From low-budget mysteries to ambitious blockbusters, there's no bad Christopher Nolan movie.
But which one reigns supreme as the very best?
As Nolan's debut feature, Following is pretty good in its own right.
But more than anything else, it serves as a testament to the types of movies that he
would go on to make.
Clocking in at a breezy 70 minutes, it accomplishes a lot in a tight little package.
True to the title, the story kicks off with a man who likes to follow people, which leads
him down a dark path.
The narrative jumps around between the future and the present, which is just one reason
why looking back, it's clearly a harbinger of the great films that Nolan would deliver
in the years to come.
Fresh off the groundbreaking Memento, Nolan tried his hand at a suspenseful crime thriller
with Insomnia, a remake of a 1997 Norwegian film of the same name.
Nolan uses the Alaskan setting to provide some stunning imagery, and critics praised
the end result as an "intricately constructed thriller" and a tour de force for a young
director early in his career.
As he would so often later in the years to come, the director also benefited from a talented
marquee cast, including Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, and Robin Williams, the latter of whom
delivered one of the most chilling performances of his career.
Nolan brought his trademark intelligence to a period-set mystery with 2006's The Prestige,
and in the process, he pulled off one of the most memorable twists in modern cinema.
The story follows a pair of dueling magicians played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale
as they battle to one-up each other in 1890s London.
We won't spoil the big reveal, but we will say that the deeper the film goes into these
magicians' lives, the more delightfully deceptive the story gets.
Critics lauded the lead actor's performances, as well as Nolan's deft execution of the big twists.
And just in case you don't know, in magic, the "prestige" refers to the big reveal of
the illusion; with that in mind, let's just say that this movie absolutely lives up to its title.
"Abracadabra."
The final entry in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy wasn't quite as strong as its predecessors,
but it's still a fantastic film in its own right.
Nolan brought the story to a rousing conclusion with massive action that turned the entire
city of Gotham into a war zone under the control of Bane, played by Tom Hardy.
Bane is a classic comics villain who became one of the most imposing superhero bad guys
ever brought to the big screen.
Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle, meanwhile, offered a wry spark and wit that the franchise had
previously been lacking.
Although the Bat-formula was arguably getting a bit stale at this point, Nolan still managed
to go out with a bang.
The year 2020 was definitely a strange one.
With the world locked down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, movie theaters suffered
from the lack of an available audience.
Tenet was released at the height of this uncertain time.
It was meant to be the major tentpole to get everyone back to the movies, but it didn't
quite work out that way, as many viewers waited for the home release instead.
Still, it managed to gross about $360 million worldwide on a $205 million budget.
In terms of the actual movie, Tenet is basically Nolan's answer to Back to the Future, but
with a spy thriller narrative.
The ambitious story follows a character played by John David Washington known only as the
Protagonist, who learns how to manipulate time to stop future events from happening.
In typical Nolan fashion, the film is like an onion that needs its various layers peeled
back to reveal more about its message.
In this instance, it's humanity's relationship with the concept of time.
Also, since the director isn't the biggest fan of CGI, he actually blew up a Boeing 747
airliner for one of the action sequences.
Ultimately, Tenet may go down as one of Nolan's less-celebrated projects, mostly because of
the bad timing of its release.
But that should take nothing away from the film itself, as it's an innovative effort
that makes for a perfect double feature with Inception.
Nolan walked a tightrope with Interstellar, telling a fairly grounded sci-fi story melded
with a metaphysical message about the transcendent power of love.
It's a wildly ambitious saga spanning dimensions with the fate of the human race at stake,
and Nolan worked hard to get the science right.
He pulled off stunning blockbuster spectacle while also demonstrating how a black hole
affects the passage of time and utilizing a wormhole to introduce some positively stunning
alien worlds.
Despite all that hard science, Nolan never lost touch with the story's heart.
At the middle of it all is a mission to save humanity with poignant personal stakes, as
Matthew McConaughey's character Joseph Cooper copes with the fact that playing hero will
likely cost him his life with his daughter.
"Nice and easy, Mr. Cooper.
Remember, you're no spring chicken anymore."
The movie that first put Nolan on the map, Memento is also a textbook example of what
makes him such a great filmmaker.
A noirish mystery and a gripping thriller with the most unreliable of narrators, it
forces the audience to piece together its story one tiny detail at a time while searching
for clues across the tattoo-covered skin of its protagonist, played by Guy Pearce.
