In a lot of ways, Interstellar felt like a reaction to criticisms Nolan has been getting ever since he hit the big time. Or, more specifically, the marketing of Interstellar did: instead of being another of the director's mystery boxes, it was positioned as a drama, with real emotional stakes and just real emotions period. Something people seem to think Nolan is incapable of. It's a similar argument made against Wes Anderson, whose films are so elegantly curated, the production design and shots so deliberately stylised that people assume a style over substance situation, when nothing could be further from the truth. With Nolan's films, people assume that the attention paid to the intricate plotting robs any life, heart or spirit from his screenplays. Which is at best wilfully ignorant, and at worst just plain stupid. Memento is entirely fuelled by the tragedy of Leonard's tragedy and illness, Insomnia is entirely psychological, and the twisty-turny plots of Inception, The Prestige and Interstellar all have a true emotional core. Too much reliance on the death wife trope? Sure. But heartless? Never. Although good luck finding the emotional core of Batman. Unless there's some sort of daddy issue going on with Bruce and Ra's al Ghul...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
