The Oklahoma City Thunder’s incredible and surprising season came to an inauspicious end on Wednesday night when they fell to the Rockets in Game 7 by a 104-102 final.
They had two opportunities to tie or take the lead, but failed to even get a ball to the rim on either possession. For Chris Paul, it’s the latest in a career filled with close calls and near misses in the postseason, many of those have featured another figure in the proceedings. Referee Scott Foster and Chris Paul have, let’s just say, not the best working relationship and some contentiousness on the court at times. Foster was on the game Wednesday night and hit Paul with a delay of game penalty that befuddled the future Hall of Famer — there, of course, is some irony to Paul getting a delay of game when earlier this season he made headlines by effectively petitioning for a game-saving delay of game against the Wolves when Foster was calling that game too.
After the game, Paul wasn’t in the mood to defer on questions on the officiating, and accepted that a fine was coming his way as he got some things off of his chest about what went down on that delay of game call.
I asked Chris Paul about the officiating – specifically that delay of game call. He named Scott Foster as says he knows he’ll get fined.
A passionate response that includes “that shit don’t make no sense…we could have won the game” pic.twitter.com/w2MpKr3Uyr
“Delay of game? It’s crazy, what’s been going on in the Bubble. Like, the replays, they show the replays sometimes so that, obviously, it’s an advantage if you can see the replay and then challenge. So, I dropped down to tie my shoe up and hope we see a replay, and Scott Foster walked over to me and told me, ‘Chris you ain’t gotta do that, I got ’em sweeping up the floor.’ OK, cool. So I start tying my shoe back up and he still called a delay of game. That sh*t don’t make no sense. I don’t know. That’s crazy, he just…we could’ve won the game. In that situation, the league knows. Yeah, they gon’ fine me, I said his name, we already know the history. It’s all good.”
Paul’s history with Scott Foster is well documented — entering the game, Paul’s team had lost nine straight playoff games reffed by Foster (the Rockets, in fairness, had lost seven straight, many of those with Paul, so neither team had a good history with him calling the game). And apparently, prior to the game Foster made the curious choice to remind Paul of that history that dates back well over a decade.
Thunder guard Chris Paul says referee Scott Foster made a point to tell him before the Game 7 loss to the Thunder tonight that he also reffed his Game 7 loss to the Spurs in 2008 when CP was with the Hornets.
The Thunder had ample opportunity to win the game, no matter what happened with the officiating, and the crew even got together on the final inbound play and called a foul that gave the Thunder a free throw to cut the lead to one, that Danilo Gallinari missed, and the ball back. Oklahoma City’s first gripe should be with its offensive execution down the stretch, as they were dismal in the halfcourt late against the Rockets, most notably on those final two plays where Luguentz Dort got blocked and they failed to get a shot up before the buzzer.
Still, it’s extremely strange if Foster would go up to Paul prior to the game and note he refereed his Game 7 loss to the Spurs 12 years ago. Even if the intention wasn’t malicious and was just a, “Hey, can you believe we’re still doing this all these years later,” thing, it could easily be read as an almost brag or a forewarning of what was to come. It only adds to a bizarre end to a game that was wild enough on its own.
The Rockets-Thunder series promised to be one of the more entertaining matchups of the first round, and after a maddening, nail-biting conclusion to a grueling seven-game series on Wednesday night, it’s safe to say that it more than delivered on that promise.
Houston somehow emerged with a 104-102 win in Game 7, punching their ticket to round two and a date with the Los Angeles Lakers, but before that happens, here’s what we learned from the dramatic finale to the opening round’s best series.
Game 7s Are The Best (and the Worst)
The final five minutes of Game 7 was one of the more stressful and frustrating viewing experiences of the entire bubble. Play after play, it was one disaster after another, during which each team and won and lost the series countless times. It had everything: comically-broken plays, overly-involved officiating, ill-advised fouls, missed free throws, terrible overall execution, and enough unexpected twists and turns to make you queasy.
The Rockets didn’t win so much as they survived, and it was fitting that the final possession came down to, of all things, a defensive stop from James Harden, who came through with a game-saving block on his new arch-nemesis Luguentz Dort.
Game 7s are always an emotional roller-coaster, and this one had everything you could want from one and more.
All Hail Our New King Dort!
You could be forgiven for not knowing Luguentz Dort’s name prior to the Bubble. The undrafted rookie has had to scratch and claw to secure his place in this league, and that final play notwithstanding, it’s paid tremendous dividends for both him and the Thunder here in the postseason.
