The entropy reversal is a pretty neat idea
I don't think it was at all. I think Nolan thought "hey, wouldn't backwards fight scenes look rad" and then made up some utter bullshit to justify doing that.
― chap, Wednesday, 17 February 2021 22:29 (three years ago) link
christopher nolan is the drake of filmmaking
― davey, Wednesday, 17 February 2021 23:10 (three years ago) link
^^^ something my girl Jasmine said that seemed correct somehow
― davey, Wednesday, 17 February 2021 23:11 (three years ago) link
U da fuckin we worstBaby u da fucking worst
― if you meh them, shut up (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 17 February 2021 23:58 (three years ago) link
“Tom and Jerry made more money its opening weekend than Tenet”https://www.vulture.com/2021/03/tom-and-jerry-has-good-opening-weekend-at-box-office.html
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Monday, 1 March 2021 21:45 (three years ago) link
Surprised it didn't get nominated for any Oscars.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 25 March 2021 07:59 (three years ago) link
The only noms I think it deserves are music for sure, maaaaybe cinematography?
― chap, Thursday, 25 March 2021 09:43 (three years ago) link
It wins the award for movie causing the most deaths
― wasdnuos (abanana), Thursday, 25 March 2021 13:48 (three years ago) link
it's up for two oscars isn't it?
― G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 25 March 2021 17:16 (three years ago) link
lol abanana
still amazed at the logic of his tantrum: insisting on releasing a movie during a time when most people are legally prohibited from seeing it vs waiting until this summer when people are going to be flocking to theaters to see any old dogshit 10 times in a row just bc theyll be excited to get out of the house
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 25 March 2021 18:21 (three years ago) link
Since the other Synchronic mention is in the post-2005 horror thread, adding here due to above comments. Liked this a lot. The jump edits worked well with the theme, and the characters were sympathetic and decently acted. Lots of cool images. Look forward to their next film. It's on Hoopla, for anyone using that US library app.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Wednesday, 7 April 2021 03:01 (two years ago) link
wow this was utterly, supremely baffling. genuinely had no idea what was happening for most of the running time. maybe i'm dumb, but at a fundamental level, i just straight up did not "get" the reversal gimmick, how it worked, how people related to it or worked around it, how you would make weapons with it or execute plans with it, what was going on when people were parallel to each other in those rooms with the big goofy steampunk machines, or any of the light-bulb "wooooah" realizations i imagine i was supposed to have during the setpieces that involve action going both directions (?)... just utterly totally lost. fundamentally could not tell the difference between people going forward in time versus backwards --- like what were the backwards people experiencing? what were they trying to do? i don't understand.but over top of that, the actual stakes or goals of most of the big scenes escaped me. okay so he's going back in time! or maybe forward! to get the case from the guy at the site of the last car chase! or maybe he's leaving it there? before the scene happened? or is this like ten minutes after that scene and the case is just like, still there? or maybe this is days before the chase? wait why did they bring her back in time with them again? and on and on...obviously the main problem here is that, easily, 1/3 to 1/2 of the dialogue was indecipherable through the mud of the sound mix. which seems like a mistake when your plot depends on keeping people up to speed with a confusing gimmick and also a whole lot of what i gather may have been plot twists or maybe even character development (the latter seems doubtful). more the fool me for watching this on the big screen in 70mm as the director intended it --- being able to switch on closed-captioning might have been a game-changer.i wish i could say it at least worked for me as pure action shot-on-film practical-effects spectacle or something. i'll say that i rode the general momentum being confused but not actively annoyed for most of the running time, but then it hit the climax and all throughout it my brain was overtaxed trying to grasp the action or give meaning to the fast-paced onslaught of overstuffed images by extrapolating my always limited comprehension of the original, unhelpful, "inverted bullet" demonstration scene. might have been cool if the guy giving the briefing on their "pincer operation" were not just as muffled and overwhelmed in the mix as everything else. ultimately this was like watching Inception in a language i don't speak, turned up very loud, and recut in random order.
― I Am Fribbulus (Xax) (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 29 August 2021 23:46 (two years ago) link
more the fool me for watching this on the big screen in 70mm as the director intended it --- being able to switch on closed-captioning might have been a game-changer.
Yeah, watching it on a laptop with subtitles made its dopey-ass plot crystal clear.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 29 August 2021 23:55 (two years ago) link
yeah, it's not better served by understanding it sadly
― think “Gypsy-Pixie” and misspelled. (We are a white family.) (forksclovetofu), Monday, 30 August 2021 00:13 (two years ago) link
The captions are worth it just to get a sense of how hilariously ridiculous the dialogue is. A world where everyone talks in the same tortured, overwritten 3rd-tier Mamet-speak. I felt sympathy for actors who had to deliver it all with a straight face - its clearly one of those scripts where no one thought about how any of the lines would sound coming out of a human mouth until they were on set calling action.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 30 August 2021 02:38 (two years ago) link
So I haven’t watched much tv, let alone movies, in the last 3 yrs - just haven’t had the attention span - but I watched this on a plane last week and it was really good and even fun?! It’s pretty dry but I didn’t mind that. It was just nice to watch a movie that gives you an idea to think about afterwards. The whole inverse entropy thing was a pretty original take on time travel, regardless of how factual it was.
