The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan, 2026)

[colinr0380]

I think the ambiguity and the exposition often actually are meant to work in tandem in Nolan for much of the time rather than clashing against each other. The noir plot of Following (with your classic misdirections and double crosses) actually becomes in Memento the main character deluding himself, particularly best shown in that moment about half way through where, after recounting his life story over the phone in multiple scenes, his stream of consciousness monologue is suddenly brought short in its tracks by having forgotten just who he is talking to and why whilst he has been gassing on.

Similarly Inception is obscuring the underlying mission to have someone 'naturally' change their mind on a matter by hiding the subterfuge away under layers of distracting hyperbole, just in visual rather than dialogue terms. The spectacle is the dialectic in that sense. And the dialogue is often used for much the same purpose in a Nolan film (especially Tenet, which is a film that I have come to like a lot more thinking of it less of a world threatening sci-fi thriller than as a noir film, about a woman who capitalises on the situation to be able to both save herself and kill her husband simultaneously), where people constantly talking about their plans is not necessarily something that will work out to plan.

I think the problem well precedes Tenet...

For me it has to be the Insomnia remake takes that honour.

[Mr Sausage]

I tend to discount Insomnia because I don’t know how much of it Nolan wrote, given he’s not credited as writer. It‘s a bad movie, but bad in ways I don’t consider typically Nolan. But, yeah, it does make a blunt redemption story out of the original’s more twisty, ambiguous psychological thriller, but does so in ways that feel typically Hollywood. So much of the film feels like anonymous hackwork.

Nolan wouldn’t fulfill the promise of Memento until six years later with The Prestige. There was a time where it felt like Nolan was using the success of the Batman films to fund riskier personal ventures, and that was exciting.