lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
His Owen Wilson was perfect.
His Owen Wilson was perfect.
Can you be a good writer without writing particularly well? I think so. James Fenimore Cooper, Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, and other significant novelists had many virtues, but elegant prose was not among them. In popular fiction we treasure flawless wordsmiths like P. G. Wodehouse and Rex Stout and Patricia Highsmith, but we tolerate bland or clumsy style if a gripping plot and vivid characters keep us turning the pages. From Burroughs and Doyle to Stieg Larsson and Michael Crichton, we forgive a lot.
Similarly, Nolan’s work deserves attention even though some of it lacks elegance and cohesion at the shot-to-shot level. The stylistic faults I pointed to above and that echo other writers’ critiques are offset by his innovative approach to overarching form. And sometimes he does exercise a stylistic control that suits his broader ambitions. When he mobilizes visual technique to sharpen and nuance his architectural ambitions, we find a solid integration of texture and structure, fine grain and large pattern.
I don't think Fincher is being forced to do this crap, to be honest. I don't think he's being very adventurous right now, for whatever reason. And like Soderbergh, he's looking at these projects as formal problems to solve.
Bordwell gets at the Nolan conundrum astutely, per usual. The main issue is that he doesn't do the things we expect a director of his "stature" to do. There is clearly talent there, but it's being exercised in perpendicular ways, favoring the bigger picture over anything else. And I can live with that if it results in something as fascinating as Interstellar.
And while you don't feel like giving him the benefit of the doubt w/r/t alternate/deeper meanings, the guy certainly isn't an idiot savant. And while he can be on the nose with these more popular entertainments, I certainly wouldn't accuse The Prestige of being too literal.
Would be nice to see him do something on that "smaller" level again.
I feel like you might've recommended me that one once before.
I have never really seen Falk in much of anything besides bit roles/cameos and Columbo, but damn do I love columbo.