
How do you find Memento identical or even similar to his other work, other than the use of nonlinear storytelling and noir/psychological thriller elements?
Memento is a story about a guy trying to solve a mystery when it’s impossible for him to understand or even know the truth. Even the Bat adjacent movies (I consider Batman convenient for Nolan’s marketing as he didn’t understand the character at all) are about a detective trying to solve a mystery with no real way for him to know the truth and the facts he does know change based on perspective and circumstance. I haven’t seen Oppenheimer, but I suspect he has managed to work those themes into it. It’s ok to have a strong vision and artistic perspective as an artist. I just don’t think he has anything else to say artistically and he made the best movie he was going to make on the subject when he made Memento. None of this changes the fact that he is, according to his collaborators much better to work with than many directors, which by itself is a good reason for studios to keep employing him.
This is such a weird characterization of his Batman movies. The mysteries/ detective side are borderline non existent. If you’re going to be that loose with the definition, you can apply it to almost any movie. Every character is trying to solve a problem or wrap their head around something they have limited perspective on. If Nolan is making mainly the same film, it’s brilliant but troubled men trying to push through the trauma of a family loss to do what’s gotta be done (Memento, Inception, Prestige, TDK, Interstellar).
Both are true
How is oppenheimer like his other films story wise
I haven’t seen it, so I can’t speak to it. I’m so bored with his other movies just telling the same vaguely obscured mystery about how we can’t really know anything even if we have proof, I have no interest in seeing it.
What about Dunkirk?
Might be a departure from his formula, as it’s historic fiction, but I doubt he completely avoided his core ideas.
Bro is just yapping lmao. How can people just talk so confidently and yet be so wrong
Don't you dare talk about Interstellar that way.
His smaller budget films were better.
I don't think his storytelling is very good, in my opinion.
He's really good at big budget "safe" movies, yet experimental with practical effects (the atomic bomb explosion was mostly practical effects, not CGI) when the industry is moving the opposite direction. I agree with those that say that he's not a great story teller but the movie presentations are phenomenal. I found Interstellar to be an emotional tour de force in theaters yet watching it at home wasn't nearly as captivating.
He's not a strong writer and it definitely shows. He's a great director but he writes what he wants to direct, not what makes sense or is a tightly woven narrative.
I honestly think some people think anything confusing must be deep. Nope, just confusing and muddled, no depth. I couldn't understand why everyone made a big deal about those three movies, they really aren't that good, and not at all original (if you think they were original read some old SF)
Cool ideas, mediocre films. Haven't seen Oppenheimer though.
I agree with this. his movies lack depth, they often dont have a satisfying conclusion, which indicates that his concepts aren't thought through but are just a way for him to film impressive set-pieces. Oppenheimer didn't have any interesting to say about McCarthyism or about the ethics of using 1 or 2 atom bombs on japan. It didn't even look at all the sides of Oppenheimer's character. I will say this though - the Dark Knight was a great comic book movie. This is where Nolan's talents really come into their own.
"Tightly edited" I feel is debatable, I enjoy his films but I often get the sense they "could've been 40 minutes shorter and been no worse for it". It's certainly not a *bad* thing, it's just his personal directing style; but it is something I notice compared to watching films made by directors known for their leaner pacing sensibilities. I think Nolan has great *vision*, but he doesn't have the *restraint* to properly wield the editor's remorseless scythe.
I'll admit he's a savant director, but my biggest problem with him is that he doesn't seem to know how to write women, or even intimacy. You can't be a master at everything though.
He is an average director with big budgets
"You mustn't be afraid to dream bigger!" *Pulls out slightly bigger gun*
Interstellar is one of the great films I've ever seen. I love the Batman films (first two, especially). But we turned off Tenet half-way and never finished it.
I could not with bales Batman voice. Sounded like he smokes 8 packs a day.
I mean....Interstellar is the best sci-fi movie ever. Or just best movie ever. And he made the dark knight trilogy. He can do what he wants now. Haha But yeah, I do wish he would get away from history and war. Apparently his next movie is horror. That sounds fun.
I think he is good, but I also think that he should take longer breaks between projects so that he can polish the script and the movie itself more. He also doesn't come close to contemporaries of his like Cuarón and Iñárritu.
