RANKED: Christopher Nolan
A little while back I did a ranking of all of Christopher Nolan's films over on the Instagram page, starting with his 1998 debut film Following all the way through to Tenet. There was so much more that I wanted to say about all of his films and their placements in that list that I wasn't able to on that platform, so I thought it would be a good idea to revisit that list in more depth here. Bear in mind, this is my list; not your list, not the list, just my list. If you disagree with some of my placements I would genuinely love to hear about it, so feel free to drop a comment below or hit up the Instagram page to discuss Nolan films with me. So here is my ranking of all of Christopher Nolan's feature films in order of worst to best.
11. Tenet (2020)
Tenet isn't a terrible movie, but it does have problems. Problems that are bigger than the fact that some people have issues hearing some of the dialogue in the audio mix of the film (I have heard reports that this sound issue is still a problem even when watching the 4K release with the Dolby Atmos audio track). The biggest issues this film has lie in the storytelling department. Nolan has made a career out of messing around with the chronology of his films, but he takes that a step further by making the non-linear storytelling a part of the mechanics of the world in which it takes place, rather than it being a subjective experience of an otherwise objectively straight-forward narrative. This means that even on a second and third viewing of Tenet you still are none the wiser to a lot of the mechanics of the narrative and where things do and don't line up. I have faith in Nolan as a technician that everything does line up even if I can't comprehend where and how, but as a viewer Tenet is more often than not disorienting over entertaining, something that really hurts my enjoyment of the film.
There's also an interesting argument to be made about the fact that you inherently need to see Tenet at least twice to be able to comprehend the narrative - is that a deliberate choice on the part of Nolan (possibly even a financial one, asking people to pay to see the film twice), or is it a failure in storytelling that one can't experience the narrative fully in simply experiencing the film as you would any other film? There are plenty of other films that certainly take on new meaning and are a different viewing experience a second and third time around because of third act revelations and twists, but the good ones still leave you satisfied after the first viewing. At the end of The Usual Suspects you fully understand the narrative and are satisfyingly surprised by the twist ending, so you want to go back and revisit it to catch all the little clues and hints that were hiding in plain sight the first time around - not because you got to the end and thought what on earth just happened?
All of that being said, it is an incredible film from a purely technical perspective. The way that Nolan and his team blend choreography and cinematography in new and exciting ways to play around with the passage of time - particularly in some of the fight scenes - is breathtaking to watch, and brain-numbing to think about late and attempt to figure out just how on earth they managed to pull a film like this off. There's some smart use of colour in the film too that helps in setting out its cards and helping the viewer to piece together who is travelling in which direction and when in the narrative, culminating in one of the most visually stunning but chaotic action set-pieces ever put to film. I feel bad trashing a film like this that is so technically ambitious, because I would much rather be watching films like Tenet in the theatres than fucking Pixels 4.
10. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
I like The Dark Knight Rises a lot more than a lot of other people who seem to think that it is one of the worst films ever made, but I do still think that it is one of Nolan's weaker films. It's certainly the weakest in his Batman trilogy. My relationship with Rises has changed over the years, too - I was 14 when I went to see it in the cinemas on opening weekend, and the things I loved about it then are the things I am least interested in now, and the things I found boring then are the things I find most interesting now. I remember thinking back then: why is it taking so long for Batman to show up? But now I feel like the opening act of Rises is one of the boldest and smartest choices Nolan made in the entire trilogy; it gives even more weight to the final act of The Dark Knight, and forces the viewer to experience the legacy of Batman as it exists in a Gotham both grieving the loss of Harvey Dent and still reeling from Joker. There is a real sense of loss in Rises' opening act, and a feeling that it is going to take something really special for this broken man to take up the cape one last time. And it pays off in a huge way when he finally does show up - that first sequence with Batman is one of the great moments of the trilogy, but only because of the entirety of that first act taking Batman's sacrifice at the end of The Dark Knight seriously.
9. Following (1998)
Nolan's debut film from 1998 is a black and white noir thriller starring Jeremy Theobald, who shows up again more than twenty years later in Tenet (he even dropped by on the Instagram page back when this list was dropping over there). Clocking in at only 70 minutes, it follows a writer as he follows strangers in search of material. One of the people he has been following (a burglar named Cobb, a name that resurfaces in Inception) eventually confronts him, before taking him under his wing, showing him how to break and enter. The narrative twists and turns beyond that in ways I don't want to spoil, because not many people have seen this film and I want to encourage people to do so. It's rough around the edges and was made on only about $6,000, shot on a single hand-held camera on weekends while everyone (Nolan included) had full-time jobs during the week. Despite this, there are clear flashes of the things that would go on to define Nolan and his filmmaking. If you can find it, definitely give it a shot.
