Tag Archive: Christopher Nolan


Tenet – back to front baloney

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September 4, 2020

TENET directed by Christopher Nolan (UK/USA, 2020)

Up till now there has been plenty to celebrate in the movies of Christopher Nolan. With his redefining of Batman as The Dark Knight and visually striking films like Dunkirk, Interstellar and Inception he has established himself as a director whose films are made to be appreciated on the big screen. Streaming may provide the same information, but the spectacle is lost.

Nolan’s are the type of movies that Mark Cousins, in The Story of Film, spoke of as transforming the viewers experience and expectations from the ‘want see’ into the ‘can see’. In other words, the action is not limited by what is possible but transformed and expanded into a world of limitless possibilities.

The release of Nolan’s latest move, Tenet, was delayed to coincide with the end of Covid-19 restrictions and the media has gone into hype-drive pitching Nolan as a kind of savior of the multiplex. It’s a pity therefore that it is easily his worst movie to date and far from being the masterpiece we had good reason to hope for. Continue reading →

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INTERSTELLAR: DON’T LEAVE US THIS WAY

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November 13, 2014

INTERSTELLAR directed by Christopher Nolan (USA, 2014)

interstellerShould we stay or should we go?

Brion Gysin , the English-born painter and poet who introduced William S Burroughs to cut-ups believed that leaving the planet was the only thing that gave any purpose to life on earth; “we are here to go”, he said.

This perverse notion is one that Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan transform into the interstellar overdrive of their extraordinary cinematic vision – a space odyssey of epic proportions.

Reasons to go are indeed pressing since Earth is rapidly becoming uninhabitable with crops literally turning into dust. We are not privy to the precise reason for this state of affairs but Professor Brand (Michael Caine) alludes to humankind’s selfish tendencies as being a primary cause. This is also something Naomi Klein, in her book This Changes Everything, has rightly identified as a key factor in climate change.

If, as seems probable, the future of humankind is due to the largely man-made catastrophe of global warming, it begs the question as to how we are going to prevent fucking up another planet too. The mysterious Eureka solution that saves the world suggests that a last-minute reprieve is possible; a central message that is as delusional as it is dangerous. Continue reading →

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DARK CITY : MIND MATTERS

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March 20, 2013

DARK CITY directed by Alex Proyas (USA, 1998)

The strangers in Dark Star

My favourite ever episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is ‘Hush’ where a ghoulish group known as The Gentlemen invade Sunnyville and steal everyone’s voices so selected victims can’t scream as their hearts are cut out.

These scary figures look similar to the pallid hairless aliens known as ‘the strangers’ in Dark City and move the same way; floating rather than walking to seek out their prey.

This movie is a neo-noir fantasy sci-fi horror mystery by the director of The Crow. It shares the bleak underworld vibe of his earlier cult classic without the same killer soundtrack. It looks very stylish but lacks any real sense of menace – more like a weird dream than a horrific nightmare.

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WHY SO SERIOUS?

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September 9, 2012

Bane's maskDark times require dark heroes and villains.

Bane in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, played by Tom Hardy, is the embodiment of all the worst horrors of terrorism, a figure so cruel and inhuman that you can’t even love to hate him. He inspires only fear and loathing.

Boring!

Other intelligent adversaries of Batman with master plans to rule the world and/or destroy Gotham City at least displayed a sense of humour.

Bane is just an ugly thug in an ugly mask.

He made me nostalgic for Joker, The Riddler or The Penguin who may have been demented and delusional but had some good one-liners.

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RATING BATMAN

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August 23, 2008

The 9 year old son of a friend I visited while in England was mad on Batman. Not the latest dark incarnation or even Tim Burton’s gothic version, but the 1960s TV shows. He had all the episodes on DVD and watched them continually so was able to tell us what was coming next and quote key lines. I asked his Mom & Dad if he liked the recent movie versions and they said that he hadn’t seen them yet. This was a deliberate policy on their part to preserve the innocent pleasure he is getting form Adam West’s camp depiction of the caped crusader. I grew up watching these shows so could understand the appeal. They are hugely dated now and were oddities pretty well as soon as they were made.

Certainly, the contrast between the colourful comic strip action and the shadowy sense of menace in the new Dark Knight film could not be more pronounced. At the cinema in Brighton where I saw it, the parental guidance alongside the 12A rating said that the movie contained “moderate violence and continuous threat” which I’d say was quite accurate. Continue reading →

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