Wednesday
Nov262014
Podcast: An Interstellar Imitation Game
Wednesday, November 26, 2014 at 11:01AM 
Travel with us into the black hole that is odd hit-and-miss reactions to the ambitious emotional Interstellar. We also discuss The Imitation Game and the controversy over its presentation of its gay protagonist. Starring: Nick Davis, Joe Reid, Katey Rich, and your host Nathaniel R.
33 minutes
00:01 Chris Nolan's Interstellar with asides to Inception and 2001: A Space Odyssey and Contact and the ways in which it does or doesn't stretch Nolan's
20:30 How does The Imitation Game machine work? Does its trifurcated structure work? And what of its collective performances?
You can listen at the bottom of the post or download on iTunes. The Imitation Game opens this weekend. Continue the conversation in the comments!
Reader Comments (16)
Nick's problem with PTA ensembles acting to the films he made previously is most true for Woody Allen. People are either pretending to be Woody or some variation of Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest or Judy Davis.
Did Nick see INHERENT VICE, and saw the performances from that ensemble as mannequin work?
I want an Imitation of Life Game
Another great podcast! Thanks. A lot of great points made. Among other things, I just basically love all the interstellar jokes. "Murph!!!" I think that's pretty much what the movie will be remembered for. Wormholes and plot holes. Kind of like how Inception is just kind of shorthand now for "mindblowing". Interstellar will be that weird cheesy morse code bookshelf ghost, and anne hathaway's akward speech about love. and TARS. and Doctor Mann.
I can't believe you tease a Best Actress conversation and there's no time for it! That's just cruel!
@ T-Bone, if any movie can be remembered for all that then that's...pretty good, no?
Jase, you know that's pretty true actually. Point taken. It was quite a scattered comment. Haha but come to think of it, Avatar might be tail-love and riding pterodactyls and unobtanium, and that's not really all that great of a legacy, (although certainly entertaining). The issue is basically that Nolan falls short of his grand sublime artistic vision, and we're left with random pieces of cosmic bookshelves that are entertaining and thought provoking but don't fit together. I think I just found myself scratching my head more at the odd details and plot holes than I did with the questions that the film was trying to evoke.
Interstellar is the first time I've unreservedly liked a Nolan movie since Insomnia, and the first time ever I've been moved by a Nolan movie.
I see the flaws - the Casey Affleck subplot, the business with Chastain and 'the ghost' 'communicating' - but the tackiness is overwhelmed by the visionary/resonant stuff.
I loved that it was a film of ideas, that (unlike eg. Gravity) the spaceships - and planets - felt tactile, and that there was so much depth of feeling.
I'm usually an exposition-Nazi - especially where it comes to Nolan - but even the exposition here didn't bother me so much because you have actors like Hathaway selling the shit out of that clunky-on-paper love monologue, and Ellen Burstyn *[MINI-SPOILER]* injecting decades of lived pain into "because my dad promised" and making an overly-saccharine moment genuinely moving.
I went into this movie convinced I would hate it and I came away buzzing.
3rtful: Nick's remarks were about WES Anderson films, not PTA films.
GORAN -- but what is with ELLEN BURSTYN being the old lady who remembers things at the end of the movie for two younger actresses who played her character earlier in the movie? It's a weird niche.
BRB & 3RTFUL - yes, the subject was Wes.
CONRADO - don't fret. it'll be available soon but it's already out of date since we've seen Big Eyes, Into the Woods, and The Homesman (or i'm about to see that) since then.
So The Imitation (of Life) Game has no teeth and Interstellar has a big belly? That sounds about right. Was not a fan of the latter, found the last hour a big slog to get through. Will be seeing the former this week perhaps.
BTW speaking of 2001: A Space Odyssey, when is that re-release coming out? Because I am SO on that, like, last year. Have never seen it in theaters and am DYING to experience the widescreen wonder.
And yay, podcast. :D
Oh, Nate! When you said that you liked it because it made you feel closer to Nolan I threw up a little in my mouth. I'm still recovering.
Nat: When did Burstyn last do it? I only recall Vanessa Redgrave doing it for Atonement in 2007.
COLIN - lol. In keeping with me calling The Imitation Game Imitation of Life Game and Jessica Chastain Jessica Lange on the previous podcast, I think it's safe to say that I am experience a Still Nathaniel style mental unravelling. YIKES. Yes, I was thinking of Redrave. and No, she is not remotely the same actress as Burstyn. oy,.
To address a question raised on the podcast, the "imitation game" was Alan Turning's own name for what we now call the Turning test, which measures a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from that of a human being.
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Were you drunk when this was recorded?