Interstellar

[ShyViolet]

I loved every minute of the film, especially the human story. I think with movies like this it's best not to think too much about every detail.

Anyway, this book is supposed to explain everything. I hope to get it soon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/039335137 ... SY200_QL40

[Randall]

As I said, the science wasn't the problem. It was the gaping plot holes and nonsensical "explanation." And, as others have pointed out, Nolan sets his films up as being "realistic," yet basic plotting seems utterly beyond him. I think that's what turns some of us off his films. I can enjoy a ludicrous movie for the sake of entertainment (I plan on loving Jupiter Ascending, despite how many dismissed it), but Nolan seems unaware just how badly plotted his films are, even as he strives for accuracy. It makes him look like a poseur--- a dummy posing as an intellectual. I hate to sound insulting, but that's exactly why I get turned off his films. Consider it a personality conflict, I suppose. I get turned off by fake people, and I find him (or at least his work) fake.

Glad you loved it, though. I did in fact enjoy most of it as I watched it. It was mostly afterwards that I liked it less.

[Ben]

I think with movies like this it's best not to think too much about every detail.

But there's where I have a problem, too, when a filmmaker sets everything up and says they've covered themselves so it's all tight and works, and it doesn't. You can't say "oh, well, skip over that detail" because they're inviting you to look at all these elements when say come out and say how robust it all is.

And then you have to go buy a book to work it all out? No thanks...whatever the media, everything should be contained within that package to get the maximum out of it.

As I said in my previous overview post on Interstellar, I got what was going on just as with Inception, but there were plot holes, inconsistencies and illogical reasonings...and that's not to mention the issues I had with structure, casting, the sometimes hideous dialogue and performances, and other elements.

I don't know if Nolan is a "poseur" per se, as I don't think he really believes he's "the next Kubrick" as Warner seem to want to promote him and the lazy media is happy to trail along with, but I do think he has ideas above his station that he maybe isn't quite capable of really realising.

I'd love for him to do something outside his comfort zone, that's for sure. I know the standard answer is that anything he does is outside his comfort zone, as it makes for a nice sound bite, but in his twisty-turns attempts to be "clever" with his recent films, he hasn't actually been very smart.

Doing something maybe small and going back to the no-budget of Memento would be interesting at this point, without the safety net of big effects, music and actors...

[EricJ]

I don't know if Nolan is a "poseur" per se, as I don't think he really believes he's "the next Kubrick" as Warner seem to want to promote him and the lazy media is happy to trail along with, but I do think he has ideas above his station that he maybe isn't quite capable of really realising.

I don't think "The next Kubrick" or "The man who re-invented superhero movies" is in as quite as much danger of falling into the career pit of believing his own studio and fan-cult publicity as Tim Burton was when he started getting handed projects Warner didn't know what to do with--
Close, but he seems to look over the edge of the cliff once in a while: Nolan was a perfectly good psychological-thriller director (wait, I actually saw The Prestige, that was his? Ewww, I almost liked it!), before Warner wanted to reboot their Batman franchise with a psychological touch--He didn't suck at that job, so Warner gave him another one, and when that made a little more money than it should, they gave him the entire studio franchise. Then he became so determined to get out of that, he became the man that ended Batman.
Now Warner wants more eye-dazzling/head-scratching psy-fi Inceptions at the Oscars every year, just because he didn't want to do Sony's Americanized Paprika movie, and because his brother happened to be a good screenwriter.

It may not be fair to blame a director's career on his fans, but is pity allowed?
(Unless they get obnoxious about it, like Burton and Shyamalan, in which case pity is disallowed.)

[Dacey]

Batman Begins was before The Prestige. And I'm pretty sure the Caped Crusader is doing just fine.

[Ben]

Yeah, he got to do The Prestige (which I actually liked too!) because of Batman Begins. Inception he got to do because of The Dark Knight, and Interstellar because of Dark Knight Rises. With those last two non-franchise films making what they did, he now has carte blanche to make whatever the heck he wants next.

My guess is he may end up on another Spielberg never-gonna-happen-picture, Robopocalypse, which keeps getting pushed back. Although he may not want to be known for picking up The Beard's seconds, it sounds like it would suit him well in tone and scope and, no doubt, he wouLd swap things around, bring Warners on board (it's currently at Fox) and mess it up...

[EricJ]

Batman Begins was before The Prestige. And I'm pretty sure the Caped Crusader is doing just fine.

No, I meant, saying you don't want to do another Batman movie is one thing, actually wrapping up the canon and putting Bruce Wayne into happy retirement is another.

