Does Christopher Nolan Dream of Electric Sheep?

Rating: 5/10 (20 October 2019)

The problem with Inception is that its execution doesn't fit its subject matter. This is supposed to be a movie about dreams...so where is the dream-like quality? It's not abstract, it's very cold and calculated - it's all to linear - a perfectly plotted beginning-middle-end story; ffs, even the dreams have rules! Since when do dreams have rules? Or even a through-line? It's not a murky shade, it's just cold mechanical computer-generated imagery like all Hollywood productions. This might be how robots dream in binary, but not the ungraspable mystique of how organisms dream, something that the likes of Tarkovsky, Bergman or early practical films conjured up both movingly and authentically, and at times down-right creepily. Nolan's clockwork extravaganza is as devoid of personality as the man himself. To look into one's dreams would be intimate - Nolan eschews intimacy for spectacle generated by 1's and 0's.