Interesting framing. I've never seen Nolan's films as heartless or cold but the main reason I love his work is because his films are intricate and all of them have brains. He never makes the same movie twice (even the Dark Knight trilogy was true) he is one of the great directos when it comes to technical aspects I've ever seen and most critically to me, he never insults his audience's intelligence.

Perhaps his movies are too intricate and too complex but that's honestly their strength. We're still trying to figure out the meanings of Nolan's movies years and decades after they happen and he rarely if ever gives us a hint at what he's trying to tell us. In a way Oppenheimer was his most atypical film because it was linear and had a single story and plot. He told it in a completely Nolan like way of course.

And what filmmaker has the bravery of Nolan? Who else would say he was going to make a $200 million 3 hour biopic of Robert Oppenheimer and demand - insist! - on a summer release. I remember so many people thinking that this would be the final big budget studio drama ever made, certainly released in the summer. It was going to sink like a stone at the box office. I'm not sure what's more amazing: that it made a billion dollars DOMESTIC or that BARBENHEIMER was actually a thing. By the way Nolan's movie was by far the bigger risk.

And is he resting on his laurels? Of course not. His next film is going to be a filmed version of the Odyssey. Somehow I don't think we're going to get Troy Part II. I would have preferred a $240 miillon dollar epic on Einstein, but as I said, never the same movie twice. Hell, he could make it with the characters all speaking in Ancient Greek with no subtitles and I'd be in. Perhaps that will lead us to compare him to the Neo-Classicist next.