Dort’s viability was, understandably, called into question in the middle of this series, wherein the Rockets gave him the Tony Allen treatment and dared him to shoot as many threes as his heart desired. The results were not pretty. But Dort bounced back in a historic way in Game 7.
He finished with 30 points on the night, joining rarefied air as just the third rookie in NBA history to reach that mark in a Game 7 of the playoffs.
Luguentz Dort is just the third rookie in NBA history to record a 30-point game in a Game 7. He joins Tom Heinsohn (Apr. 13, 1957) and Tom Meschery (Apr. 5, 1962).
He played stifling defense on Harden throughout the series and proved that an off night in Game 6 couldn’t rattle his confidence from long-range, as he knocked down 6-of-12 threes in Game 7 en route to leading all scorers on the night.
We certainly haven’t heard the last of Lu Dort. See you on the other side…
James Harden Was Somehow Granted An 11th Hour Reprieve
James Harden has a reputation for folding in big playoff games. And despite the outcome on Wednesday night, Harden was en route to yet another epic postseason meltdown. By midway through the fourth quarter, Harden had made just three total field goals.
Dort was making life hell on him, just like he’d done all series, and had he not come up with that revenge block in the final seconds, his final box score would’ve haunted him all offseason: 17 points on 4-of-15 shooting, including 1-of-9 from behind the arc.
A Rockets loss would’ve been a damning referendum on Harden and his history of playoff shortfalls, on the wisdom that went into trading Westbrook for Paul, and on Mike D’Antoni, who was already in the hot seat. Fortunately, Westbrook, along with Eric Gordon and Robert Covington, stepped up big time in the second half.
Now, it’s on to the second round, where Harden and the Rockets will once again find themselves under the microscope as they face the No. 1 seeded Lakers and an even bigger obstacle on their journey through the West playoffs. The question is whether this series will have the galvanizing effect they need to push themselves to the next level or reveal the flaws that will ultimately be their downfall.
We’ll find out when Game 1 tips off on Friday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
The Thunder fell just short of the second round, dropping their Game 7 matchup to the Rockets in a 104-102 thriller in which they had two separate chances at a game-tying or go-ahead basket.
Their first attempt was a nightmarish offensive possession that saw Luguentz Dort catch the ball on the wing and get blocked by a spectacular closeout from James Harden, with Houston up 103-102. The next came after Robert Covington split two free throws with 1.1 seconds to play, leaving OKC with the chance to tie or take the lead with a sideline play in the frontcourt after a timeout. The result was the Thunder never even getting a shot up, as the inbounds pass ended up being thrown, somewhat inexplicably, to Steven Adams at the three-point line after the Rockets denied the ball going into Chris Paul and Danilo Gallinari.
The question, for many, was why the play was designed as it was, given they were only down two, and didn’t even consider having Adams go to the paint while being guarded by P.J. Tucker who was much shorter than he was. On the first attempt at the inbounds play, Tucker was fronting Adams well away from the hoop when OKC called timeout, with no backside help for a possible lob to the rim. Channing Frye, watching the game from home like all of us, was melting down at the refusal to even consider the size mismatch inside.
On the play they actually ended up going with, Frye walked up to his TV to break it down and just kept getting madder and madder about the refusal to throw it to the paint.
It’s understandable if Adams isn’t the primary option on the play, because there is concern over him catching it and getting hacked before getting a shot up, sending a bad free throw shooter to the line, but given how they were guarding him before the timeout and then on the play where he was screening they abandoned him, having him roll to the rim for a lob after looking for the first two options would’ve been a vastly superior option than him running to the ball with 1.1 on the clock where he’s absolutely no threat shooting it.
The Thunder will certainly be thinking through how they could’ve executed better down the stretch, and that ATO play from Billy Donovan will get plenty of scrutiny for its design and lack of diversity of options against a smaller Rockets team that sent them home.
Continuing to bring attention to his third album Blame It On Baby, DaBaby returns with a new video for his Quavo collaboration, “Pick Up.” Standing as one of the wackier visuals in his catalog, DaBaby begins by picking up a phone he sees laying on the ground. With what looks like a 21st-century flip phone, DaBaby is absorbed into it and taken back in time where he is met by a cavemen couple. After wandering the area for a bit, the video shifts its attention to Quavo where the Migo presents himself as an exterminator who sets out to kill a number of rats with his high-precision laser gun. Fellow Migo, Offset, also makes a brief cameo in the Reel Goats-directed video.
