Movie Rate & Discuss - Christopher Nolan

[Moorabool St]

In what I hope to be the first in an going series, let's create a space to review individual directors, screenwriters, actresses/actors, cinematographers, and film composers.

The intention is twofold - to rate and rank all of their films, and to discuss both these films and their overall style.

To commence, let's start with Christopher Nolan.

Rate and rank the films he has directed, and discuss what you like/dislike about them and his overall style.

 

[Moorabool St]

I'll kick things off by ranking his films to date. I've included Following, however having only recently seen it, this could change.

I am also yet to see Tenet.

1. Dunkirk - his magnum opus
2. Batman Begins - everything a superhero film should be
3. Memento - his Reservoir Dogs (the small budget flick that launched a career)
4. The Prestige - hokey ending aside, a work of art
5. The Dark Knight - has to take credit for getting that performance out of not only Ledger, but Zimmer as well
6. Interstellar - slightly self indulgent, but a cinematic experience
7. Insomnia - perhaps the outlier of his career to date, pulled very good performances out of two stars in decline
8. Inception - fairy floss for intellectual moviegoers, but does everything it sets out to do
9. Following - would be worth revisiting with a proper budget
10. The Dark Knight Rises - let down by some bizarre writing and editing, but an otherwise entertaining conclusion to a fantastic trilogy

 

[eaglespremiers]

1. The Dark Knight
2. Inception
   -------------------
3. The Prestige
4. Batman Begins
5. Memento
   -------------------
6. The Dark Knight Rises
7. Insomnia
8. Following
   -------------------
9. Interstellar

Four levels for me.
Interstellar was bitterly disappointing but all others are excellent.
Haven't seen Dunkirk (simply because I want to try and watch it in as high a resolution as possible). I've no doubt I'll enjoy it immensely.
The Dark Knight is the clear stand out and still my favourite movie and I've not seen anything that comes close.

 

[Roobs321]

1. The Prestige
2. Memento
3. Dunkirk
^the keepers
4. Insomnia
5-7. Nolan Batman (any order, very consistent)
8. Inception
9. Following
10. Interstellar (only one I don't care for)

Viewing order:
1. Insomnia
2. Memento
3. Batman Begins
4. The Prestige (cinema, first one after finishing my Year 12 HSC exams)
5. The Dark Knight (cinema x 2)
6. Inception (cinema)
7. TDKR (cinema)
8. Interstellar (cinema)
9. Following
10. Dunkirk (cinema)

So fairly chronological save catching up with Following around 5 years back. My opinion of him conforms to the majority, a normally reliable must-see hand at the 21st century blockbuster (of which there aren't many) who sometimes gets a bit bogged down in exposition and attempting to wow/puzzle/trick audiences. He was the big name director who came to prominence during my high school years, so I tend to be very fond of his early-mid 00s work. A majority of his films lose a bit of their lustre with the passage of time (e.g. Dark Knight & Inception).

 

[Kong]

Rating films purely on my level of enjoyment:

Interstellar - 9
The Dark Knight - 9
The Prestige - 8
Inception- 7
Memento - 6.5
Batman Begins - 6.5
The Dark Knight Rises - 6.5
Dunkirk - 5
Following - 5
Insomnia- 5

Being locked up in Victoria, I haven't been able to see Tenet yet.

 

[crafty_bernardo]

Interstellar
The Dark Knight
Dunkirk
Inception
The Prestige
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight Rises
Insomnia
Momento

 

[adelaidecrows]

Other than The Dark Knight I find his movies incredibly hard to watch more than once. Not to say they aren't entertaining but his movies as a whole just fail to reach that level that sets them above the pack.

On VOG-L09 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Bostonian]

Liked Dunkirk and that's it.

 

[00Stinger]

An absolute genius in writing and directing imo

Dunkirk - 8
Interstellar - 7.5
Dark Knight Rises - 8
Inception - 10
The Dark Knight 8.5
The Prestige - 6
Batman Begins - 9
Insomnia - 7
Momento - 9

Inception is almost a perfect movie for me, would have it comfortably in my top 3-5 movies of all time. Visually fantastic, musically a masterpiece (although that is mainly Zimmers work to be fair) and a cool sci-fi story line with twists and layers to it.

Momento doesn't get the credit it deserves imo, telling a storyline from the end back to the start which makes the suspense even more gripping

The Batman series as another masterpiece trilogy (perhaps the best trilogy of all time). I lean towards batman Begins being the number 1 as it explores the rise of Batman which no other Batman movies go down that path. The Dark Knight and the dark Knight rises are hard to split imo

Dunkirk was a fantastic WW1 movie with the different perspectives of the battle

Interstellar was a great movie but I felt it was the one where he may have tried to go a bit to out there for his own good

The Prestige I only watched for the first time 6 or so months ago. It was solid but just didn't grab me at all

 

[Seeds]

Dunkirk is way overated. So is inception.

he does not know how to make interesting deep characters or characters you can root for. The one exception is the joker and i think that was mostly due to ledger than anything else.

dark knight is the best conventional superhero film ever made.

the rest is all a bit meh.

 

[BEaston]

One of the few directors that's pushing boundaries both conceptually and technologically in movies. Basically makes every movie he makes a must see.

He doesn't always nail it but the ride is always enjoyable IMO.

 

[phantom13]

I dont know how i missed this... But bumped to include Tenet now.

The Dark Knight - The perfect superhero/crime film, some high intellectual concepts and some of the best set pieces ever comitted to film
The Prestige - The twist was Usual Suspects/Sixth Sense like for me and everything around it was perfect
Batman Begins - What every origin aims to be now. Only Iron Man has come close and that launched the biggest franchise in movie history
Tenet - Visually and concept wise his biggest swing so far. It mostly lands, some weakness in character but not really the point.
Dunkirk - Difficult narrative concept but still exceptional
Memento - Could easily be his best and if he didnt get bigger budgets for his lens it would be a fine #1
Inception - Exceptional visually and well made for a complex plot and concept

The Dark Knight Rises - The weakest of TDK trilogy but still a satisfying ending which was far more difficult than people would give credit for
Interstellar - Went for a big emotional pull, didnt land for me, its obviously not his strength but the rest of the film (concept, visuals, performances) are great

Insomnia - Much like following just not on the same level as the rest
Following - As above

I wouldnt call myself a "fanboi" but i geniunely hang out for a Nolan film, you know it will be an event and he will dazzle you with something. The standard criticism of his writing (the women, the character development) are... fair, to a degree. I think with film there is a finite amount of all elements you can do and trying to cram too much makes it a mess, he knows what he is good at and makes a conscious decision to sacrifice elements that dont serve his vision. That is a skill as much as any.