8. Dunkirk (2017)
Before you destroy your keyboards in complaining about how low this is placed in the list, hear me out. I think Dunkirk is fantastic, I really do. In fact, at this point in the list we could get away with calling every film from here on out a masterpiece in their own way. But the reason it doesn't work for me as much as it clearly does for others is to do with a very clear choice made in the way the narrative is delivered. Its decision to divide the film into three distinct timelines that run concurrently, at different speeds, and intersect at different points in the film from either perspective, felt unnecessary and obtrusive to my enjoyment of the film. Whereas Nolan's previous and subsequent messing around with time in his films has always felt necessary and important to the telling of those specific stories, in Dunkirk it just felt unnecessary and slightly annoying. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun experience seeing it for the first time in the theatres and piecing it together as it unfolded, but each time I revisit it the manipulation of time just gets in the way of me experiencing the narrative in the way the film wants me to.
I also find the decision to frame the film very objectively in terms of its characters - that is, never giving us a subjective view of the narrative from the perspective of any given character, but rather focusing on the narrative at a macro level - leaves me a little cold. I understand the purpose of this choice, and it is effective, but my personal preference would have been to have a little more warmth and humanity in the film. There are flashes of it, which make me wish for it even more.
Much like Tenet, though, I don't want my gripes with the film to get in the way of just how impressive this film is on a technical level. No one makes big event films like Nolan does, and Dunkirk is a testament to that. It is visually ravishing, and the cinematography of the aerial dogfights is just breathtaking. The way the film cuts across during the final moments of the film is really smart and effective, too, and I don't want to sound like I'm too down on a technically brilliant film portrayal of an event so little known and explored in cinema. Props also have to be given to Hans Zimmer for the score; he doesn't ever turn in a poor score, but his use of the Shepard tone in particular elevate this score to some of his best.
7. Interstellar (2014)
Interstellar might just be Nolan's most technically ambitious film (except for maybe Tenet) and so I will always have a soft spot for it in that sense. Each time I revisit it I am swept away by its aesthetic and visual language in the same way I was seeing it for the first time. It's sense of scope and the sheer emptiness and vastness of space is mind-boggling, and it captures the conflict between space's beauty and horror incredibly effectively. It is an important piece of cinema for it's portrayal of black holes, too, having had Kip Thorne work on the film in consulting on the scientific elements of space, the black hole sequence in particular. I won't go into detail here (I'm certainly not the person to do so), but I suggest you go and read about the work done on this film to portray black holes and the amount of data and rendering that was required. The results speak for themselves, which I'm sure you will agree with if you have seen the film.
It does start to fall apart for me a little bit once it moves away from its initial space as a science-based space epic and begins to dabble in dramatic character stuff. It stumbles particularly with some of its dialogue, feeling more than a little silly when discussing the scientific properties of love. But those slip-ups aren't enough to topple a film propped up by such impressive scope, technical beauty, narrative ambition and visual grandeur. Not only that, but the emotional heart of the film - the relationship between father and daughter - more than holds it together when it starts to get a bit shaky in some of its exposition.
6. Inception (2010)
I feel like I just pissed a lot of people off. Yes, you are reading this right - Inception is right here in the middle of my list at number six. I can't deny how impressive Inception is, and I have a lot of respect for it and the role it had in shaping what films big studios were willing to finance in the 2010s. The success of Inception proved that audiences were not dumb, and studios and filmmakers did not have to play to the lowest common denominator to be successful. Thank God for that. But beyond that I honestly feel like Inception is a fun heist film with some cool visuals and science fiction elements, and that's about it. I don't have the deep love for this film that so many people do, and I don't get the same enjoyment out of arguing about whether the top falls at the end or not as so many people do (it's not the point - he doesn't care anymore because he's with his kids!). I don't have much more to say about Inception, honestly, because I have just never felt particularly strongly about it in a personal sense. For that reason it feels fitting to place it right smack bang in the middle of this list.
5. Batman Begins (2005)
This is where this list starts to get tricky for me, because I have to try to balance how I feel personally about these films with their cultural importance and critical reception. For me personally, Batman Begins is my favourite of the Nolan Batman trilogy, but am I really going to place it about The Dark Knight? Seriously, I love this film, and it hurts me a little bit to place it this far down the list, but it's the right thing to do given how important the next four are for cinema in the 2000s.
