Sometimes a Good Story is Just That: A Good Story

Illustration by Valerie Letts

Christopher Nolan is known for his complexity. He embodies it, emboldens it, embraces it - it's all that comes to mind when you think of him and his films. 

However, when you watch his masterpieces, complexity isn’t what makes you remember them; instead, it’s the captivating stories and engaging experiences you gain from watching one. There’s a difference… and the difference lies in whether or not you value the story for what it is, and not for what it could be. Painstaking analysis doesn’t add anything to a story if all it achieves is confusing you. 

What’s important isn’t what the story means. What’s important is the story itself, because sometimes a good story is just that. 

Somebody once commented that they felt like their life was a Christopher Nolan movie, in that they usually didn’t understand what was happening. Nolan had a simple response: “Don’t try to understand it. Just feel it.” This is almost contradictory to Nolan’s style of filmmaking, which is very much intentional and detail-oriented in the way a movie is constructed. But perhaps he is offering us all something more; sometimes, feeling can give you more than understanding. 

You can’t always put everything you’re feeling into words in a way that can be understood. You can’t say everything you want to say at any given moment. Not when you are saying goodbye to someone, not when you are entering a new phase of life… not even when you are entering a dream within a dream within a dream (there was bound to be an Inception reference, come on now). 

Any movie of Nolan’s is really just him sharing his curiosity with all of us. Through the process of watching his films, we are sharing our interests with him. In turn, his questioning gets blended into our own, producing something new and greater than before that reaches well beyond a mere movie. The mixing of our curiosity with that of a filmmaker sticks with us, as both of us are sharing parts of ourselves, whether it be through producing a movie or simply watching it. We are in conversation, thinking alongside one another. The filmmaker leaves a part of themselves with us, and we in exchange leave a part of ourselves with them and their movie. 

Just letting a film wash over and sit with us is more than any filmmaker can ask for. It is more than enough. You do not need to be an academic to engage with the film -  simply watching and enjoying the story is sometimes all that can be asked of us. 

There’s a reason why I rewatch Nolan’s movies over and over again. Not because I want to analyze and intellectualize them to my detriment. I don’t even rewatch them to understand them. It’s because I simply love the movies; I love watching them and I want to let them wash over me like huge waves, again and again and again. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Captain Holt of Brooklyn Nine-Nine once wisely said that if you love someone, you’ll remember what they look like. I’d like to leave you with the same idea, but about movies. If you love a film, you won’t merely remember its complicated narrative;  you’ll also remember how it made you feel.