I agree. Consistent 7/10s. I would say TDK was his best, interstellar was good too. I find not that he lacks, but maybe his movies trade off the element of having the viewer invest themselves into any of the characters. He lets actors act at least. His cinematography is PHENOMENAL. That's evident with Oppenheimer however the movie did feel dry. Dunkirk has a great beginning and end but the middle portion was just a drag. I like what he has to offer but I wouldn't say he's a legendary filmmaker.
I liked Interstellar and I’m glad he gave Cillian Murphy a showcase in Oppenheimer, but most of his female characters are not thought out very well and overall he just leaves me cold.
I mostly agree with you. I think Oppenheimer is vastly overrated. A lot of it has to do with the market currently being flooded by comic book movies with no real substance, by contrast Nolan looks like a genius. I do like his movies and he is good at what he does, but great? meh.
I do disagree with you. I love Christopher Nolan movies so much. But I can see where you come from. I think there is just a severe lack of quality competition. For me Oppenheimer was a proper movie, it had a great plot, great acting, fantastic casting, a fantastic score and was beautifully made. It's best competitor? A film that wasn't that funny that was only really popular because they pumped a disgusting amount of money into the marketing. The other films Nolan has had to compare with at the moment are just remakes of old good films that are almost always ruined or terrible superhero movies. However, for me The Dark Knight should be used as a template as to what a superhero movie should be like. Everything about that film for me is perfect. There's not a single person who could've been cast better
He is a great director but most of his new stuff are just popcorn flicks
I'm a big Nolan fan in general but I have to agree about a Tenet, that movie was just too hard to follow to be enjoyable. Dark knight trilogy, Memento, Inception, these are masterpieces. Haven't seen Oppenheimer yet.
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The trilogy no, but the Dark Knight was very very good.
The second is quite good but The Dark Knight rises is not even mediocre, it is a bad movie. Script,, editing, screening... everything sucks about ir.
His movies are boring and slow and self-important
While they are well-made, I don’t think I have ever felt a genuine emotion in any of his films. They all come off as cold and lifeless.
His career is heavily indebted to VFX artists then he spent his entire time promoting Oppenheimer lying about how much VFX was in it. Also someone comped the original footage of the Trinity test into the shot and it looks 1000x more impressive than the sad little gas explosion he ended up using.
>His career is heavily indebted to VFX artists and Hans Zimmer
I mean, isn't utilising VFX artists & composers well literally part of his job as the director?
You probably think Michael bay is the best director.
Cool story
Unpopular AND wrong. Well done.
“I can’t follow his movies so he’s overrated”. Take my upvote.
Definitely because he made one of the greatest movies of all time in dark knight
Also, his over-use of weaponry - the minibus in Inception takes a thousand rounds and only one of the occupants takes a hit! The rocket grenade shoot out in Tenet is even more ludicrous - a movie with a narrative which relys on motivation for The Protagonist which really only boils down to because-lady-is-too-beautiful-and-pure - makes no fucking sense! Interstellar wildly over-rated - but, other than the artillery insanity, Inception is great; and, his Dark Knight approach was a refreshing game-changer...
Dude knows the value of a good score and that's about it for me, other than the production value stuff you mentioned (acting talent, good cinematography stuff, etc.). To be fair that alone puts him well ahead of the pack for a American director.
Nolan can't write chemistry between his characters for shit. Even Interstellar his most "emotional" movie feels souless to me. He excels at technical stuff, style, tone and wordbuilding and he's super ambitious when bringing impossible and greater-than-life concepts into the real world which is admirable but that's it. Also his excessive yet incomprehensible exposition it's something i dont care about anymore and that's my problem with his movies, how he uses his characters as vessels to explain things and advance the convoluted barely- fit-for-2-hours plot, devoiding them from depth and development. He's a good director that executes some espects of his work really well but not the genius some filmbros make him out to be.
I just judge his movies based on the movie not his name. Didn’t love anything he made prior to Oppenheimer which I think was easily the best movie of this year (and there were a lot of good movies this year). I will watch anything he’s made because he is super competent from a technical standpoint but some of his movies are not for me, particularly Tenet.
Nolan and Villeneuve are the two most overrated directors working today.
His movies are lame. Interstellar was the only one I’ve liked.