The “Pick Up” visual arrives after DaBaby recently performed at the MTV VMAs this past weekend. Performing a medley of his recent songs that included ‘Blind,’ ‘Peephole,’ and ‘Rockstar,’ his performance also saw him reunite with The Jabbawockeez after he first connected with the group for his “Bop” video. Prior to his MTV VMA performance, DaBaby joined Jack Harlow and Post Malone for a remix Saweetie’s “Tap In” single.
On a celebratory note, DaBaby’s “Rockstar” single with Roddy Ricch was recently named the most-streamed song of the summer by Spotify.
Watch the “Pick Up” video above.
Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Game 7 of the Thunder-Rockets series was as thrilling at the end as Tuesday night’s Nuggets-Jazz game, as both teams scrambled to get across the finish line with a win.
There were flops, more missed layups than one could imagine possible, and even a clutch James Harden defensive play to save the Rockets in the final seconds. The Thunder had a great opportunity to take the lead on the final possession after the Rockets were unable to extend their lead on their last possession, but Houston played terrific defense on Chris Paul to force the ball out of his hands and it eventually landed in those of Luguentz Dort, who had a career shooting night with 30 points, but his final three was blocked by a tremendous closeout from Harden.
Robert Covington would split a pair of free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining, leaving a glimmer of hope for the Thunder, who after a bizarre series of events, ended up throwing an inbounds to Steven Adams at the three-point line for reasons passing understanding, failing to even get so much as a shot at a win or a tie. That gave Houston a 104-102 win to advance to the second round.
The execution offensively for both teams was dreadful down the stretch, as happens in Game 7s, and Harden was rather awful on that end with 17 points on 4-of-15 shooting, as Dort gave him issues all night on offense — in his own words after the game, he played “like sh*t.”
However, he was able to avoid The Discourse, at least for another week-plus about his performances in big games thanks to that heroic defensive effort, and as such, the Rockets are on to the second round for a showdown with the Lakers.
My personal feeling is that ranking a director’s movies is a bit like debating the best meal of the day. Sometimes you want some eggs, sometimes you want cake; it kind of depends on what you’re in the mood for.
That being said, we’re talking movies, on the internet. The internet was built to host pointless debates and movies were meant to inspire them. If we wanted definitive answers at the end we could just watch sports. People say choosing your favorite of a beloved director’s films is like choosing a favorite child. I say that’s true, and also that deep down every parent has a favorite child. We all have our personal truths; to pretend otherwise would be a lie. In that spirit, these are my truths. Disavow me as you see fit (please don’t. I want your clicks and your respect).
A Note On Methodology
One question you have to answer when ranking Christopher Nolan movies is, are we talking about the films when they were released, or now? Christopher Nolan is one of our most influential directors, usually for better but occasionally for worse, and basically any technique he pioneered or used conspicuously since The Dark Knight has been mimicked by worse filmmakers with diminishing returns. Which has a way of cheapening the original slightly in hindsight, mostly through no fault of the original. Remember how ubiquitous the “BRAAAAAHM” sound effect was, post Inception? Remember bad guys getting caught on purpose after The Dark Knight?
I don’t have a time machine so I’ll be judging these movies on 2020 rules. It’s more interesting that way. Some of the movies I loved initially seem less interesting now, and vice versa. Aside from that, these movies’ evolution over time is also a product of the way Christopher Nolan approaches movies. Inasmuch as he likes to project “bookish, cerebral Englishman,” he’s also a showman (and I suspect looking like an intellectual is part of that show). He made his bones on flashy technique (becoming a hot commodity after Memento) and that kind of flashy storytelling is part of his identity. It’s hard to watch The Prestige and not see a bit of Nolan in Hugh Jackman’s character — meticulous, obsessive, intelligent, but also the guy who likes to be up on stage taking a bow at the end of the show.
“Technically innovative” and “gimmicky” are always two sides of the same coin, the former always bleeding into the latter depending on the charitability of the beholder. As such, virtually all of his movies have some choices I find brilliant and others I find slightly annoying. But his willingness to take that chance is part of the reason his movies are still must-see releases even after 10 or 11 of them. I like when he takes big swings. In hindsight I find myself appreciating the boldest moves even if they didn’t entirely payoff. In any case, if you find yourself disagreeing with me a lot here you’re probably just reading it wrong.
