9. He Just Rips People Off
Good artists copy; great artists steal goes the quote that is, rather fittingly, attributed to all manner of creative types, from Pablo Picasso to TS Eliot. Some of the most feted directors working today totally just rip off their influences, from Tarantino cribbing basically all his best shots, characters and plot lines from decades of art house and grindhouse cinema, and David Fincher being the best Hitchcock impersonator working. So why, then, does Christopher Nolan so often get accused of ripping off the work of those that came before him? It's not an argument often levied at his peers, despite them doing the exact same. There's a difference between an influence being clear ie Kubrick on everything, and 2001 on Interstellar particularly and it being theft. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Honestly, unless there's actual plagiarism going on (sorry, Shia LaBeouf), pointing out how similar one thing is to another thing is usually just a lazy attempt at seeming superior and sharp. Yeah, Nolan's style, shots and plots have precedents. Otherwise they wouldn't exist.
Tom Baker
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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/
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