Favorite Christopher Nolan film

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

Inception - Infinitely rewatchable. My mind was blown when I saw it in theaters; I very much have an opinion of the ending (it’s reality, but Cobb doesn’t care). Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack is a masterpiece, especially Dream is Collapsing - I like that more than Time.

The Prestige - watched for the first time this year and was also blown away by the story. I’d need to watch it again, but I don’t think it tops (heh) Inception. I think part of that is precisely because it needs to be rewatched in order for most people to fully understand it (I had an idea of part of the twist, but not the whole thing).

Oppenheimer - Very much a movie that I need to rewatch (I’ve only seen it once in theaters). First impressions are good, but I thought it was a bit slow to gain steam (I wasn’t super fond of the somewhat “psychedelic” visions that were more prominent at the beginning before they broke more into Oppie seeing himself in situations). A 9/10, but I’m not sure if it leans more towards 9.5 or 8.5 at the moment. I am very happy for Cillian Murphy that he got to be the lead in a Nolan movie. He earned it from his previous collaborations and then showed why he earned it. I had read part of American Prometheus, so I had an idea where things went, but didn’t know how it would end for Strauss, which was the best part of the plot in my mind. I did correctly guess how the movie would be portrayed (classic Nolan move, really—telling multiple plots at the same time); I think that he did a really good job of weaving them all together so that things seemed like memories recalled during the trial scenes. In terms of the music (which is an excellent score by Ludwig Göransson), I’m more fond of American Prometheus than Can You Hear the Music.

The Dark Knight Rises - I love the ending of TDKR: I could watch the last 10 minutes of it every week. There’s definitely some issues, but I enjoyed Hathaway as Catwoman and Oldman was once again excellent as Commissioner Gordon. What helped the plot is that there was mostly just the one villain through the movie. One popped up near the end, but felt organic and not split like TDK and BB.

The Dark Knight - not sure what I can say that hasn’t been said about the masterclass that is Heath Ledger’s Joker. He carried the film through the rough patches in the plot. Sometimes this movie seems like multiple movies/plots spliced together and it shows.

Dunkirk - Dunkirk walked so that Oppenheimer could run. I could appreciate how the plots wove together, but it was a bit clunky in some regards. This did feel more organically like one movie despite the multiple plots (in comparison to TDK and BB).

Interstellar - I need to rewatch this, but it’s curious because I’ve had it on disk since the Christmas it came out and haven’t watched it since I saw it in the theater. I think it’s also something of a feel over think movie like Tenet.

Tenet - I will preface this by saying that I didn’t have an issue with hearing the dialogue, at least in my setup (AirPods lol). Somewhat hard to follow at times, but I think it’s much better if you don’t try to fully understand and instead just roll with it.

Batman Begins - Someone’s gotta be last. Not that much of a knock against it, it’s just not my favorite, but I should rewatch it since it’s been a while.


I haven’t seen his first three movies, so I didn’t include them in my rankings.


Side question, has any actor worked with Nolan, Tarantino, and Wes Anderson? I know ScarJo was a Nolan movie and an Anderson movie and that Maya Hawke was in a Tarantino movie and an Anderson movie. Can’t think of any that have done the trifecta though.