10. Following (1998)
Amazon Prime
I debated even including Following in this list, considering Nolan was still an unknown when it was released (and after as well). Costing just $6,000 to make, earning a little more than $48,000 at the box office, and clocking in at a barely-feature eligible but very nice 69 minutes, Following seems more resume builder than stand-alone Nolan film, his self-financed cover letter to studios that might one day give him money to make a feature. Please, Mr. Studio Head, consider the twists!
Do you need to watch an underexposed, black and white, microbudget indie from the late ’90s to understand the Nolan canon? Probably not, and it explains why I hadn’t watched it until now. Having watched it (I’m very professional), it’s very much of a piece with other indie movies from the ’90s, when budding auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and Darren Aronofsky and Kevin Smith et al made cheapo black and white movies hoping to become The Next Big Thing. Now aspiring directors get five A-list actors for their debut, premiere it at Sundance, and like 20 journalists see it before it disappears forever.
Anyhoo, I was pleasantly surprised in Following‘s early going, which depicts a scruffy Londoner who follows people around for a hobby. He gets caught in the act by one of his subjects, who brings him into the world of petty burglary. There’s a Fight Club quality to Following, this portrait of young men living on the margins, seeking a kind of spiritual fulfillment the modern world has denied them, and the mentor/protege relationship between the two. Then the whole thing sort of fizzles into a double-cross plot with twist after twist. This is one of Nolan’s more unfortunate tics — his depictions of these odd little communities always seem (to me) better and more compelling on their own without the tit-for-tat constant double-crosses that Nolan always seems to thin he needs in order to maintain our attention.
9. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
WB
I think I can say that Christopher Nolan is simultaneously a great superhero director and that superheroes are Christopher Nolan’s least interesting subjects. The Dark Knight Rises wasn’t all bad, obviously, it had wistful Michael Caine, Tom Hardy’s Bane taking over a football stadium, and “that would be very painful… for you.”
But it is a movie where Nolan’s slightly annoying tics seem to catch up to his good ones. It’s a movie that makes me kind of hate Hans Zimmer. Or at the very least wish he came with volume control. Nolan’s tendency to value a “naturalistic” sound mix over an intelligible one and his love of a good score made The Dark Knight Rises feel like a music video at times, with an antagonist who mumbled worse than a xanny rapper (which is at least as much a Tom Hardy trait as it is a Christopher Nolan one) competing for aural space with constant sound effects and a bombastic score. Don’t tell me it’s more “natural” or “realistic” that way, this is still a Batman movie. Give me that goofy dialogue. I want to live deliciously, not naturalistically.
The Dark Knight Rises‘ Catwoman subplot is also notably forgettable compared to Michael Keaton/Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns (admittedly I’m the guy who loves that weirdo Hot Topic goth fever dream, it’s pretty hard to beat). And it featured lots of nameless extras attacking each other Braveheart-style even when they have guns, which to me is just irredeemably dumb. Sorry, I can’t do anonymous henchman who inexplicably suicide themselves anymore.
I tend to think Christopher Nolan was just getting a little bored of growly Batman by this point (or maybe I’m just projecting) and with the demands of making a bookend, and it shows in some of the cut corners. It’s always a little more fun to just go where the characters take you than having to write them into a specific endpoint.
8. The Prestige (2006)
Buena Vista Pictures
On paper, it’s hard to beat dueling Victorian-era magicians, David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, and doppelganger deus ex machinas. Andy Serkis even got to use his real face instead of jumping around in a spandex suit pretending to be a monkey. Nolan went waaay goofy in this adaptation of Christopher Priest’s novel and you have to love him for it. “The Prestige!” is also up there with “The Aristocrats!” in terms of titles that sound good to yell during orgasm.
Yet The Prestige is also the height of Christopher Nolan seeming to value subterfuge and shock twists over compelling character development, seeming to worry more about surprising the audience than making them care. The Prestige‘s whole story rests on a relentless (and eventually exhausting) feud between two magicians, American Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Cockney Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), constantly determined to outdo each other for the mantle of “World’s Greatest Magician” (see parallels to Christopher Nolan and his co-writer brother Jonathan!). They are helped in this quest by their respective “ingenieurs” (aka engineers, an entire concept I’d love to believe Christopher Nolan just invented even though I know it probably came from the novel). One played by Michael Caine, the other some guy in obvious make up.
