genuinely clever or pretentious?

both

It can be both
Being pretentious means something tries to exude culture it doesn't have, but it can still be clever

I thought it was interesting since it had a non linear storyline, and trademark Nolan ambiguous twist/ending/reveal
It's good entry level for people into non schlocky filmmaking

Also I don't think making a paradigm of clever vs pretentious is enabling of good discussion

>>79681913
What's pretentious about it? By the end it makes sense.

File: tips.jpg (2KB, 97x125px) Image search: [Google]

2KB, 97x125px

>>79681913

Hi OP. I'm the smart movie guy in our group which is the go-to-guy to ask what a particular scene in a movie means or what smart movies to watch.

and so far my list includes

Fight Club
Interstellar
Cloud Atlas
Pulp Fiction
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Oldboy (both the Korean and the remake)
Looper
BvS
Memento
The Matrix Trilogy

and many more from my list. I really think its Nolan's best film which showcases his talent.

If you have any questions AMA

>>79681913
Little bit of both. Mostly clever though. Story couldn't have been told any other way. Nolan's best IMO.

>>79681913
This is one of those "boring on the rewatch" movies. Once you fully understand the gimmick and where it's all going, there's nothing more to it. The performances aren't especially noteworthy, and very few if any scenes actually stand out.

>>79681913
I like it I think the backwards story is a great way of putting the audience in the same position as Leonard, when each new scene starts just like Leonard himself we don't know how or why he is there and we might be confused or mislead by the situation that's presented.

>>79681913
It blew my mind when they revealed that the ending was actually the beginning, or the beginning was actually the ending depending on your point of view. I thought about it for a while and it really is something else. To put it consicely: a film for intelligent people.

>>79682147
What is the protagonist's name in fight club
Do you subscribe to the idea that Zion is still in the matrix?

This movie has Nolan's classic sin before he started concealing it after nonsense, he wants to have his cake and eat it too, he is both so pretentious and condescending at the same time it creates a gordian knot, explains how to undo it then cuts it, because Nolan is THAT smart of course, he can not only stage drama, he can solve it like a surgeon, and the result is impressive if you know absolutely nothing about stitches.

File: 1470398513293.jpg (2KB, 97x125px) Image search: [Google]

2KB, 97x125px

>>79682570

>>79682280
Edward Norton
No there was nothing to suggest that

>>79682147
Memento is Nolans best work though. Followed by Dark City.
Honorable mention is the plane scene.

>>79682147
Anything Villeneuve has ever made belongs on that list too. :^)

>pretentious
Don't be an idiot. It had a simple and original premise that it executed without clutter. There is absolutely nothing pretentious about it.

Pretentiousness gets thrown around so much that it has become a word idiots spout when they don't like something and it isn't fart humor.

>>79682641
>le dips fedora :)
kys

Clever but entirely a gimmick. The fact that Redditors and IMDBers will put this in their top 100 or even top 100,000 is fucking laughable

It's elegant in its simplicity, like a high production value episode of the Twilight Zone
>this is what it would be like to have this memory problem, here, experience it via the editing
>now that you have experienced the memory problems, is the protagonist morally responsible for murder?
That's all it says.
It's not like hundreds of art films that have us speculate about the nature of infinity or abstract concepts from freudian psychoanalysis or critical theory. It isn't deep, but that's better than opaque bullshit masquerading as deep.

>>79682890
Yeah, I imagine it's a word you get called a lot

>>79683144
Not that poster but what makes Memento pretentious? The use of black and white in some scenes?

>>79683131
>implying that Nolan leaves anything open to discussion
Loving every laugh

It's great trying to figure out what the fuck is going on the first time you watch it, but has no rewatch value.

>>79681913
>Nolan
>genuinely clever
The amount of exposition in Memento alone is staggering, let alone in the rest of his flicks.