(Rather like Charlton Heston personally asking to blow up the earth in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, just to make sure he wouldn't be called back for any more sequels...I think he means it. )

[Vernadyn]

I still think Nolan can't direct action well. Sure, the Fast and Furious movies are unbelievably dumb, but Justin Lin at the very least knows how to stage and shoot an exhilarating action sequence. (He just needs to pick intelligent scripts.) And for all Nolan's striving for sophistication, you'd think he'd ask for more intelligent music and use a composer capable of writing said music (though I admit to liking about 20 minutes' worth of the score to Interstellar--much, much more than I can say for the non-James Newton Howard music from any other Nolan film.)

[ShyViolet]

Glad you loved it, though. I did in fact enjoy most of it as I watched it. It was mostly afterwards that I liked it less.

Thanks Rand. Yeah, I definitely see the points you guys are making. I guess (and I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, since I don't usually think this way) it was just the ideas presented that sort of swept me away, not really their actual execution, which I know isn't a very thorough way to watch a film. I'm sure a lot of it doesn't add up but I thought the way the characters reacted to the relativity concepts was very realistic, even if there were quite a few flaws in the plotting. One thing I didn't really like about Inception, as much as I enjoyed it, is that the characters don't even react to these awesome concepts with much emotion. "Ho-hum, we're sharing dreams. Ho-hum, we're invading this guy's subconscious. Ho-hum, three levels of dreams are about to crash and who knows if we'll die or not, but who cares." At least in this film the guy actually cries when he sees his children growing up right in front of his eyes while watching the video. I thought Anne Hathaway was quite good too.

As much as I like Nolan's films (although I'm definitely not a Nolanite) I think there has always been, on some level, a sort of detached state to all of his characters: these incredible concepts and experiences are happening to them and yet they barely blink an eye. I guess with Batman you could argue that that's his natural state, but look at Michael Keaton's portrayal: there was a detachment yet a very real soul under that mask, an actual person with thoughts and feelings. I didn't get an especially good sense of Bruce Wayne or Batman in any of the Dark Knight films, much as I enjoyed them. (I actually think Aaron Eckhart did the best job of letting an actual character shine through as opposed to a concept, even better than Heath Ledger in this case.)

At least in Interstellar the father-daughter relationship was very well fleshed out even though Cooper's relationships with his colleagues in space never really got off the ground, no pun intended lol. The film definitely has flaws but there's a greatness there too.

I still think Nolan can't direct action well.

I thought he did a much better job in this film than in some of his other movies, particularly the Batman ones. The Joker/Batman scenes never really ignited with the intensity that they should have had, and moreover there was never really an "urgency" in his action scenes. (Much as I loved Inception's dream sequences, especially the final one, I think a different director would have given them a more primal pull.)

[Ben]

The film definitely has flaws but there's a greatness there too.

No, not "greatness", but perhaps a grandiosity...?

[Randall]

I guess (and I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, since I don't usually think this way) it was just the ideas presented that sort of swept me away, not really their actual execution, which I know isn't a very thorough way to watch a film.

Vi, there is no "right" way to watch a film. I'm a very logical thinker (to a fault, at times), so plots that leave logic behind grate on me, whereas I'm possibly less tuned in to the emotions of things than you are. (Though I have been known to cry at films way more than my wife would like!) You obviously were more in tune with this film than I was, which is great. I'd hate to see your love for it diminish just because someone else didn't care for it as much. Lord knows I've adored some films that got bad reviews.

[Vernadyn]

I thought he did a much better job in this film than in some of his other movies, particularly the Batman ones. The Joker/Batman scenes never really ignited with the intensity that they should have had, and moreover there was never really an "urgency" in his action scenes. (Much as I loved Inception's dream sequences, especially the final one, I think a different director would have given them a more primal pull.)

I have to admit that I think the Tumbler/Batpod chase midway through The Dark Knight is still the best action sequence he's ever done (even though the final coda of the truck flipping over was given away in the trailer.) The "climactic" sonar-vision fight scene was a real letdown, though, and the action was just one of many aspects that disappointed me in The Dark Knight Rises.

Having just watched Interstellar again, I realize it's not really an action film. The wave scene, the "No time for caution" scene, and the fistfight on Mann's planet are the only real action scenes. I guess the first two are OK, though it's really the thunderous music that drives those scenes. (I think I like the score more than most of what Zimmer's done for the past 17 years or so mostly because I like the sound of the pipe organ so much.) The less said about the fistfight, the better….

Even though Memento and The Prestige are gimmick films, I still enjoy them a lot. I'm all for directors trying new things, but I'd like to see Nolan try new things on a scale matching that of these two films. And yes, I'm well aware that Nolan gets insomnia thinking of how he can make a film that pleases me personally.

[ShyViolet]

Thanks again Rand, I totally get what you are saying. I don't get that emotional about all films like this but for some reason it just got to me. I admit I teared up in the end. Don't worry, you didn't put me off it, I still plan to eventually get the blu-Ray.

[ShyViolet]

Much as I love the film this is hilarious!!

[Randall]

Spot. On.

"It's not that we didn't understand it. It's just stupid."