Christopher Nolan: The Cycle of Success, Appeal and Backlash

Nolan is the best director out there right now. Even his worst films are better than most current movies.

Thank you for quoting me from another thread. Did I say he makes bad films, no. I simply stated, that I HAVE A FEELING people cream over The Prestige is because it's directed by Nolan. For the record Memento and Inception are some of my favorite movies of all time.

That isn't a backlash statement in the slightest.

Wow, we were both thinking the same thing and starting two different types of threads to address that same comment.

I don't think he made 5 of the 10 best films of the last decade, but he is certainly an amazing director and I love all of his work. He is able to make intellectually stimulating films and never caters to the lowest common denominator, which is more than I can say for most directors.

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But two that come to mind immediately are Metallica and Incubus. Some may disagree, but in my estimation, they sold out. Sure it became faddish to dislike them, but I think the dislike was warranted.

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Link to these 2-3 threads that happened yesterday

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Link to these 2-3 threads that happened yesterday

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Except that the only threads created about Nolan recently, have to do with his potential movies, and a couple of misinformed "Nolan is awesome" threads that went nowhere.

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I know you like Inucubus Jersey, but damn, I didn't think anything after Make Yourself was anywhere near comparable to said album, S.C.I.E.N.C.E and the early EP's.

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The song "Love Hurts" is when I finally came to terms with the fact that the Incubus I liked was officially dead. I probably should have figured that out after the Crow Left of the Murder CD though.

Well, there will always be backlash. Some people just like being out of step with the critical consensus. Or, if you only sort of like a guy, but constantly hear how great he is, it tends to harden your position against his work (which is similar to how I feel about PT Anderson – I don’t HATE his movies, well except Magnolia, I just don’t think they are all that great, and by arguing against his genius, I come off as more PTA as I probably really am in real life).

I will say it’s “safe” to praise Nolan, but I do vehemently disagree that people on this board praise anything Nolan does just because he did it. This board, as a rule, has shown a pretty good ability to rip on anyone for anything. We don’t give free passes. Except to Kurosawa. You say something bad about him, Freaux will hunt you down and gut you like a fish.

I just think it’s a natural reaction to being told how great a guy is over and over. I happen to agree that Nolan is brilliant and I voted Memento #1, but I can see how someone could just resent his critical AND commercial success. That’s a tough trick to pull.

And I absolutely agree that Nolan films can be somewhat cold. He’s comparable to Hitchcock in that regard. He is not an “actor’s director”, which is ironic, given that he coaxed such a performance from Heath Ledger.

Oh, and completely unrelated – I think it’s funny that the backlash against Metallica really picked up steam with St. Anger, which is an album that sounds closer to Kill Em All than anything they have ever done. Of course their recent stuff isn’t as good, they are no longer 25. Rock n roll, particularly punk and heavy metal, is a young man’s medium. I think their late period stuff is good if graded on the Rolling Stones curve.