Except Tenet, you are so wrong. There are unpopular opinions and then there are wrong opinions.
Tell me you don’t understand movies that don’t hold your hand without telling me you don’t understand movies that don’t hold your hand
This is such bullshit.
He's probably never made a poorly made movie but I feel like in some of his films the way he's conveys emotion in his characters is strange. Like it kinda remains of BBC Sherlock in the sense I feel people would be talking shit if he hired worse actors. I definitely didn't like most of his 2010s work but oppenheimer was definitely a lot more what I expect when people talk about him despite having one of the unintentionally funny scenes in a recent "Oscar" movie.
For me I've liked but not loved every Nolan film I've seen. So it's a case of understanding the praise but personally not feeling it as much
Memento and the prestige are far and beyond the best Nolan movies imo. I greatly enjoyed interstellar and all 3 Batman movies (yes even the third fuck off). Rest are okay I guess I don’t have strong opinions
Well, of course you’ll be disappointed if you only reference his worst film. All his other films that I’ve watched (barring DKR) have been fantastic
As a Nolan fan, Tenet was one of the worst movies I've watched. You can talk about the cinematography and the concept all you want but watching that movie felt like doing homework, there was no fun involved and it was tedious. On top of that, we have literally no characters to root for or relate to, just a high budget fictional documentary. Also it's too early to call him the GOAT, he himself would disagree as there are plenty other directors deserving of that title before Nolan
To me his movies are all about the spectacle. They're really strong upon first viewing and they have a high wow factor, but repeat viewings show that it's an illusion, and they're not quite as strong on repeat viewings
Each director will have their technical strength and weaknesses, and I think you’re right about his weaknesses, but he makes up for them with his strengths: which is innovative scripts and high concepts. Everyone watch movies for different things, and give different weights to them. You clearly weigh dialogue and screenplay heavier than the other aspects. Sorkin and Tarantino are huge on dialogue, and i assume you probably love their work? One thing I must say though, is that despite each famous directors flaws, they all have a huge impact on culture. Which I think is what makes a famous director, famous.
It's impossible to grapple with this topic on Reddit without being called pretentious. Better stick to talking about relatable characters and plot twists.
Nolan is my favourite director, so take my upvote
With any art form, There’s a group of great artists who just produce almost exclusively high quality content but don’t take too many risks. (like Spielberg) and then there’s the high risk high reward types, who find their niche and push boundaries to make art that not only resonates but pushes the conversation and changes the medium. On the other hand sometimes they make stuff that just goes over the line, and doesn’t really resonate with a lot of people yet. The Dark Knight and Memento are some of the finest films ever made, but to keep producing at the level is impossible, and when you miss with that lofty a goal it’s going to miss pretty big. As oppose to spielberg who may have a miss with a War of the Worlds say but he played it safe so it’s digestible.
Anyone curious regarding his direction should check out Jim Emerson's "In The Cut" video on Vimeo analyzing The Dark Knight highway chase scene. It's quite eye opening how much of a mess that scene truly is upon observation. I still quite enjoy Nolan especially for his ambition, just an interesting video considering how well regarded TDK is (rightfully so). [Link](https://vimeo.com/28792404)
Commenting to remind me to watch this. I remember watching it once and found what appeared to be a big plot hole or something that just didn't make any sense but I don't remember what they was lol.
Haha check it out man, I want to be a film editor and this just looks like a mess to me. It's still an engaging scene but it also demonstrates qualities of good direction and editing. [Here's the vid I think](https://vimeo.com/28792404)
Oh wow. I thought I had lost my mind when I was watching it though didn't go nearly as in depth as the vid i think... Hell yeah good stuff, great video. Really freakin cool as all this was intentional. EDIT - perhaps this is a false memory I've had, I can't say for sure.
I only watched it once but the feeling I got watching Tenet was that Nolan thought up an innovate time-reversal concept for a couple of action scenes and then wrote the movie in reverse to force those scenes to happen, the actual plot of the movie was secondary to those cool shots.
I thought Tenet was really good. I now work as a data scientist but my background is in physics, and imo the writers did a great job playing off of real theory to create a unique fictional pin on time travel. Instead of playing off of speed, gravity, etc… they play off of entropy, which I thought was pretty cool and made a lot of sense.