Where do I even begin with Batman Begins? I wasn't allowed to see it as a kid because I was too young, and my parents wouldn't take me to see an M-rated film in the theatres (basically the equivalent to a PG-13 rating, for my US readers). By the time I finally saw it I was about 12, and I was genuinely obsessed with it. I was familiar with the animated series and the Michael Keaton 1989 film, but always felt even then that there was a sense of melancholy and brokenness that was missing from those portrayals of the character. Along comes Begins, and it seriously knocked my socks off. At the time I wouldn't have been able to tell you what it was about it that connected with me, but as an adult I look at Begins as Nolan sneaking an indie film through to a studio setting with a huge budget. It has real grit and emotional weight to it, something that Batman hadn't ever had before, and something that Warner Bros. were taking a huge risk on at the time. Because Begins isn't a kids film. There is real darkness inhabiting the film, and not just in an aesthetic sense, but in the way that it honestly and without filter explores what would compel someone to dress as a bat and fight crime at night. My only gripe with the film is that the final act pushes it more towards big-budget action blockbuster territory, but I understand that at some point it had to be that. Despite that, I think that Begins is a structurally perfect film - the only structurally perfect film in the trilogy, in fact - and it has a very special place in my heart.
4. Memento (2000)
There is so much more to Memento than just being "that movie that runs backwards." Well, sort of. It is at it's heart a film about exploring an experimental structure of storytelling, but that isn't all it has to offer. Rather than just being a cold exercise in structure experimentation, the confusing mechanics of the storytelling serve not only to illustrate the protagonist's fragmented perception of time but also his shattered emotional state. Memento isn't my favourite film of Nolan's, and I'd be lying if I said that I had any intention of revisiting it any time soon, but I'd be lying to myself and everyone else if I didn't acknowledge just how important it was and the extent to which it made Nolan a household name, giving him the recognition and respect to go on and make so many great films.
3. Insomnia (2002)
Insomnia doesn't get nearly as much love as it should. It's a legitimately great crime thriller with a real psychological edge that doesn't resolve itself unjustly. If nothing else, Insomnia should be remembered as being one of the great film performances by the late Robin Williams, playing against type as the creepy but conflictingly understandable villain. I am blown away every time I revisit Insomnia by just how good he is, and it is heartbreaking to watch in the wake of his death, even now. Al Pacino is also great, teetering on the edge of some of his goofier, more hyperbolic performances, but reigning that side in just enough that he comes across as a man slowly losing his mind and only just managing to keep it all together. Hillary Swank stands out as being slightly sub-par in the performance category, but Insomnia is morally murky and engaging enough for that not to be a problem. If you're interested, check out the Norwegian original that this is based on, too.
2. The Dark Knight (2008)
What is there to say at this point about this movie that hasn't already been said? It's a modern classic for a reason, and is easily one of the most influential and important films in all of the 2000s. It goes without saying that Heath Ledger's performance is outstanding, and even though I'm not saying anything new at this point, I don't want to be one to gloss over his performance like so many people seem to do. It really is one of the great performances of our generation, and it is made even more powerful and potent when viewed with the knowledge that he was to pass away before the film was released.
It isn't as good as Heat, the film The Dark Knight is largely inspired by, and the people that say that it's better need to get their head checked, but it certainly comes close. The only reason this isn't at number one on this list is a small amount of drag in the final act of the film. There is one too many "moral dilemma set-pieces", and that does weigh the film down, but that hardly matters when its final moments are as exhilarating and spine-tingling as they are. And even though it has been done to death, I want to highlight the importance of the Joker's role in the film. The Joker works so perfectly because he is the antithesis of Batman, he is his opposite in every way. Batman intimidates thugs and criminals with his physical strength; Joker pushes him into situations where his physical strength is no help. Batman has one golden rule, Joker pushes him towards breaking that one rule. Batman represents order and justice, Joker represents chaos and anarchy. And the two of them dance together in a duel for the soul of Gotham, represented in the person of Harvey Dent. It is great screenwriting, executed by a master filmmaker, and performed by a whole host of performers operating at their peak.
1. The Prestige (2006)
It will come as no surprise to people that know me that The Prestige is my favourite film by Christopher Nolan. Talk about well-structured writing; The Prestige is just about as good a masterclass in screenwriting as you'll find. The opening description of the structure of magic tricks is not only integral to understanding the plot of the film, but it is baked into the very structure and fabric of the film itself. This is one layer on which this film operates like clockwork, but it goes even deeper.
I think that The Prestige is Nolan's most personal film. It is a film about magic, but it is a film that uses magic as a stand-in for the art of filmmaking, and it interrogates the role of films and art in peoples' lives, the role of artists and filmmakers in culture and society, and the desire to commit one's life to creating art. What drives such people? What's it all for? Why would one sacrifice so much in the pursuit of artistic merit? Well, it's exactly as Hugh Jackman's Danton explains; "it's the look on their faces." We want to be fooled, we want to allow the real world to melt away as we dive into a new, more exciting one, even if it's just for a couple of hours. It's the film in which Nolan bears his love for creating films and his love for his audience.
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