FAKE RONJAN!!Ranking the Nolan films
Oops! It’s the end of the month and I haven’t done a 44th birthday retro.
I had a concept I was workshopping for weeks about my life as a sports fan, weaving a story together that incorporated my long background in sports analytics. Unfortunately it just never came together so I’ll hold it for at least a year.
Now I have to rush something over the finish line. Thankfully, with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey releasing recently, I can do what the rest of the nerd-adjacent internet already has.
I can rank the Nolan films, for the clicks!
I’ll go through each movie and give some very brief comments on each. If a movie isn’t on the list, I haven’t seen it. Sorry Memento, Dunkirk, and Tenet!
Just for official record keeping, I won’t be counting this as a birthday retro. On to the next one.
#8: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
I thought Catwoman was cool. I don’t remember much of the rest of this one, although I did go to college in Pittsburgh and recognized many of the locations.
#7: Batman Begins (2005)
As someone who has been aggressively uninterested in superhero movies, this was one of the few times I’d ever seen one and really been impressed. While I liked the first half much more than the second half, I enjoyed Nolan’s take on the genre. This movie made me a Nolan fan.
#6: Oppenheimer (2023)
I did the Barbenheimer double-dip which I suspect hurts this movie in my ratings. I remember liking this film quite a bit, but I also remember having to pee really badly during the third hour. I stuck it out for a long time, actively thinking “when is a good time to duck out and make a run for it?”, and that probably robbed me of my focus. Then, I had wine and watched Barbie afterwards which probably destroyed what remaining memory I had of Oppenheimer. I need to give this one another shot.
#5: Inception (2010)
I love the concept of this movie so much more than the execution. It sets up mind-bending shifts in geometry and physics and ultimately spends so much of its third act on shooty-shooty action sequences that, in my opinion, kill the movie’s momentum. In particular I’d have loved to see more deliberate live maze-building, as they set that up heavily in the training montage. That said, for many years this was one of my go-to “long flight” movies. It’s always a good time.
#4: The Odyssey (2026)
This is such a hedge placement right now. I saw this movie for my birthday a couple weekends ago and really liked it, but I’m still digesting it, to be honest. The two main Troy sequences will stick with me more than anything: the first scene drawing the suspense of the infiltration out with some of the most stressful music I’ve ever heard, and the second scene making you feel true regret for rooting for that infiltration as the horrifying sacking of Troy plays out. My wife has major critiques on story choices that Nolan made and that’s probably in my head as I rank it here.
#3: The Dark Knight (2008)
This may be the only superhero movie I have the urge to re-watch these days. Heath Ledger’s stunning performance as The Joker never fails to captivate, as does the back-and-forth drama.
#2: Interstellar (2014)
This has replaced Inception as my go-to “long flight” movie. It was an emotional breakthrough for Christopher Nolan that finally put that aspect of filmmaking on par with the incredible visual splendor. And I felt like it hit closer to its heady potential than Inception by significantly reducing the violence to make way for more mind-bending sequences. Love does indeed transcend space and time, and I don’t care if believing that makes me a cornball.
#1: The Prestige (2006)
When I first saw this movie, it was instantly one of my favorite movies of all time. Batman and Wolverine as dueling magicians? What’s not to love? The pledge-turn-prestige structure of the movie, the back-and-forth nature of the rivalry, the story, the pacing, the sacrifices, the obsession, the fact that upon rewatch you can tell which Borden twin is which, I loved everything. And I still do. This will always be one of my favorite movies and I can’t wait to watch it again, soon.