I watched The Northman right after this, and it was so fucking bad all round. I looked up reviews and couldn’t believe how high people were rating it. So corny.
― just1n3, Wednesday, 24 August 2022 09:55 (one year ago) link
I watched this recently and enjoyed the angle...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OoLokmqo0A
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 24 August 2022 13:47 (one year ago) link
hmm! i do appreciate the idea that basically the equivalent of a GAMES Magazine elite-level brain-teaser, delivered as an action blockbuster, rather than an action blockbuster that founders on all its brain-teasing attempts.
did disagree with the idea of JDW as a blank slate. i thought he was great, but i definitely felt like this was his *next* huge star turn after BlackKklansman.
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 24 August 2022 14:36 (one year ago) link
Xp that was a good analysis and summed up why I enjoyed the movie so much
Watching that also made me realize I’m a dumb fuck bc until he mentioned it, I didn’t realize JDW was Denzel’s son - the stupidest part is that while I was watching tenet I kept thinking how much he sounded just like Denzel but I never made the connection
― just1n3, Thursday, 25 August 2022 16:59 (one year ago) link
This movie’s good as heck and that’s my most horrible opinion from the last couple years
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Monday, 14 November 2022 16:36 (one year ago) link
In the last couple of months I've heard a couple of people say this is actually Nolan's best movie. It's making me want to revisit it even though I didn't really care for it too much the one time I saw it. Maybe this is the one movie in his filmography which actually gets better on repeat viewings? (probably not)
― silverfish, Monday, 14 November 2022 18:58 (one year ago) link
It's going to take me about a week to watch it but so far I'm enjoying more than the first time. Subtitles definitely helping.
― ledge, Tuesday, 15 November 2022 09:21 (one year ago) link
silby is right, tenet is good now - in the sphere of timey-wimey films that need to be watched at least twice, anyway.
― ledge, Monday, 21 November 2022 10:22 (one year ago) link
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/eagle-mountain-california-ghost-town-18096768.php
― the late great, Sunday, 28 May 2023 23:22 (ten months ago) link
Finally saw this today at an arthouse theater (had tried to watch it only a plane once and only got a few minutes in). Definitely want to re-watch with subtitles sometime, but enjoyed it a lot -- imagining Nolan pitching this as a James Bond movie.
Spoiler for the first two minutes of the movie: can't believe Nolan had the audacity to open this with a mass shooting at a theater with stadium seating.
― underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Monday, 17 July 2023 04:29 (eight months ago) link
*on a plane once
― underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Monday, 17 July 2023 04:30 (eight months ago) link
alternatively could be formulated as a clunky joke: can’t believe nolan had the honesty / prophetic power / foreshadowing skill to open this movie with a theater full of sleeping people
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 17:49 (eight months ago) link
i like nolan and this movie tho
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 17:50 (eight months ago) link
I'm gonna watch it tonight for the first time....after the Barbie screening lol
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 17 July 2023 19:27 (eight months ago) link
I feel like I might have liked this better if the theatre had closed captioning when I saw it
― linoleum gallagher (Neanderthal), Monday, 17 July 2023 20:18 (eight months ago) link
like what were the backwards people experiencing? what were they trying to do? i don't understand
this is a hilarious and perfect level of not getting it, since the backwards and forwards ppl are the same ppl, and the backward ppl in the second third are mostly just ppl you’ve already seen moving forward. so this implies you don’t understand what forward ppl are doing either!
tbf not understanding what the forward ppl are doing or saying is like 90% of the complaints about this movie
you have to remember it’s a nolan movie tho, so when you remember that the backward ppl in the second half are the forward ppl from first half, you think about what the second third forward ppl are trying to do, and then remember back that the first third forward ppl are reacting to the second third forward people going backward in the first third, and that’s why the backward ppl in the second third are doing what they’re doing, which is important, because then when you see the final third all those ppl going forward are now reacting to the backward ppl in the first half while the backward ppl in that part are doing incomprehensible shit because they’re mostly from the in world future and have foreknowledge of stuff that hasn’t happened yet to anyone, so basically you’re doing inception on your own big brain as an advanced viewer of big brain cinema
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:22 (eight months ago) link
there’s LEVELS to nolan do u see which is why just like cremaster movies they’re always in weird big buildings with spiral staircases and odd hallways with weird forms of ingress and egress
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:24 (eight months ago) link
xpostas someone who hasn't seen the movie your last paragraph is the funniest thing I've read all day
― StanM, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:26 (eight months ago) link
what’s funny about restraint, masturbation, big spectacles, masturbation while restrained and a ten hour film cycle about your own testes?
also, i know this is the nolan thread but what’s so funny about mathew barney?
