Interesting that 2024 saw both this and Zone of Interest attempt to capture the normalcy that surrounds tyranny.
Torres is genuinely astonishing throughout. The 35mm graining across many gorgeous shots of the family's home ---which gets its flowers in a credits sequence---is wonderful.
Very pure Nolan; wonderful performances and just an astonishingly good premise and script that is executed perfectly. Spent the next two hours after watching marvelling at the number of missed breadcrumbs.
Nolan's gift is providing these kind of elevated popcorn blockbusters. There's a reason he now has budgets thrown at him left right and center! The industry would miss his talent.
I think something remarkable about this movie is that its central conceit -- that Pandora has some uniquely special character -- only earns affective power through enormous cinematic spectacle.
In an era of blockbusters that seem only capable of simulating spectacle, that appeal to a cinematic language of spectacle without any emotional impact, Avatar inspires genuine wonder. And its story only works for that wonder; and its wonder is one only achievable through cinema.
She's not perfect: the first act…
