8. “Batman Begins” (2005)
“Insomnia” was enough for Warner to feel confident in giving Nolan the keys to their big franchise revival, and the helmer moved swiftly into developing a bold new take on Batman with co-writer David S. Goyer. The film made him the A-lister he is now, and spawned two massive sequels, but it can’t just be us that finds “Batman Begins” in retrospect one of the director’s weakest films. The approach is absolutely something to be lauded; only Nolan could take the premise of man dressed as a bat fighting crime and make it as plausible as possible. And for the first time we had a Batman movie that was actually about Batman, with Christian Bale giving three distinct and excellent performances: Bruce Wayne in private, wounded and still grieving and furious; Bruce Wayne in public, the drunken, irresponsible playboy; and the Batman, a terrifying force of nature. These little choices unquestionably make Bale’s the definitive portrayal of the character, and in Gary Oldman and Michael Caine, he has wonderful support. But Nolan’s still adjusting to his bigger playset, with the action mostly choppy and confusing and the tone is slightly uneven. And while the first two acts are pretty good, Nolan loses the thread in the third, the realistic tone giving way to a hammy Liam Neeson performance (“Excuse me, I have a city to destroy!”— although it should be said that Tom Wilkinson gives him some competition in the scenery chewing), some creaky lines, uneven, misjudged humor (including Gary Oldman acting like Jake Lloyd in “The Phantom Menace“) and some slightly cheap and ill-conceived hallucination scenes (Batman the monster and the Scarecrow’s fire-breathing horse are nice ideas but let down in the execution). The film slows to a crawl every time Katie Holmes is on screen — the actress was reportedly forced on Nolan by the studio, and his disinterest shows. It’s a laudable first effort in mega-budget filmmaking and can be credited with basically launching a whole new way to look at superhero movies, but far, far better things were to come.
7. “Insomnia” (2002)
Praised hugely on release, Nolan’s studio debut has slipped in critical standing over the last decade. Looking back, that’s somewhat unfair —it’s a very strong little thriller with some of the best acting in any of Nolan’s films. But it’s a hard film to truly love, perhaps because for arguably the only time in his career, it feels like a gun-for-hire job, a chance to prove himself with big names and more scope. Nolan had been picked out by Steven Soderbergh —who had raved about “Memento,” helping the film to get a U.S. release— who hired him to direct a remake of the Norwegian thriller of the same name for his Section 8 production company and Warner Bros. Stellan Skarsgård took the role in the original, but here it’s Al Pacino as an LAPD cop sent to Alaska with his partner Hap (Martin Donovan) to help with the enquiry into the death of a 17-year-old girl. Chasing a suspect, Pacino accidentally shoots his partner, who’s just told him that he’s going to testify against him to Internal Affairs, an incident witnessed by the killer (Robin Williams), who blackmails him into helping frame the victim’s boyfriend for his own murder. Nolan handles everything handsomely in an old-fashioned way, but the film sometimes feels a little disengaged, and the screenplay by Hillary Seitz occasionally inches into cop movie cliches. But at the same time, Nolan gives the story a wonderfully creepy atmosphere (again, as with “Memento,” the film takes place entirely in daylight; few filmmakers can make the sun as menacing and bleak as nighttime) and coaxes very strong performances out of his cast. Robin Williams was near-revelatory (this and “One Hour Photo,” released the previous year, remain his best dramatic turns), and it was, until very recently anyway, the last true Pacino turn of greatness, the actor perma-tired and letting a lifetime of sins catch up to him with quiet dignity. It’s a world away from the Shouty Al persona that would largely take over thereafter. So in retrospect, yes, it’s minor Nolan, but it’s still markedly better than 99% of Hollywood procedurals these days.
