Ranking Christopher Nolan's Movies

Hello, dear reader!

As director Christopher Nolan turns 50 years old today, I figured this would be a good time to share my ranking of his films. Nolan is one of my favorite directors of all time, and one of the many reasons for this is his unique and unconventional way of telling stories - things rarely take place in the correct order with Nolan's narratives, but rather in a mismatched sequence or even backwards. As a tribute to that, I shall be presenting my list in a different order than usual - I'll be going from #1 to #10, instead of the usual #10-to-#1.

And here we go!

1. Inception (2010)

I mean, it's a total masterpiece. The expert camerawork, mind-bending script and a-list cast that one would expect from a Nolan movie are all at their peak in Inception. The concept of going into people's dreams through advanced technology is fascinating enough on its own, but when you turn it into a heist thriller with layers upon layers of dreamworlds to explore, not to mention the mounting tension of time moving differently in the different layers and the concept of limbo frightening the main characters, you truly have a groundbreaking film on your hands.

And then there's the epic Hans Zimmer score, the tragic backstory of protagonist Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), and the fact that the film has one of the best endings ever (okay, that one is somewhat of a trademark for Nolan - probably half of his films would make it to my list of the greatest movie endings). No wonder that Inception was my favorite film of the 2010's.

2. Interstellar (2014)

For fans of Stanley Kubricks' 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), this film is 100% the next best thing. Matthew McConaughey gives one of his greatest performances as Cooper, an astronaut who is sent to search for a new home world for humans as a bleak future is making Earth uninhabitable - is it just me or is this movie starting to feel more close to home every day?

McConaughey's journey includes pretty much all the rest of Hollywood's talent, as stars old (Michael Caine, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn), new (Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain) and very new (Mackenzie Foy; hell, I forgot that Timothée Chalamet was in this?!) unite to form a truly interstellar cast. In addition to a great ensemble and a fascinating premise, Interstellar delivers as one of the great modern science fiction movies with its awe-striking visual effects, creative plot and mind-bending moments of sheer Nolan. And, as I've mentioned in a previous post, Hans Zimmer's score is so powerful that every time I hear a piece from it I remember the exact feeling I had when I watched this film for the first time in the movie theater.

3. Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Yes, I'm one of those weird people who prefers Dark Knight Rises to The Dark Knight. Both are amazing for sure (what Nolan movie isn't?), but for me personally, this culmination of the trilogy was the best of them all. I'm a fan of big, epic endings, and the film sure delivered on that front. Tom Hardy's Bane was the perfect villain to go against Christian Bale's Batman in his final outing, and what a showdown it was. Nolan had reinvented the superhero movie genre with Batman Begins and perfected it with The Dark Knight; the final installment of the trilogy didn't have as big of an impact on the film industry as its predecessors, but it's simply such a great ending for the series itself and its characters. Each of the trilogy's main characters gets a poetic ending to their arch, leading to some very emotional moments towards the end.

And those final twenty minutes or so are the main reason for the film being this high in the ranking. The movie is damn amazing up until then, but then it gets a whole lot better. The final montage manages to be simultaneously mind-blowing and emotional, as major reveals are made yet an ultimate sense of closure dawns on the viewer. Hans Zimmer's expert work on the soundtrack helps with that, as does Michael Caine's heartstring-tugging performance, in addition to Nolan's powerful and clever script. The Dark Knight trilogy is one of my favorite movie franchises of all time, and this is the film that brings it to a bombastic, perfect end.

4. The Prestige (2006)

I had to put this masterpiece below those in the top three, as it doesn't quite reach the epic scale that I love so much about them. But believe me, it hurts to put The Prestige at only the fourth place. The film has gotten a lot of acclaim its way, but it deserves so much more. The movie takes a mildly interesting premise (a period piece following the rivalry of two stage magicians), and turns it into a piece of cinematic gold thanks to some of the best writing to ever grace the big screen. In part thanks to Christopher Priest who wrote the novel that the film is based on, and in part thanks to Nolan and his brother Jonathan (who I call the Christopher Nolan of the television medium), who wrote the screenplay for the movie, the script is a work of pretty much unprecedented genius.

