I think I have seen all of Nolan's work, and I vividly remember watching "Insomnia" in 10th grade, and "Memento" on VHS in 2001, (forgot my friend's cousin renting "Following" in like 99 or so) I have liked his work in the Batman series, though it remains highly flawed, and always respected him as a filmmaker. Though, he has never been, or has steadily dropped from being someone I consider a favorite, though I think everything he does is worth watching, I did walk out of "Interstellar", it was late, and I was bored and tired, and just called it.
I thought this was incredibly done, the score, the direction, the visuals of the beaches, esp. at night were amazing work. I thought the Hans Zimmer score was very good, and helped convey the tension and triumph in all the small moments, which is where the movie really shined. Some obvious flaws were some of the more overly cliched scenes, with Georgie, falling and hitting his head, I understood why it was done, just felt very pat more then once. Doesn't mean it didn't move me in the moment. The dogfighting scenes were the least compelling to me throughout, (loved the end sequence though) and I thought at times the shifting narratives was jarring, as focusing on one person felt more effective and resonating. The acting was all first rate.
I liked the trimmed down war movie, and less is more approach, no 3 hour epics, no sob stories, (or limited ones), like overwrought movies of last decade "We Were Soldiers", this showcased the horror and terror, and resilience of war in 2 hours or under. I did lose track of characters, and I had some questions regarding chronology (The Day/Week/ cards baffled me?) but overall, I was more than impressed, and liked it much more than I expected. Never care much for Imax or 70mm, but I should have done it, can certainly see the appeal. Loved the shots of the Atlantic from up close, cold and unforgiving, murky green/blue, constant surf and the foam cast against the beaches, I thought he really shone here as a director. I also read about Dunkirk in my WW2 phase in elementary, and watching this jogged memories I had long forgotten about the battle, and the battered old blue history book I kept checking out of the library, I think about WW2 and SAS, RAF fighters in Dunkirk.