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:28 (eight months ago) link
wokka wokka i know but honest to god i assume someone has already done this? the tweets write themselves (gif of the demolition derby in the guggenheim juxtaposed with dark knight returns batman making the joker’s long truck stand weirdly erect like a skyscraper)
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:31 (eight months ago) link
Barney IS Nolan but moving backward
― underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Monday, 17 July 2023 20:31 (eight months ago) link
(I meant the paragraph that explains the story btw)
― StanM, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:33 (eight months ago) link
haha epic take
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:33 (eight months ago) link
the dinosaur?
― linoleum gallagher (Neanderthal), Monday, 17 July 2023 20:33 (eight months ago) link
xpost yes i caught the xpost
xp yes, bjork married barney, who is a dinosaur. pvmic by neanderthal
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:35 (eight months ago) link
specifically the reverse momentum was cool but simply incomprehensible to watch
specifically any time nolan hits u with the "but what really matters is _feelings and ppl_ do u see" despite having deployed more excellent casts as walking overplot explainers for a higher proportion of his movies than any director i could name
nb i like nolan movies as things to watch and feel smugly about appreciating the technical efforts and style and cool stuff while criticising the lack of heart and this is an important niche tbf
― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Monday, 17 July 2023 20:36 (eight months ago) link
nolan as darraghfirmation
― mh, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:39 (eight months ago) link
i probably would rep for memento as a work of actual genius also, i mean im going to go see oppenheimer in 35mm and all that
its vey frustrating that a billion dollar machine cannot see how much better i could make his movies, chris baby if ur reading this call me baby
― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Monday, 17 July 2023 20:41 (eight months ago) link
actually this is bringing in more unrelated BS but there’s a very similar gimmick in gene wolfe’s new sun and subsequent series, a set of characters moving in reverse continuity (vs the narrator / reader). then when the reader starts moving in time the actions of this set of characters take on a different light. this is a really dense set of books though, and it’s pretty confusing!
so maybe: 1) nolan really did want to make a puzzle box, and that’s okay (as opposed to being a titanic masturbator like mathew barney) and 2) nolan would be the only person who could direct a gene wolfe botns movie
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:41 (eight months ago) link
i was so so so psyched to read newsun because of the ilx thread on it and i put it down one night and i went to read it the next day and not only could i not findy way back to wherever i left it but not a word of a lie now i couldn't even find out what fucking *book* id been reading
― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Monday, 17 July 2023 20:42 (eight months ago) link
it is confusing and subtle. a lot of the practical effects are really weird. like the shootout in the road when the cars are stopped, there’s windshields shattering in forward and reverse, and in theory you could mentally follow backward to see who’s shooting in what direction, so you can pick apart who’s on what side and who’s going in which direction
but when you watch it in real time it’s very subtle, and you mostly get this sense of unreal weirdness because windows are shattering but everything looks subtly wrong, sort of like an uncanny valley i guess?
time travel so realistic it doesn’t signpost what’s going on (like the way back to the future or marvel might with time travel) so you just end up feeling dislocated and confused.
and then on top of that it just makes the mundane plot (about trying to grab the macguffin from the other guys) harder to follow
the “feelings and ppl” criticism also makes sense to me! although i don’t find feelings and ppl important in movies. i mean, feelings and ppl are important but that’s not really what i watch sci fi films for
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 20:48 (eight months ago) link
so maybe: 1) nolan really did want to make a puzzle box, and that’s okay (as opposed to being a titanic masturbator like mathew barney)
― rick semper moranis (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 17 July 2023 20:52 (eight months ago) link
im all for feelings and ppl in any genre i think nolan has rarely demonstrated the actual knack for it tbh, he wants to always blow you away with the moment in a tour de force of shock and awe which i think rarely doesnthe performances of his actors justice (pattinson i think actually takes his quiet moment beautifully in tenet tho)
i think the first comparison id go to to demonstrate what good looks like is probably arrival, if i had to shorthand where i think nolans stitching doesnt quite hold up?
the technical stuff, entropy and momentum as reversing forces or what have you, i trust him to be getting right and to have deployed perfectly as gar as justifying each separate effect.
i just think he doesn't always deploy the undoubtedly correct phenomena/concepts at play very well as story device i guess
― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Monday, 17 July 2023 20:55 (eight months ago) link
arrival is good! but how about dune? annihilation? i’d suggest it’s a better comparison than you might realize. they have a similar technique (or at least similar rigid adherence to a maybe less similar set of principles) and a similar hit rate!
i think arrival is disappointing to me in that the parts a lot of people like are the parts that make a lot of tv / cinema (and even more so, literary fiction) hard for me to swallow. see also ilx favorite children of men, which takes bleak sci fi and adds in that golden globe bs plus the urban combat misery porn you usually just get from the intl news
― the late great, Monday, 17 July 2023 21:01 (eight months ago) link