Ok, so I haven’t done a pseudo film critique for awhile – probably since selling my soul to the corporate world – and this isn’t one, but I am having a major fangirl moment after catching Inception tonight.
I can’t remember the last film that got me gushing long after the credits rolled. Oh, yes I can, The Dark Knight probably came quite close, and I remember the “morning afters” to The Prestige and Memento when I was literally jumping around discussing arguing about the film (incidentally I only caught the last two on DVD).
Yes, writer-director Christopher Nolan always blows me away. You know how people you have high expectations of have a penchant to disappoint? I am amazed that he consistently delivers after all these years. Actually, I am quite thankful Inception turned out as good as it was; I was so hopeful that I would have been terribly disappointed otherwise.
In another life, when my ambition was still to be a writer / director (and when I still gave a damn about concepts and scripts and production design), I idolized him as the pinnacle of a filmmaker. I would take his carefully crafted high concept films over Jerry Bruckheimer’s blockbuster inundation any day.
And when you have sat pen in hand trying to think of a coherent story that is not cliche or trite or, as it usually is, just plain lousy, you truly appreciate what a work of art each and every one of his films is.
In a world where even die-hard Twilight fans lament about how it’s-so-awful-don’t-even-try-to-see-it Eclipse is, Nolan represents all the good that’s left in the film industry these days.