On the one hand, The Prestige seems to be a window into Christopher Nolan’s soul. It’s easy to believe he sees himself in Jackman’s protagonist, the showman who wants more than anything to give audiences grand illusions that allow them to believe in magic for a few seconds, the man who puts the ghost back in the machine.
That being said, I feel like there’s a limit to how many times one can use fake mustaches and doppelgangers as a dead-serious plot device. The two magicians double-cross each other so much that you end up wishing they could just be friends. Meanwhile, the expectation that we’ll be hanging off the edge of our seats and that we’ll be worrying about who will double-cross who! the whole time sort of cuts against all the goofy fun we could’ve been having with The Prestige. The film’s end twist (go look it up, I don’t want to get yelled at for spoiling a 14-year-old movie) is somehow unbelievable, unsurprising, and unsatisfying all at the same time. Oh? So it was exactly what Michael Caine said all along? Imagine that. The sheer silliness of it would be more fun if the accompanying monologue wasn’t so utterly self-serious. (Nolan movie rule: pay attention to whatever Michael Caine says.)
Unpopular opinion: of the two movies about dueling Victorian-era magicians released in 2006, The Prestige was inferior toThe Illusionist. What was happening in 2006 that we ended up with two dueling magician movies?
7. The Dark Knight (2008)
Warner Bros.
I’m not putting The Dark Knight this low as a contrarian take but I have to admit that the sheer number of people who treat it as sacrosanct and get pissed when you don’t agree that it’s the greatest superhero movie ever made make me like it less and less. It’s one of those movies that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was watching it but that I don’t feel like I especially need to see again.
Pros: The Dark Knight was the movie where Christopher Nolan came into his own directing action sequences. Early on he shot largely in the shaky-cam/quick-cut style that was popular at the time. On The Dark Knight he had a big budget to play with and used it brilliantly in masterful sequences like the whole bank robbery scene at the beginning. Also, Aaron Eckhardt was brilliant casting and I don’t know that I need to say more than has already been said about Heath Ledger.
Cons: Heath Ledger is brilliant as the Joker, but his performance masks the thinness of this character. The Dark Knight cuts a lot of narrative corners to make The Joker look cool. He kills a mob boss and that boss’s men are all instantly 100% loyal to the clown man? Is that how that works in the underworld? The Dark Knight’s universe rests on a foundation of mindless automaton criminals. Partly the years of other directors copying the “pure sociopathic chaos agent” antagonist and “bad guy gets caught on purpose” have cheapened The Dark Knight‘s impact in hindsight, but partly it’s also a movie that doesn’t work nearly as well when you have time to think about any one thing. To Nolan’s credit, he never gives you that time. I think Dark Knight can be a great movie without being an especially rewatchable one.
6. Batman Begins (2005)
Warner Bros.
It’s a shame that Batman Begins has so many poorly shot shaky-cam action sequences (a time when Nolan and many others cobbled together fist fights from a thousand split-second blurs of feet, fists, lapels, chandeliers…) because almost everything else about Batman Begins is so great. I prefer the narrative grounding of Liam Neeson as evil mentor and Cillian Murphy/Tom Wilkinson as bad guy heavies to the flash of Ledger’s Joker. That Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow is a bad guy whose MO is sneaking people drugs and then f*cking with them while they’re high? Genius. This guy is a professional mellow harsher, man! My love for Batman Begins was sealed when that first psychedelic worm crawled out of the eyehole in Scarecrow’s burlap face sack.
5. Dunkirk (2017)
Warner Bros
I love Dunkirk. It’s everything 1917 wanted to be. It also marked a clear inflection point in Nolan’s identity (Inflection! That’s the I movie he should’ve directed after Inception, Interstellar, and Insomnia!). Early in his career, from Memento through Inception (and Following, for the 40-50 people who’d seen it), Nolan’s calling card was mindf*cks. He was, for all intents and purposes, the mindf*ck guy, the director whose movies would keep tricking you right up until the end credits. Luckily, just as the audience’s interest in being endlessly mindf*cked was beginning to wane, we discovered Christopher Nolan had become the Large Format Majesty guy right under our noses, so gradually that it had become his brand before we even thought to notice. Dunkirk is the movie that cemented that incarnation of the Nolan brand.
Dunkirk is one of the few movies you could call “a pure cinematic experience” and not sound insufferable. It’s the kind of film that works best, and maybe only, on a giant screen in a big room full of people. If we’re splitting hairs, the title cards (“one week,” “one day,” “one hour”) and the intersecting timelines feel more like vestigial elements of Nolan’s older shtick, his belief that he needs to trick audiences to make us care. But they don’t especially detract even if they’re not especially useful.
