My Top 5 Christopher Nolan Movies

 by Patrick Bromley

Subject to change at any moment. Including now. And now.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is in theaters today! To celebrate, I thought I would share my favorites of his movies. For some reason, Nolan has become a controversial figure in the film community, with everyone seemingly divided between Toxic Bros who worship him and the Hipsters who are too cool for his brand of squareness. I would like to think I'm neither (and so are many others who may like or dislike his work for Totally Valid Reasons), but I do realize he's become one of my guys. My Top 5 could include most to any of his movies, but here's where it stands today.

1. Inception (2010)

Still my favorite of all Christopher Nolan's movies and maybe my favorite movie of the first decade of the 2000s. I won't bother to recount the cast or the plot -- it's a dream heist -- but will instead say that this became one of my favorite movies after my first viewing on opening night 2010 and then only got better on repeat watches. Then I read a piece from a former critic who described the movie as Nolan's 8 1/2 and explained that the movie itself was all about the filmmaking process. Leonardo DiCaprio is even styled to look just like a 2010 Christopher Nolan. That reading made a masterpiece even better.

2. Memento (2000)

The movie that introduced me to Christopher Nolan remains one of his best. You all know the deal by now: Guy Pearce plays a man who can't form new memories trying to solve the murder of his wife by any means necessary, all told in reverse chronological order. As someone who hadn't yet seen Following when I saw this in theaters, it announced one of my favorite new voices in film and established a number of stylistic tropes and thematic concerns that would carry across much of Nolan's work. 

3. Insomnia (2002)

Probably the most underrated of Nolan's movies, Insomnia is often dismissed as more of a programmer than one of the greats. I love it. Al Pacino is called up to Alaska to solve a murder, but gets entangled with the killer when a tragedy occurs and he's forced to cover it up. Robin Williams, an actor I always enjoy in dramatic role and almost never in comic ones, is great as Pacino's nemesis and co-conspirator. This is Nolan's most straightforward thriller, probably because he's remaking a Norwegian film of the same name. Nolan's change is that he makes Pacino's crisis a physical one instead of an existential one, if that makes sense. This movie is so good.

4. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

I know it's blasphemous to put this ahead of The Dark Knight (and probably even Batman Begins for most people) but keep in mind this is my list of favorites, not yours. Though I was very mixed on the movie when it came out and still am able to acknowledge its messiness, a recent gig hosting it and revisiting it on the big screen confirmed that it's my favorite of the director's Batman trilogy. I love its scope, its scale, its ambition, the way it expands the story beyond a hero/villain showdown to a battle for the soul of a city -- and, by extension, our humanity. Anne Hathaway brings a jolt of energy to every one of her scenes and steals the film. She (and her costume designer) should have won awards for this.

5. Tenet (2020)

This is the Blackhat of Christopher Nolan movies (complimentary). It's Nolan porn for fanboys like me, all great clothes and insane set pieces and IMAX photography and fuckarounds with time. I won't pretend to really understand the story. It's pure vibes, and I love it for the vibes.