I have enjoyed Christopher Nolan's films. Love the Prestige. David Bowie as Tesla? Genius! Made a very good Batman film, plus a reasonable one. And another one. I thought Inception was great, especially once I learned that it was a metaphor for the movie making process. Dream logic and filmmaking logic are the same thing, what a concept!
There is a slight problem though. Nolan makes easy to follow mainstream films but with just enough pretense to make simpletons feel that they are especially intelligent just for being able to follow them. You can tell that this phenomenon is in effect by the vociferousness with which Nolan fans will defend his films, even when they are ****ty, like Interstellar or the Dark Knight Rises. Most detractors are dismissed by being told they just didn't understand the nuance of a man who dresses like a bat being put in a foreign jail cell by a body-builder with a crab mask. Ones who clearly could not be derided for a lack of intellectual sophistication are dismissed as "elitist".
Part of the issue is Nolan himself. I mean he's a bit of a twat isn't he? Dismissing after-credits scenes as too, I don't know, fun for movies? Insisting that, unlike all the others, he is a serious director while failing to see that a film director is basically a babysitter for adults who are playing let's pretend for obscene sums of money?
But I think that the central problem is that he makes films that while not exactly uncomplicated explosion fests, really aren't too taxing for anyone with a normal level of intelligence. He hits that sweet spot between mindless and thoughtful that is inhabited by people who are pretentious but not too bright.
And that's a talent by itself.
There is a slight problem though. Nolan makes easy to follow mainstream films but with just enough pretense to make simpletons feel that they are especially intelligent just for being able to follow them. You can tell that this phenomenon is in effect by the vociferousness with which Nolan fans will defend his films, even when they are ****ty, like Interstellar or the Dark Knight Rises. Most detractors are dismissed by being told they just didn't understand the nuance of a man who dresses like a bat being put in a foreign jail cell by a body-builder with a crab mask. Ones who clearly could not be derided for a lack of intellectual sophistication are dismissed as "elitist".
Part of the issue is Nolan himself. I mean he's a bit of a twat isn't he? Dismissing after-credits scenes as too, I don't know, fun for movies? Insisting that, unlike all the others, he is a serious director while failing to see that a film director is basically a babysitter for adults who are playing let's pretend for obscene sums of money?
But I think that the central problem is that he makes films that while not exactly uncomplicated explosion fests, really aren't too taxing for anyone with a normal level of intelligence. He hits that sweet spot between mindless and thoughtful that is inhabited by people who are pretentious but not too bright.
And that's a talent by itself.
Comment