It also feels a little like Nolan deliberately muffled Tom Hardy’s dialogue in Dunkirk as a f*ck you to everyone who complained about not being able to understand him in The Dark Knight Rises. I don’t like it, but I respect it. Christopher Nolan and Tom Hardy is the kind of team-up that’s even more mumbly than its individual parts.
4. Insomnia (2002)
Warner Bros
I sweated over whether to put Insomnia above or below Inception and Memento, because when I was trying to find a Nolan movie to rewatch, Insomnia is the movie I found myself most wanting to revisit. It’s the most obvious outlier in the Nolan canon. Where Nolan tends to make his bones on flashy concepts, Insomnia was, essentially, a police procedural, one of the oldest stories in the book and the subject matter of roughly 85% of our television shows. It’s also Nolan’s only remake (of a 1997 Norwegian film by Erik Skjoldbjærg).
Having rewatched it this past week, Insomnia not only holds up, I think it’s gotten better with age. Free of the usual requirement to wrestle a wild concept into believability, Nolan puts all his energy into Insomnia‘s subtler flourishes. Even aside from that, Insomnia is a textbook example of why setting matters. Nothing annoys me more than films that deliberately anonymize their setting, that take place in “Anytown, USA” as if that’s going to make us care more (specificity is always better!). The simple fact of where the story takes place creates so many narrative possibilities, and Insomnia is a perfect example. Removing setting as a story element for a screenwriter is like cutting off your own arm.
In the Norwegian version, a big city investigator played by Stellan Skarsgard (one of our finest Skarsgards), travels to a town above the Arctic Circle to investigate a murder. He’s also recently been caught having sex with one of his witnesses (a very European plot point). Nolan’s American version sees Al Pacino playing a famous LAPD homicide detective (I like to imagine it’s the same guy he played in Heat, only severely sleep-deprived) sent to Alaska, where he partners with a fresh-faced townie fangirl played by Hillary Swank — a character who will, naturally, prove to have more smarts and courage than anyone. When he accidentally shoots his partner during a chase we’re left to wonder if his inability to sleep is a result of the never-setting sun or his own guilt.
I remembered the unforgettable chase sequence at the log factory which is every bit as good as I remembered, but there were quieter moments I’d forgotten that stood up just as well. Robin Williams’ self-serving rationalization for why him killing that girl was just an unfortunate mistake, immediately punctured by Al Pacino’s “I don’t give a f*ck” soliloquy on the topic of motive. But in an era where we’ve (far too belatedly) begun handwringing about the ubiquity of “copaganda,” Insomniac stands out as a story that uses cops not as a cheap shortcuts to heroism but as a lens into humanity. It’s what a good story should do, regardless of subject or setting. This all culminates in Insomnia‘s pitch-perfect ending, Pacino telling Swank not to cut corners. It’s maybe Nolan’s best ending.
3. Memento (2000)
IMPA
Memento stands out as the reverse of Insomnia, an acknowledged classic and a landmark in the Nolan canon even if I don’t feel compelled to rewatch it. Memento was Christopher Nolan’s break out hit, his calling card, the movie that established him as “ground-breaking director” right out of the gate. Memento is not only a break-out film for Nolan but maybe the seminal break-out film of all time. Arguably, the star of the film is the storytelling technique itself. How many films can you say that about?
Is Memento gimmicky? Absolutely, but it’s a good gimmick, and its success explains why gimmicks exist. When no one knows who you are, One Big Hook helps them remember. After The Dark Knight movies and Inception, Christopher Nolan got a reputation for seriousness, and general lack of a sense of humor. But if you go back and watch Memento, it has a lot of moments that are, at the very least, wry. You don’t cast Joey Pants if you aren’t aware of the humorous potential.
2. Inception (2010)
Warner Bros
In terms of cultural impact, Inception is inarguable. BRAAAAHM sounds in trailers were ubiquitous for years afterwards. To this day I still hear people occasionally use “snow level” to describe something that’s evolved far beyond its initial intention. Snow levels, the spinning top, the squinting DiCaprio — Inception at this point is almost more meme than movie. Maybe that’s why I’m a little hesitant to rewatch it. I remember its greatness but we’ve probably squeezed all the juice from it at this point.
