The 2006 movie Christopher Nolan would watch forever: “I’m never going to be able to switch that off”
It’s not really a thing anymore, but most people had a handful of movies that they couldn’t help but be drawn to, no matter when and where they were being shown. Christopher Nolan has one, and he’s more likely than most modern-day viewers to stumble upon it randomly.
Why? Because he’s one of the streaming era’s highest-profile opponents. For hundreds of millions of subscribers around the world, the days of channel-hopping are a thing of the distant past, with anything that anybody fancies watching being available at the push of a button on one of the many platforms.
We’ve all got those films, the ones that you’d end up watching through to the end credits whenever you miscellaneously discovered it was being shown at stupid o’clock on a channel you’ve never heard of, but the age of on-demand instant gratification has spoiled the fun of realising that ITV4 are showing The Shawshank Redemption or Lethal Weapon 2 for the 19th time this month.
Nolan, though, is old-school. He fucking hates Netflix, Prime Video gets a pass because it releases most of its biggest originals in cinemas before sending them to streaming, and HBO Max committed an offence so egregious that he deemed it necessary grounds to end his 20-year creative partnership with Warner Bros.
He’s still probably not much of a channel-hopper, since when you’re a wealthy, successful, and well-connected filmmaker who’s also president of the Directors Guild of America, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to pull a couple of strings and have a pristine print of whatever you’re in the mood for delivered right to your door, and most likely not in DVD or Blu-ray form, either.
Regardless of how he consumes his motion pictures, which could well be having them injected directly into his veins for all we know, what’s indisputable is that there’s one 2006 movie that the Academy Award-winning auteur and defender of the theatrical experience will never be able to avoid.
This being Nolan, who maintains the permanently stiffened upper lip of a cinephile, one old master was the first thing that came to mind. “There are so many,” he pondered. “I flick around and if there’s an old movie, oh god, I mean, anything by Kubrick is an instant remote drop.” So far, so expected, but then he pivoted straight into left field.
“Some of the great comedies, too,” Nolan continued. “I mean, Talladega Nights, wow, I’m never going to be able to switch that off.” It’s not a secret that the Dark Knight trilogy helmer adores a stupid comedy flick, with The Ballad of Ricky Bobby being near the top of the list, but it’s an additional seal of approval for him to confirm that if he catches even a second of it, he’s hooked until the bitter end.
Kubrick? He can fuck off. If it’s a choice between the two, then there’s every chance that the director will opt for Will Ferrell over Barry Lyndon every day of the week.
