Director's Spotlight: Christopher Nolan

Alright, we haven't done the golden boy, so let's do it. I've been a Christopher Nolan fan since Memento came out, and although he's still not made a movie I dislike, the fanboys sure have tried to ruin him over the years. So I don't tend to praise him like I should, simply because everyone else is doing it. I guess it's a bit like how Tarantino has said that Scorsese probably influenced him as much as anyone other than Leone, but he doesn't tend to talk about Scorsese because everyone talks about Scorsese, so he shines a light on other influences.

But for Nolan, I gotta say that I'm a big fan even though sometimes his storytelling deficiencies get in the way. He tends to pitch everything at a climax, not letting the drama build to a crescendo, resulting in his movies running out of steam before they're over. The Dark Knight is the one where I feel this the most, because when it should be building to a climax with the coming together of the Batman, Joker, and Harvey Dent/Two-Face storylines, it's instead limping to the finish momentum wise. And all of the actors are so good, the storytelling letting them down disappoints even more. I've heard from some that the shorter nature of his most recent movie, Dunkirk, mitigates this a bit as we simply don't spend as much time with any of the characters for their stories to run out of steam. I hope this is true and will likely write about it here when I find out.

His other great flaw is his tendency at over explaining everything. There is no subtext to a Nolan movie, as he will give voice to the themes of the movie (even going so far as to quote A Tale of Two Cities while taking its themes in The Dark Knight Rises), and have exposition on top of exposition. His character mostly don't exist as people outside of who they are in the plot of the movie. They are simply tools or pieces to move about the game, not real people. This isn't true across the board, but it's a tendency of his that keeps much of his work from true greatness.

On the positive side, and there's much more positive than those previous paragraphs might suggest, I would also like to mention that he tends to get great performances from his actors. Pacino and Robin Williams in Insomnia, the lead trio in Memento, everyone in The Prestige. The only times I don't believe the characters are Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar and Marion Cotillard in The Dark Knight Rises. Both have been great in other places but not as much with Nolan.

So Nolan gets slurped all over the internet as some kind of genius, or he gets derided as the Emperor with no clothes, but as is always the case when people are reacting in extremes, the truth lies in the middle. He's a very talented filmmaker who sometimes gets too self serious, and seems unaware of his drawbacks. He doesn't seem to be growing much as a filmmaker. You can go all the way back to his first feature, Following, and all the hallmarks are there. But he makes good movies, and is having great commercial and critical success with them. Hats off to him. His movies are consistently well made, well acted, and enjoyable. Even despite my criticisms, he hasn't made a movie that I dislike yet.

My ratings:

1. The Dark Knight - 10/10


2. Inception - 9/10


3. Memento - 9/10


4. Insomnia - 9/10


5. Batman Begins - 8/10


6. Interstellar - 7/10


7. The Prestige - 7/10


8. The Dark Knight Rises - 7/10


9. Following - 6/10