6. “Interstellar” (2014)
Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” might be the filmmaker’s most frustrating movie. It is at once his most ambitious, his most beautiful and perhaps his most silly. It’s a breathtaking achievement, an immersive tactile experience and yet it possibly reaches beyond its grasp; sometimes leaving you with the simultaneous sensation that you’ve witnessed something emotionally profound, but also maybe a little bit ridiculous. Not quite shrouded in mystery anymore (though we won’t discuss the picture past the first act), “Interstellar” takes place in the near future where a blight has caused a cataclysmic food shortage. The culture of earth has radically changed towards farming and harvesting and all other aspirations have been set aside. When a former astronaut turned farmer (Matthew McConaughey) is recruited by Earth’s most formidable scientists, he has to choose between his family and an interstellar voyage towards a wormhole near Saturn, which could be the planet’s last hope. So “Interstellar” is guts, glory and adventure like “The Right Stuff” mixed with a cerebral mystique, scale and scope that is more like Kubrick‘s grand space odyssey. But while it can aspire to spellblinding awe and wonder in moments, “2001: A Space Odyssey” it is not. “Interstellar” suffers from a pretty clunky screenplay which often spells out its themes awkwardly; some of its on-the-nose lines of dialogue are particularly ungraceful. And while its starry-eyed feeling isn’t as over-pitched as some have suggested, the film’s vague notion that love may be the part of the equation we haven’t accounted for is a little hokey. At some point “Interstellar” takes a quantum leap into the black hole of your suspension of disbelief. Whether you ultimately reject or embrace where the film boldly goes will be up to your subjective experience. “Interstellar” can be experienced like a battle between your optimistic and cynical selves. One hopes you can give yourself over to its grand aims and often rapturous, majestic visuals —and Hans Zimmer’s score might be the MVP of emotional authenticity— but some may find themselves pulled back to the cold reality of logic and skepticism due to the film’s uneven execution. “Interstellar” can be incredibly gorgeous and can engage the mind, the heart and even the soul, but we’d be lying if we didn’t admit the movie buckles under the idealistic weight of its heady and yet sentimental aspirations.
5. “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012)
While the expectations for “Interstellar” have been grand, Nolan had the previous experience of unmatchable hype and fan anticipation with the concluding part of his “Dark Knight” trilogy. But short of delivering a film that could actively cure cancer and feed the starving, he was never really going to be able to meet those expectations, and so “The Dark Knight Rises” is merely a very good film. It feels now like a slight wheeling back on the bleak existentialism of the peerless “The Dark Knight,” delivering more in the way of outright entertainment (Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman, for example) but maybe a little less in terms of braininess and coherent philosophy. Still, it’s a fine send-off for a series that redefined the look and feel and ambition of the super-hero genre, the summer blockbuster and the big-budget studio tentpole all in one go. Tom Hardy’s villainous Bane in retrospect seems like a solid adversary/red herring and if his turn didn’t reach the heights of Heath Ledger’s Joker, perhaps that was necessary so that the focus of this final instalment could go back onto Christian Bale’s Batman/Bruce Wayne. In fact, as so often occurs with trilogies, this final film feels perhaps slightly hampered by having to end on a definitively redemptive note, where the second in the series can afford to be that much more ambivalent. But there is still tremendous texture here, from the very topical-feeling 99%-isms (actually the film was more inspired by Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” than contemporary geopolitical events, but that just goes to show you how timeless the theme of class struggle is) to the idea, overtly put forward, that anyone can be a hero, anyone could be Batman. Most fittingly of all, Bale puts in his best-ever Batman/Bruce Wayne, infusing the character with a kind of melancholic aloneness that makes that final moment with Alfred and the Fernet Branca feel even more touching, and surprisingly well-earned. It’s not without its flaws by any means, the plotting often does get in the way of what should be clean, bold throughlines, but as a grace note love letter to a character who made Nolan’s career, and to a vision for a comic book film which simply redefined what the genre could do, it’s a fitting farewell.
The readers are too indie to like the highest grossing film he made the most. The Dark Knight was obviously his best movie. I hear too many people who are too cool to like something because it\’s cool bash the film and call it overrated. It has no real weaknesses other than Heath kind of stealing the show.
After TDK, The Prestige is my second favorite movie (by Nolan or anyone else) but I wouldn\’t complain if someone put it just below Memento; I just love it and can watch it over and over and still be in awe of how amazing it is.
The rest are all great outside of Insomnia. I wanted to like it really badly, but I couldn\’t ever bring myself to watch it a second time. Maybe I\’m missing something and one day will get around to giving it a second chance but for now, it\’s the only Nolan movie I didn\’t love.
While there are some who seem to complain here. I find this list to be the most all around true. It all comes down to opinion, and many want Memento to be #1 because it was his crowing opening, I get it. But there has never been and never will be a film like the rk Knight. I literally agree with every listing in this list down to a tee. Well done Playlist Staff, well done!
9. Following 8. Interstellar 7. DKR 6. Inception 5. Batman Begins 4. TDK 3. Insomnia 2. Memento 1. The Prestige
Interstellar is the disappointment of the year, imo.