Inception is the ultimate expression of Nolan’s obsession with intersecting timelines and with expanding and contracting time — a storytelling element that’s present in almost all of his movies in some form or another. In Inception, the plot is almost entirely an excuse for them. Leonardo DiCaprio’s character also has the same name — Cobb — as the burglary mentor in Following. Cobb steals secrets from people’s dreams, and in that sense Inception is kind of a massive budget, fx-heavy version of Following, in which Cobb broke into people’s houses and stole, scattered, or moved people’s most personal possessions in order to gaslight them. If Dunkirk was the culmination of Nolan as Large Format Majesty Guy, Inception, with its kooky dreamscape scenes and rotating hallways, was probably the movie that gave him a hard shove in that direction. Also, bring back Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
1. Interstellar (2014)
Paramount
How to explain putting Interstellar at the top of the list even while conceding that it is messy and gets pretty silly at times? What I think happens with some of the best movies, and certainly the most enduring and rewatchable ones: intensity outpaces craftsmanship. And maybe that’s the way it should happen, that a storyteller gets so obsessed and in the weeds of their own ideas, that they crank the amp up to 11 and start wailing away, and what comes out might end up a little distorted or smoke out the whole garage, but in the end we remember the passion more than the sour notes or the property damage.
Hindsight only sharpens this effect. It seems plain that the initial reviews of Interstellar, even my own, didn’t give it enough credit. Was there too much expository dialogue, convoluted explanations, and laughably simplistic depictions of “love?” Sure, but six years later I can barely remember them. Interstellar‘s warts recede in contrast to the incredible worlds it conjured — the giant wave planet, the dust-choked dystopia, the ice purgatory. Nolan gave us more indelible images in Interstellar than we normally get in five or 10 movies. I wish I had a nickel for every time I or someone else compared a situation to “the first act of Interstellar.”
Apologies for quoting myself, but my closing paragraph in my original Interstellar review sums up most of what I love about Christopher Nolan movies and what I hope for every time a new one comes out.
I can understand if that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, or if it comes off bloated or pompous, but I think that’s just the way Christopher Nolan thinks. Dude’s wackadoodle, like a model airplane hobbyist reading Stephen Hawking on too much Adderall. He has his quirks and pet plots, but I’m always fascinated to hear his latest dispatch from the edge of sanity.
Here’s to hoping Tenet drove him just as nutty.
‘Tenet’ opens in theaters in the U.S. on September 3. Vince Mancini is onTwitter. You can access his archive of reviewshere.
Following a night of drinking and games with a few of her friends, Kaash Paige shares her thoughts during the morning after in her new video for “London.” The Dallas native kicks off the video poolside as she wakes up from the eventful night. Walking over slumped bodies found laying around the pool, Kaash makes her way into the house, where she is met by more sleeping attendees. Kaash pours herself another cup as she flashes backs to partygoers jumping into the pool, playing beer pong, and downing some drinks.
Kaash Paige’s new video comes after the Dallas native shared her debut album Teenage Fever, which contains 13 songs as well as guest appearances from 42 Dugg, Don Toliver, K Camp, SSG Kobe, and Isaiah Rashad. Serving as her first album under Def Jam, Teenage Fever arrived after the Dallas native delivered her 7-track EP, Parked Car Convos at the end of 2019.
In addition to Teenage Fever, Kaash Paige also shared a remix of her track “Love Songs,” featuring 6LACK, at the top of the year. Months later she lent a guest verse to Don Toliver’s “Euphoria” with Travis Scott, which landed on Toliver’s Heaven Or Hell album.
Watch the video for “London” above.
Teenage Fever is out now via Def Jam. Get it here.
How we got there was a wild ride, in which the Bucks successfully trapped Butler into a turnover that led to a Bucks layup, Khris Middleton was fouled on a three on a very questionable call, and then Butler was fouled on a fadeaway at the buzzer that was, likewise, questionable at best.
Butler shooting free throws with no time left on the clock was a rarity in the NBA, as it’s only happened twice before in NBA Playoff history, and players at home were just as stunned as fans watching how it went down, starting with the foul on Middleton.
It wasn’t more than two minutes later in real time that the foul on Butler happened, and just about the same reactions came from NBA stars who couldn’t help but laugh at how things ended.
We’ll see if the league concurs when they release the Last Two Minute report on Thursday, but it was an ugly end to a competitive game, with Miami emerging with a stranglehold on the series at 2-0.
