Probably no movies – except Can be the eternally postponed James Bond film No time to die– started to better represent the difficulties of launching films in COVID World than Christopher Nolan Principle. Thanks to delays, discussions about digital distribution, concerns about exposure to the pandemic and the implication that the fate of the entire theater industry was resting on his back, Nolan’s perfectly useful action film took on levels far beyond his outbursts. admittedly delicious and intentionally complicated plot could ever probably support. In fact, he took much symbolic weight that people started doing intentional art projects just to irritate Nolan, including the hilarious and petty act of crushing the entire film to the point that itould fit in five tiny Game Boy Advance cartridges.
And now, finally, came to this: Principle is coming to HBO Max, once voiced “The worst streaming service” by the film’s director, who was royally pissed off at Warner Media’s (now firmly executed) plans to release movies on the service simultaneously with their theatrical releases. This is not the case for Principle, obviously – Nolan managed to guarantee his long showing in theaters last year, and the film has been available on VOD for months – but the thought of the film now resting on a structure that it has spent the last few months exploding is kind of rich irony, it’s hard to say no. In addition, there is the most basic fact that if you haven’t seen Principle (because of the deadly global pandemic) this will probably be a good way to finally Look.*
* This view is not supported or endorsed by Principle director Christopher Nolan.