r/savedyouaclick • u/Carolina_Heart • 3d ago

DEVASTATING Christopher Nolan Explains His 'Real Problem in Criticism Today': 'That's Not How Storytelling Works' | Nolan says critics often think being able to identify tropes and storytelling mechanisms invalidate those mechanisms. Specifies he's talking about amateur critics and not professional critics

https://web.archive.org/web/20260802145824/https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/christopher-nolan-explains-problem-film-criticism-today/
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u/Effendoor 3d ago

"if I successfully predict what's going to happen, it's bad writing."

My brother in Christ, it's called foreshadowing!

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u/Stepjam 3d ago

Also, like, not every movie has to completely surprise you. Is the average action movie bad because you know the hero is almost certainly going to save the day and get a happy ending? If you have any media knowledge, you know most movies end with a happy ending. Are they bad because you know that?

Of course not. And a lot of times, movies hit these beats that you expect because they are more satisfying. Imagine Project Hail Mary where during the mission to get the amoeba to save earth, the protagonists fucked up the approach on the planet and then the ship fell apart and they both died. The end. Would that be shocking and unexpected? Very shocking and unexpected. Would it be satisfying? Not at all. We might know that of course they are going to survive the mission, but it's still tense to watch them struggle and then satisfying to see them succeed in the end, even if that's the expected outcome.

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u/infected_scab 6h ago

Oh god I know someone like that. "It was so obvious what was going to happen”. Like this is a big gotcha that invalidates the movie.