The Miami Heat stunned the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series. Behind a monster fourth quarter for Jimmy Butler, who had a career playoff high 40 points on the evening, Miami was able to take one off of the best team in the league. In Wednesday night’s Game 2, Butler didn’t need to have a monster night for the Heat to get a win. Thanks to a more egalitarian effort spearheaded by the rejuvenated Goran Dragic, Miami took a 2-0 series lead with a 116-114 win.
The way that the win happened, though, could not have been more remarkable. With 15 seconds left and the team up six, the Heat gave Giannis Antetokounmpo a free lane to get to the rim. From there, the wildest end of game sequence that we have seen all year occurred, culminating in a walk-off trip to the free throw line for Butler with 0.0 seconds left on the clock and the game tied.
The craziness started with Butler getting the ball in the corner after the Antetokounmpo dunk. He threw a lob at his own rim that ended up in the hands of Brook Lopez, who laid it in easily and cut the lead to two.
After a timeout, Goran Dragic lobbed in a risky inbounds pass to Butler, who went to the line, hit one of two, and gave Miami some breathing room. But on the ensuing possession, a controversial foul call sent Khris Middleton to the line to shoot three. Middleton rose up, Dragic got just close enough to him that a foul was called, and after all three of his shots from the charity stripe went in, we had ourselves a tied ballgame.
Antetokounmpo got called for a foul that occurred after the ball left Butler’s hand, which happened with about 0.1 seconds left. As the horn blared, the referee’s whistle blew, signaling a foul on the Defensive Player of the Year and reigning MVP. A review confirmed the call, Butler stepped to the free throw line with no one around him, and hit them both in one of the more surreal visuals we’ve seen this year.
It was, as you can guess, quite the unconventional way for a game to end, as we have not seen this happen in any NBA game since the first Bush was president.
An NBA game has not been decided on FT with time expired since Rolando Blackman on March 4, 1991. Before that it happened *relatively* often
This is the 1st playoff game decided on FT with time expired since Larry Wright led the Bullets over the Sonics in Game 1 of 1979 Finals
This marked a controversial ending to a fantastic basketball game, one in which Miami got out to an early lead, held on for much of the game, and held off Milwaukee’s multiple attempts to pull off a comeback win during the fourth quarter. Seven Heat players, led by Goran Dragic’s 23, scored in double-figures, while Antetokounmpo had a big night, going for 29 points and 14 rebounds.
Now, the Bucks are in a position where they absolutely have to pick up a win or find themselves in a fairly insurmountable hole, while the Heat inching closer to a return to the conference finals. Game 3 will take place on Friday, with the festivities tipping off at 6:30 p.m. EST on TNT.
Despite movie theaters and schools reopening in parts of the country, it’s important to remember this: the pandemic is nowhere near over, and there’s a good chance it could surge back from levels that never really went all that down to begin with. Case in point: A couple of weeks after True Blood star Anna Camp tested positive for the coronavirus, Dwayne Johnson, and some of his family, did, too.
The wrestler-turned-actor revealed the news in an Instagram post on Wednesday night, with a video that runs over 11 minutes. In it, he says that he and his wife, Lauren, and two of their three daughters, Jasmine, 4, and Tiana, 2, all came back with positive results. Mind you, this isn’t news: Johnson claims the disease has come and gone, and that they’re all “no longer contagious.”
Still, he wanted to warn people about “one of the most challenging and difficult” ordeals he and his family have ever gone through.
“Testing positive for COVID-19 is a lot different than recovering from nasty injuries, getting evicted or being broke, which I’ve been more than a few times,” he said. “My No. 1 priority is to always protect my family and my loved ones … I wish it was only me that tested positive. It was my entire family and it was a kick in the gut. We as a family are good, we’re on the other end of it and no longer contagious. Thank God, we’re healthy.”
He continued:
“We are counting our blessings right now. We are well aware you don’t always get to the other end of COVID-19 stronger and healthier. I have had some of my best friends lose their parents to this virus that is so incredibly relentless and unforgiving. We are counting our blessings, but we are good.
Alongside the video, Johnson posted an encouraging message:
Stay disciplined.
Boost your immune system.
Commit to wellness.
Wear your mask.
Protect your family.
Be strict about having people over your house or gatherings.
Stay positive.
And care for your fellow human beings.
Stay healthy, my friends.
Glad to hear you and your family are doing better, Mr. Johnson.
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in the first half.
Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) 
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#controlthecontrollables