It was a terrible summer for big movies.
2010 was the year ofThe Sorcerers ApprenticeandThe A-Team, the worstSex and the Cityand the worstIron Man.
Star vehicles failed with such frequency that movie stardom itself looked defunct.
Credit: Stephen Vaughan/Warner Bros.
But a twisty, mature thriller with a vast backdrop and a radical plot structure?
Only in dreams…until July 16.
Ten years later,Entertainment WeeklyCritic at Large Leah Greenblatt returns toInceptionwith critic Darren Franich.
Everett Collection
Darren:Inceptionwas a sensation, crystallizing writer-directorChristopher Nolans status as Hollywoods brainy showman.
Still, I was a bit nervous about this rewatch, Leah.
(Though I did enjoy 2/3 ofDunkirk.)
Melissa Moseley/Warner Bros.
(Hope to see you soon,Tenet!)
The first hour ofInceptionreally is a problem, pretty much a filmed instruction manual for dream science.
The feeling of the movie as, like,a problem to solveused to invigorate me.
Now it just makes me tired.
What holds up better is Nolans old-fashioned fixation on authenticity.
The green-screen skeptic builds an evocative fantasy out of real locations Tokyo!
which heightens the sense of isolation troubling dream thief Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio).
The whole world reallyishis prison.
What are your memories ofInceptions release, Leah?
And what was it like rewatching it?
So rewatching was partly a nice nostalgic throwback ooh right,Michael Caineis in this for a minute!
So young,Ellen Page!
Darren, what about you?
The whole ensembles dressed in business-gala attire.
The incoherence of human unconsciousness gets precisely quantified on dreamclocks.
This is not a heist crew with interpersonal problems, unless you countTom HardyandJoseph Gordon-Levittas dueling prisses.
(Guys, just bone already, yeesh!)
The mood sets early, when Dom catches bullet casings as they fly out of his pistol.
Leave no mess behind.
The obsessiveness can feel asphyxiating, like all the characters are blueprints.
Gordon-Levitts dialogue is almost exclusively expository, and Page seems to be transcribing every studio note requesting clarification.
But I like how all that rigid professionalism wave-crashes against Doms interior wreckage.
So I thinkInceptionsprings to life when the heist starts andimmediatelygoes wrong.
Leah, are there sequences that really stick out to you?
Also, very pretty!)
And its not the easiest thing to get invested in what are essentially human haikus.
Nolan is not exactly known as a jokester, so Ill take my winks where I can.
Give me your final thoughts, Darren.
Darren:The hallway fight scene is truly, terrifically, totally awesome.
You watch it for the twentieth time and still think Howd theydothat???
a unique reaction in our CGI age.
And I love the final stroll through Limbo, the metropolis of broken dreams.
I know hardcoreInceptioneers groove onto all the head-trippy enigmas of whos really incepting who.
What sticks with me most is the sorrowful, quirky view of marriage.
Its an artists dream come true all the time, no distractions!
and a lovers getaway for anyone who wants a few decades without the kids to worry about.
Inceptionwas produced by Emma Thomas, Nolans wife and career-long collaborator.
Their own kid, Magnus, appears as Doms son.
We only ever see Mal from Doms perspective but he knows all the problems inherent in his male gaze.
I still cry at that moment.
Its so achingly human, a raw confession buried deep in four layers of manufactured dream.
Where are you leaving off withInceptionten years later?
Leah:Oh I love your take on Dom and Mal!
Who knew Nolan was making his own metaphysicalMarriage Storyall along.
I wonder how much of that was even deliberate?
Which isnt to say that the movie does anything casually or without purpose.
Maybe Guillermo del Toro?
Thank you for coming along with me on this ride though, Darren!
Id love to stay and talk about it all day.
But a warbling Frenchwoman keeps singing to me, so slowly; I should go.