9. Following
8. Insomnia
7. Batman Begins
6. The Prestige
5. Interstellar
4. The Dark Knight Rises
3. Inception
2. Memento
1. The Dark Knight
Everything he\’s done beyond Memento has been admirable but deeply flawed, particularly his blockbusters, which all have pacing and over-exposition issues. My ranking: 8.The Dark Night Rises 7.Inception 6.Following 5.Batman Begins 4.The Prestige 3.The Dark Knight 2.Insomnia 1.Memento
Really? Memento isn\’t #1 on this list… TDK is great. But, Memento is one of the few movies that makes me think of the word "precision" when trying to describe it.
1) Memento, 2) The Dark Knight, 3) Interstellar, 4) The Dark Knight Rises, 5) Inception, 6) Batman Begins, 7) The Prestige, 8) Insomnia, 9) Following
What this list shows is that Nolan is one of the most overrated contemporary filmmakers: Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, The Batman films (Tim Burton\’s were much better), Inception? Come on, guys!
made this list last month… obviously I don\’t agree with yours
my list goes as TDKR< BB< Inception< Insomnia< TDK< Memento< Following< The Prestige
Interestingly I would say that Playlist\’s D grade review of INTERSTELLAR was guilty of exactly the same knee-jerk reactionism as the reactions to the review itself (and I say this as a big fan of Playlist).
Good list. The only thing I don\’t get is why Inception is praised so much. To me it\’s one his weakest ones. Here\’s my list-
8) Following
7) Inception
6) The Dark Knight Rises
5) Insomnia
4) Batman Begins
3) The Prestige
2) Memento
1) The Dark Knight
8. Following 7. Insomnia 6. The Dark Knight Rises 5. Batman Begins 4. Memento 3. The Dark Knight 2. The Prestige 1. Inception. Haven\’t seen Interstellar yet…
memento #1. that one will be (is already?) a film studied in film school around the world for decades to come. dark knight and inception are great films but mostly they show us how lackluster by comparison everything else is that hollywood has been putting out.
?: Interstellar
8: Following
7: Insomnia
6: Batman Begins
5: The Dark Knight Rises
4: The Prestige
3: Memento
2: The Dark Knight
1: Inception
For me:
1.Inception(A+)
2.The Dark Knight Rises(so underrated, A)
3.The Dark Knight(A)
4.The Prestige(A-)
5.Batman Begins(A-)
I haven\’t seen memento, insomnia and the following.
Simon
There is no doubt Memento should be number 1. Everything else ranges from okay to grossly overrated.
100 times out of 100 I would watch Following again before Inception.
Well SV I strongly suggested you broaden your horizons and study the history of cinema a little more intimately and with open mind, and if you\’re lucky you\’ll find that Nolan isn\’t really what can called a great director. I suggest you see the original Insomnia if you haven\’t seen it already
Inception is hands down one of the worst movies I have seen in the last decade (I have seen too many movies) I think TDK is the kind of film youngsters & 30 years are going to look back on in ten years time and what the f**k was I thing……. and to think Empire magazine reader voted this very high on the best movies ever list, just go to show how unformed people are in the distinction between "great" and muddle entertainment.
Interesting how different the opinions are here. I really like Inception and the Dark Knight, but I always find myself watching The Prestige. I\’d have to put that at the top of the list. Insomnia at the bottom.
@YO I can back you up on Following and BB. I found Insomnia to be too boring. And TDK and Inception are my favorites so we may have to fist fight for those.
Inception, Memento, Following are some of the best original story movies ever. My personal list is 1. Inception 2. The Dark knight 3. Memento 4.Dark Knight Rises 5. Following 6. Batman Begins 7. The Prestige 8. Insomnia
Indweller apparently performs censorship here is you state you think 2 of his films are of particular interest by by comment. 2. The Prestige 1. Memento and the original Insomnia is still the best by far.
My top three would be 1) Inception 2) Batman Begins and 3) The Prestige
2.Insomnia 1. Memento The rest don\’t even make the list, extremely overrated crap trying so hard to pass itself off as deep an insightful. The original Insomnia is far better than Nolans!!
Haven\’t seen Following or Interstallar, so 7. Insomnia 6. The Dark Knight Rises 5. Batman Begins 4. The Prestige 3. Memento 2. Inception 1. The Dark Knight. Re: The Prestige – in the scene where Hugh Jackman firsts tests the machine on stage, he shoots the version of himself in the audience. Is it the "real" Hugh who survives? Read the book afterwards and its take on the copies is different.