We've all seen flashbacks being used as a means of spicing up the story in movies. And we've all seen movies with surprising plot twists. But how many movies flash somewhat confusingly backwards and forwards in time whilst featuring so many plot twists that you have to watch it multiple times for it to make sense, but each time you rewatch it, it pays off more than the last time, as the complex big picture of the story gets painted more clearly? There are so many layers to truly understand the story, but watching it multiple times and really getting into it is truly worth it. Adding to the greatness is the fantastic acting by the likes of Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine.

5. Memento (2000)

There's a video on Youtube that I recommend to fans of this director. In it, he explains the basic concept of the storytelling style and sequence of events in Memento. And it's nearly 20 minutes long.

While Memento isn't quite the best Nolan film, it's certainly the most Nolan film out there. Even with the absence of both Hans Zimmer and Michael Caine, this is still the film that is the truest to Nolan's style of making a movie, and especially writing a script. The story isn't simply told out of sequence, but (much like this list) from ending to beginning, with most scenes ending right where the previous scene started. Also, there are black-and-white flashback sequences in between to further complicate the plot. I think my third time watching Memento was when I finally properly understood the story from finish to start. Based on a fantastic short story by his brother Jonathan, Christopher Nolan truly made his name in the film industry with this ambitious project - just the second film he ever directed.

The premise of the plot is perfect for the backwards storytelling style: Memento is about a man with short-term memory loss, and he's looking for the man who killed his wife. As he can't form new memories, he uses notes and tattoos to keep up with his own investigation. As confusing and complex as the film is, it's not messy: the script is tightly woven together, and ultimately everything makes perfect sense - you just have to use your brain quite intensively. 

6. Dunkirk (2017)

It says something about the quality of Nolan's filmography that Dunkirk is one of the greatest war movies I've seen, yet it's not even in the top half of this list. I was surprised to hear that a true story from World War II would be the director's next project, as he had spent the years leading up to it making sci-fi epics and a superhero trilogy, but he sure delivered and proved the cynics wrong.

Dunkirk is the only movie where Nolan's directing is even more impressive than his writing. The script is great, too: the story isn't as complex as in most of his works, but still told slightly out of sequence to make the events more tense. But the directing is what makes the film truly great: the realistic intensity of the war is captured magnificently. Up until last year's 1917, I had never seen a war movie that makes the war seem so real and so close. When the soldiers are lined up on the beach, hoping not to get hit by a bomb as the air raid passes them by, the viewer can feel their sheer terror and helplessness through the magnificent sound editing, action choreography, visual effects and cinematography. Dunkirk is an odd one out in Nolan's collection of cleverly written fictional puzzle boxes, but it makes for a showcase of the director's range, and is easily his most gripping film.

7. The Dark Knight (2008)

Often considered to be Nolan's greatest film, The Dark Knight is certainly one of the best superhero movies ever made. Nolan had turned the whole genre inside out with the darkness and (relative) realism of the Dark Knight trilogy's first film, and with this second one, he took things further. The Dark Knight is often described as an Oscar-worthy crime thriller where the characters just happen to wear masks and cloaks, and that's quite accurate. The vibrant darkness of Gotham City and its criminal underbelly and the complicated morals of Bruce Wayne's vigilantism are brought to life in an astonishing fashion by Nolan's sharp directing and a story that leads to a truly dramatic and epic final scene.