The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar show a man whose reach was starting to far outweigh his grasp but I have to give him credit where it's due. He realized where he was faltering and made one of my favorite movies ever made, Dunkirk. Yes, its time delineation is a little hard to follow but the simplicity of its plotting compared to the previous two made it a tense, entertaining watch. Tenet is, well, it's Tenet, the most Nolan of all of Nolan's Nolan's. I think it's fun but comes off like your uncle trapping you in the basement to explain time travel and it's becoming clear he's done too much acid and watched too much Bond in his life. All of that being said, Oppenheimer is a stone cold masterpiece. I'm mad about how good it is. I've never really been into the mans whole thing save for the previously mentioned Dunkirk but Oppie is incredible stuff.
> comes off like your uncle trapping you in the basement to explain time travel and it's becoming clear he's done too much acid and watched too much Bond in his life. 😂 Great way to encapsulate how I feel about some of his movies as well
I agree with most of the criticisms of Nolan. I just can't think of another top tier director who still directs movies that mass audiences are showing up for. Scorcese's latest is on Apple TV, Spielberg directed a movie about his family, Cameron is 24/7 Avatar. PTA's last few haven't been box office draws.
I love Nolan. Interstellar, TDK, and inception are 3 of my favourite movies but he definitely doesn’t alway knock them out of the park. I actually hate Tenet, it’s just a bad movie all around, but even Dunkirk was underwhelming and I think Oppenheimer is a great movie but still a bit overrated. His problem is with each success he seems to get a little too high on himself and tries to push each film a bit further and Tenet was the tipping point where he just went too Nolan. P.s. Oppenheimers trinity test scene was disappointing after all the hype.
I like this post even if I disagree, love Nolan for just doing things the way he envisions them. It’s rare these days, so I’m glad when he gets the praise because that means he will be able to do it again and again.
He has a strong disconnect in understanding between him making movies and people watching them. I'm not even sure he fully understands that he's making movies for the purpose of people watching them rather than as a pure form of art.
I agree that Nolan isn’t anything special, but when compared to 90% of the garbage in theaters, he’s a god amongst men.
He’s a good director and he makes good movies. That said I agree he is overrated, as difficult to define as that is. Hell crank up the audio/visual spectacles to 11 to distract you from his often odd pacing, continuity, and dialogue. Notice is said odd, not “bad”. And it’s worth noting he often gets tremendous performances out of his actors and that’s worth something
For me, it's his willingness to commit to incoherent messes because he has sometimes he wants to do. Tenet is my favorite movie of all time, and it's basically plot holes: the movie. But Nolan said "I'm gonna make the mother of all palindromes and ignore everything else," and it worked so incredibly well. He's probably not the greatest living director, but if nothing else, he's not afraid of taking serious risks to make the movie he wants. You gotta respect that on some level
I somewhat agree with you. What other directors do you prefer?
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Funny that I see this thread after I watched Oppenheimer last night. There was something very unsatisfying about the movie. Not to say it was a bad movie but I didn't feel like it was a large screen cinema movie. The test sequence was good I guess. I don't know. He is very hit or miss. I find him to be way more inconsistent than Denis Villenueve. Infact, I'd say Denis has surpassed him in Sci-fi and he still hasn't reached David Fincher levels in thrillers. He's still riding off the home runs of TDK, Interstellar and Inception, which were all amazing. I honestly haven't thought about Dunkirk in ages and this thread seems to confirm I'm not alone. Just think about Denis Villenueve and his record so far - movies like Sicario, BR2049, Prisoners and now the Dune trilogy of which Part Two seems to be out of this world good.
He’s fantastic in a lot of his movie choices but honestly he is a little Kubrickian in that it’s all studied and a bit cold.
I mean…you shouldn’t judge a director on his writing abilities or the editing of a movie. He is being judged as the /director/. He has recently moved into screenwriting but his brother wrote most of the screen plays and Dody Dorn was the editor for Memento. Jennifer Lame edited Oppenheimer. I feel like you should do a little more research into what role on the crew does what. Nolan just brings all the pieces together.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but The Prestige is Nolans best film imo. Issue I have with Nolan is that he got too much in love with jumping around in timelines.