Christopher Nolan calls ‘Aftersun’ and ‘Past Lives’ His Favorite Recent Films

There’s this great Time Magazine interview with Christopher Nolan that dissects “Oppenheimer,” and goes on to question Nolan’s plans for the future. It’s well worth a read.

Suffice to say, Nolan seems to have an idea as to what his next project might be, and he’s remaining mum about it. You can speculate all you want, but you won’t be getting an answer out of him.

Nolan does note that his next project will probably continue his streak of films that have ambitious scopes and big budgets — the days of “Memento” and “Insomnia” are, I’m afraid, long gone:

I’m drawn to working at a large scale because I know how fragile the opportunity to marshal those resources is. I know that there are so many filmmakers out there in the world who would give their eye teeth to have the resources I put together, and I feel I have the responsibility to use them in the most productive and interesting way.

Although Nolan prefers to make big studio epics, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t fond of smaller budgeted indies. When asked about some of the more recent films that he’s seen, Nolan namechecks two A24 titles as favorites:

Asked to cite his favorite recent films, he doesn’t hesitate to name “Past Lives” and “Aftersun”. The latter is a tender coming-of-age drama, the former a gentle relationship tale that plays out over 24 years. Aftersun, he says, “was just a beautiful film.” Past Lives was “subtle in a beautiful sort of way.”

This isn’t the first time Nolan mentions “Aftersun”. In an interview from last year, with The Telegraph, Nolan praised the film as an example of an intimate movie that still deserved to be seen in cinemas:

“Why would you have to see something like ‘Aftersun’ on the big screen?” Nolan told the outlet. “But of course you have to. It also plays wonderfully on TV, but that’s not the point.” 

I’ll play ball with “Aftersun,” which I found quite lovely, but it’ll take some more convincing for me to believe that “Past Lives” is nothing more than a good film. To each their own, I guess. Both films have been critically praised to the high heavens these last few years.