The fact that Nolan both wrote and directed Memento proved to Hollywood bigwigs that he
had the chops to take big ideas and turn them into something audiences would rave about.
Critics called it a masterful execution of a high-concept idea and one of the most original
films in years.
"You don't want the truth.
You make up your own truth."
The Batman franchise was in shambles when Nolan's pitch for a back-to-basics approach
set the series back on track and reinvented the entire superhero genre in the bargain.
Batman Begins nailed the character's classic origin story, breathing new life into a familiar
tale with Christian Bale in the title role and reinvigorating the character's appeal
for a new generation.
Entertaining as a comics adaptation or simply as a straight-up action thriller grounded
in surprisingly relatable human drama, Batman Begins put Bruce Wayne back on top of the box office.
And it also proved that Nolan had the chops to helm blockbusters that transcend simple
popcorn flick status.
Inception would've easily been a mess in the hands of a lesser director, but with Nolan
at the helm, it's a mind-bending masterpiece.
With an all-star cast led by Leonard DiCaprio, this twisty thriller is so ambitious that
it aims to bend reality to its will, and it actually pulls off that lofty goal.
It's a heist film set in the subconscious, and Nolan handles the dizzying layers of the
story so deftly that it's basically impossible not to be drawn in by the narrative even as
you're trying to get your bearings.
Hailed by critics as a smart, flashy visual effects extravaganza, it remains a movie unlike any other.
And Nolan is still one of the few directors with enough clout to get a non-franchise picture
with this kind of scope through the Hollywood system at all.
"Once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it's almost impossible to eradicate.
An Idea that is fully formed, fully understood, that sticks."
There's certainly no shortage of war movies in Hollywood history, or World War II movies in particular.
But Nolan still managed to give that mid-20th century global conflict his own spin with Dunkirk.
The story focuses on the daring real-life evacuation of Allied troops from the titular
French city before the area was overrun by Nazis.
Instead of relying on big action, Nolan used a narrow perspective to present the crisis
up close from the perspectives of the soldiers awaiting rescue and the men braving near-certain
death to save them.
A talented ensemble lined up for Dunkirk, including Kenneth Branagh and Nolan regulars
like Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy.
Critics called the results masterful and a fitting tribute to a harrowing yet inspirational mission.
Nolan's Batman flicks are some of the best superhero movies captured on film, and the
absolute pinnacle is the second installment, 2008's The Dark Knight.
After setting the stage with Batman Begins, the director really started filling in his
canvas with the sequel.
The late Heath Ledger's mesmerizing, Oscar-winning performance as the Joker is arguably the highlight
of the entire franchise.
The action is top-notch, the story is tight and focused, and the visuals are stunning.
Christian Bale had really settled into the character at this point, and his command of
the cowl made him a hero nearly as compelling as his iconic foe.
Critics lauded the movie as infinitely smart and stylish, and the nearly universal acclaim is justified.
The Dark Knight isn't just one of the best superhero movies of the 21st century, it's
one of the best movies, period.
"See, I'm not a monster.
I'm just ahead of the curve."
It's pretty hilarious how the opening of the portentous Oppenheimer became entangled with
its bright pink release date partner, Barbie.
But there's no need to understand that study in contrasts to realize that Nolan's 12th
feature may very well be his magnum opus.
The biopic stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, who's often referred to as the
father of the atomic bomb.
It explores the nature of the man and his team's groundbreaking scientific achievement,
while also presenting the philosophical and moral sides of the equation, as humanity is
granted the power to destroy itself.
In typical Nolan fashion, the film features an all-star cast, including the likes of Emily
Blunt, Florence Pugh, and Robert Downey Jr., who all turn in sensational and nuanced performances.
This is a complex film about one of the most harrowing times in modern history, and everyone
treats it with the consideration it deserves.
Nolan doesn't pull out the Hollywood gloss and turn Oppenheimer into an unfortunate martyr
or provide a traditional happy ending that studios so often demand.
Instead, he lets a thought-provoking question ring long after the credits roll: namely,
how far are we from total annihilation?
From the pristine technical execution to the deep thematic exploration, Oppenheimer is
a singular cinematic achievement.
It's not only Nolan's best, it's also likely to be remembered as one of the greatest films
of all time.