But we all know what the best part of the movie is. I couldn't possibly write about The Dark Knight without devoting at least half of the text to Heath Ledger's Joker performance. While it could be argued that Joaquin Phoenix played the character even better in last year's Joker (I still haven't decided which of the two I prefer and my list of best Joker-performances is therefore in limbo), Ledger's performance is still one of the greatest villain roles in cinema history. It was unheard-of that a comic book movie would win an Academy Award for acting, right up until the Oscar went posthumously to Ledger, who tragically died at the age of 28 years between the release of the movie and the Oscar ceremony. Ledger's version of the Joker is a frightening, spine-chilling portrayal of a complex madman, making for the perfect antagonist to Christian Bale's Batman.

8. Insomnia (2002)

It's the weirdest thing that Christopher Nolan made an awesome crime thriller with Oscar-winner Al Pacino, Oscar-winner Hilary Swank and Oscar-winner Robin Williams in the lead roles, and no one ever talks about it. Sure, it wasn't a high-budget blockbuster like most of Nolan's films, but still - for most directors, a film of this quality would be among their most revered works instead of an underrated gem.

Insomnia is a cooled-down Nolan movie: the story is told in chronological order, and none of Nolan's mainstay-actors appear. But even without his trademark traits, Nolan can still make a fantastic movie. The acting is some of the best to appear in his filmography, as Pacino (one of my all-time top 5 favorite actors) gives one his very best performances as a detective suffering from insomnia, while Williams plays an uncharacteristic villain role - any bad guy played by Robin Williams is an unique bad guy, and his character Walter Finch is unique in a great, memorable way. Swank is also at the top of her game as detective Ellie Burr, the hero of the story. In addition to these powerhouse performances, the film features a beautiful Alaska setting, some unforgettable tension/action sequences, and an ending that's not great in a typical Nolan way (there's no huge plot twists or mind-bending reveals), but just as great in a different way (it leaves the viewer with quite a deep message to ponder).

9. Batman Begins (2005)

By now you might be wondering why I'm still so full of praise for these movies, even though I've reached the bottom two. The answer: to my taste, Nolan hasn't made a bad or even mediocre film in his whole career. Call me a biased fanboy if you want, but I've seriously enjoyed all ten of his feature films, and from the looks of the trailer for Tenet, the number will soon be going up to eleven.

Batman Begins is often dwarfed by the critical acclaim of The Dark Knight and the massive scale of Dark Knight Rises, but even if it is the weakest part of the trilogy, the first installment is still a very good movie and a hugely important one. The superhero movie genre had been dominated by campy heroes in colorful tights punching bad guys, right up until this movie came along. Nolan's version of Gotham City is a dark and realistic portrayal of a town riddled by crime, his version of Batman being a troubled man haunted by his past who decides to become more than just a vigilante - a symbol for the beating heart of his hometown. With the likes of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson and Gary Oldman all in the same cast, Batman Begins is a worthwhile crime drama in its own right, in addition to being a milestone for comic book cinema, the first chapter of a great trilogy, and a big break in Nolan's own career.

10. Following (1998)

It may be the weakest of Nolan's cinematic products, but still very much worth watching for fans of his work - of all the directors whose full cinematography I've seen, Nolan definitely has the best worst film. Just passing the requirements for feature length with its 69-minute runtime, Following is one hell of a directorial debut and a strong sign of things to come.

The film's small budget makes it look and feel very different from the grand-scale blockbusters Nolan would go on to make, but the script is where the familiar feel from the director's other films is very visible. The story is told out of sequence and features its share of mind-boggling twists, proving that Nolan had his signature storytelling style with him from the very beginning. Following is a black-and-white, neo-noir thriller about an aspiring writer who becomes the accomplice of a charismatic thief, and I highly recommend it to people who like Nolan's films but haven't seen this oft-forgotten gem yet.

Thank you for reading! I was originally planning to release this list after Tenet's release so it could be included, but I got frustrated after the third or fourth time it got delayed and just went ahead with my top 10. I'll be sure to let my readers know my thoughts on Tenet and how it would rank here once I've seen it!

Tune in next week for my list of the top 10 Spike Lee joints!