Tuesday, August 17, 2010

'Life may be like unto a dream'

In the Internet age, certain types of movies stir such intense reactions – both positive and negative – and engender such provocative analyses that the conversations about them become elaborate film studies in their own right. Chris Nolan's Inception is, of course, one of those films, and I've linked to a couple of Jim Emerson's posts about it. Now here's a long post titled "Seventeen Ways of Criticising Inception" from the Big Other blog. It's very snarky (and funny) in places but it's also one of the most detailed, well-articulated pieces of negative criticism I've read in a while (and I'd like to think it would appeal on some level even to those who loved Nolan's film). I particularly enjoyed the way the writer, A D Jameson, has woven in references to, among other things: the novels of Philip K Dick (and he's right about Dick's great The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch "practically containing Inception"); Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly and Antonioni's Zabriskie Point; Cornelia Parker's installation art; and the Seinfeld episode "The Betrayal". His rants about Nolan's misogyny are a lot of fun ("The woman's name is 'Mal', for crying out loud!"). Best of all, he almost offhandedly throws in a list of "more than fifty films dealing with memory or the unreal nature of reality, all of which are vastly superior".

Personally I have no issue with people thinking Inception is a mindf#!k of a film. But this post really should be read by anyone who thinks it's a major pathbreaker with few precedents in movie history. Or anyone who enjoys provocative film writing. Go.

6 comments:

  1. My biggest problem with Inception was its inability to live by its own rules. All 'alternate' universes outside the realm of humanity have their own set of rules - and with regards to Inception, it really didn't follow them. I have to agree with the author of '17 ways to criticize Inception' There are far better made movies. HOWEVER - there is one cop-out the director can use for his movie - the whole movie was just a dream - that would explain hokey dialogues and poor cuts :-)

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  2. er outside the realm of reality not humanity. Sheesh.

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  3. Yayyyy. Thanking you for link to very interesting site. And for one brilliant post after another. *curtsey*

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  4. >>Many have been trying to read the film as being more complicated than it is—and many seem to be having a lot of fun doing it, so God bless them. Me, I think it’s all much simpler than it appears.

    Hahaha, I luuurved that line. Thanks Jai, that was a great read. I went for the movie a second time purely to take the bachcha to see it, and thought, okay, maybe now I will find some deeper meaning - and instead I fell asleep. I think the movie's amazing repeat value (rumour has it that 10% of all viewers have seen it multiple times) is the mental sleight of hand that convinces people that they've missed something out and they hate admitting it, so they go see it again, and then they miss it again... and ..

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  5. I dont understand why people cant see the movie form the heart and still be able to criticize it. It seems you have to be insensitive to criticize the movie technically...? I have seen this movie more than 10 times and I feel its more about the daddy issues than the mindf#ck. and also the basic questions about reality and illusion. but really it doesnt take us anywhere to ponder upon the details of the dreaming and architecture and all other details and whether nolan violates his own rules of the dreaming process. why cant we lose ourselves while watching the movie and accept it for a certain kind of parable. pay more attention to the emotions of cobb and mal and others. its really enlightening to see points of view of mal and ariadne.

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  6. Nikhilesh: no one is saying that you're wrong to feel moved by the predicaments of Cobb, Mal etc. But are you similarly willing to accept that everyone else might NOT feel the same way about the characters, and that this doesn't have to mean that they are "insensitive"? It certainly is possible to see the film from the heart and still be underwhelmed by it.

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