I think Insomnia is one of his best. Like QT with Jackie Brown, I think Nolan is best served working with someone else\’s material.
I can agree to some parts of that list but for me is: 7. Insomnia 6. Following 5. The Dark Knight Rises 4. Batman Begins 3. Memento 2. The Dark Knight 1. Inception. But they\’re all great, even with their flaws.
Worst list ever, how you can get the batman begins lower than dark knight rises, and crappy inception as second best. wrrr
Yo, I sort of agree with you. I think Following is his best, followed by Memento and TDK (I have not seen Insomnia). I think TDKR and Inception are his worst, and are frankly just mediocre movies. It\’s pretty obvious that his first films were his best, as they had a sort of spirit and exuberance to them, which he lost as he made bigger and bigger films.
As far as I\’m concerned, and I have yet to see Interstellar, Nolan\’s best are The Prestige, Memento, and Batman Begins, and his weakest movies so far have been Inception and Following – although it\’s hard to blame the latter\’s faults on Nolan given its budget.
I really do think that a lot of people are too willing to see past The Dark Knight\’s numerous flaws thanks to amazing performance of Heath Ledger. It is a film with a clunky pace, and an incomprehensible plot that relies way too much on the main villain always being two steps ahead thanks to what can only be described as a God-like omniscience. It is certainly beautiful to look at and deals with interesting themes, and I would rank it as Nolan\’s fifth best – behind TDKR – but it seems glaring to me that the mere fact that the Joker is in this film, and Ledger\’s performance, are enough to have people rank it as Nolan\’s strongest film to date.
Anyway, opinions…
I don\’t know why everyone pushes following aside. I think it is absolutely fantastic, its only 70 minutes but it is so engrossing that it never feels like such a short movie. The performances are amazing, especially when you consider they arent actors. I would probably put it in my top 5 Nolan films. Which makes it 1. The Prestige (My favorite movie ever) 2. The Dark Knight 3. Memento 4. Following 5. The Dark Knight Rises
I approve of this list in almost all regards. I would just put Batman Begins at the very bottom.
I expected Memento to be no. 1, but kudos for having the balls to put a comic-book movie in the top spot. Definitely feel I need to watch Dark Knight again now.
There seems to be a Memento consensus building in the comments. I would agree.
Nolan has a made a couple of good movies but only one great movie Memento.
Following would be much higher on my list. The Prestige would probably be last (Too predictable, but had some great performances). Memento would be #1. Batman Begins was better than The Dark Knight Rises.
I am SO excited for Interstellar. He is such an inspiration to me and continues to experiment despite the fact that his films keep getting bigger and bigger. I wonder when he will scale down and return to something more small. In terms of genres I\’d love to see his take on a gangster film, horror film, western and historical epic.
The fact that TDKR isn\’t second worst to The Following kind of ruins this list. That movie is an illogical mess that is an insult to the reality the prior films established.
What even is this list?!
1. The Dark Knight
2. Insomnia
3. Memento
4. Inception
5. Batman Begins
6. The Prestige
7. Following
8. The Dark Knight Rises
(Haven\’t seen Interstellar yet)
Dark Knight > Memento > Inception > Following > Batman Begins > Dark Knight Rises > Prestige > Insomnia
1. The Prestige, 2. Memento, 3. Inception, 4. TDK, 5. Insomnia, 6. TDKR, 7. Following, 8. Batman Begins
All great films, but:
1. The Prestige (best of the 2000s for me) 2. Memento 3. Inception 4. The Dark Knight 5. Insomnia 6. Batman Begins 7. The Dark Knight Rises 8. Following
8. Following
7. Insomnia
6. Batman Begins
5. The Dark Knight Rises
4. Inception
3. The Prestige
2. The Dark Knight
1. Memento
I swear to god I am not being deliberately contentious, but why is it that my honest to goodness Nolan list is basically the inverse of this one? Someone back me up here. Following, BB, and Insomnia are the best, and TDK and Inception are the worst — po faced inchoate talky messes
Solid rankings, except I\’d put Memento first, followed by The Dark Knight and so on.
So, this is one of the rare lists on Indiewire with which I really can\’t agree. Nolan, for me, is "Memento" … and then everything else. "The Dark Knight," definitely very good, would be a semi-distant number two. "Inception" is good, but it\’s a little overrated.