Christopher Nolan and the Problem with the Good Lie
Tenet is just around the corner (although the corner keeps getting further away), fuelling cineaste hopes that this year won’t be a total cinematic write-off. And yet, the hype just doesn’t seem to be there. Maybe it’s because we’re understandably cautious of returning to the cinema. But it’s prompted some to go through Christopher Nolan’s back catalogue and ask if there’s more to it than that.
Perhaps the simplest way to describe Nolan’s films is to call them puzzle boxes. The appeal of their story is to find out what the story is; he introduces high concepts and lets them unfold and explain themselves across the running time. For example, no actual dream espionage happens in dream espionage thriller Inception until the film’s third act. Similarly, central character Cobb has a secret (and key character motivation) that’s teased out until the very end. Nolan prefers clever exposition and world-building to character development. His films are intriguing and grab attention, but his personal interest in the story always seems to lie one step removed from the characters who are actually in it.
