Why Old People Hate Inception

The generational divide will make it a bigger hit
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 3, 2010 8:48 AM CDT
Updated Aug 7, 2010 8:11 AM CDT
Why Old People Hate Inception
Leonardo DiCaprio, left, star of the film "Inception," signs autographs at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles, Tuesday, July 13, 2010.   (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

If you’re relatively young, your Facebook and Twitter feeds have surely been full of friends gushing about the wonders of Inception. If you’re a bit older…you probably hated it. Christopher Nolan’s film has created a critical and generational divide reminiscent of “such equally daring films” as Bonnie and Clyde, A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, and Pulp Fiction, writes Patrick Goldstein in the Los Angeles Times. What older viewers see as a “lack of clarity” and “convoluted story,” younger viewers see as a “visually arresting puzzle-box thriller.”

The divide can be partially explained by Inception’s “dense, video-game narrative style,” which appeals—not surprisingly—to video gamers. “Inception is first and foremost a movie about worlds and levels, which is very much the way video games are structured,” says a USC professor. “In today's media-saturated culture, a film that polarizes its audience is often a film on its way to hitdom,” Goldstein concludes. Inception may not become a classic, but “it’s a movie that matters.”
(More Inception stories.)

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