cathcacr

I've seen many of director Christopher Nolan's films by now. Here are my thoughts on each of them:

Following (1998)

The craft is really superb and the thematic elements are intriguing, but on the whole it comes off as very gimmicky. In the end I felt kinda cheated.

Memento (2000)

The craft is really superb and the thematic elements are intriguing, but on the whole it comes off as very gimmicky. In the end I felt kinda cheated.

Insomnia (2002)

The craft is really superb and the thematic elements are intriguing, but on the whole it comes off as very gimmicky. In the end I felt kinda cheated.

Batman Begins (2005)

After feeling kinda cheated by previous Nolan efforts, I did not bother with this one. (What truly serious director does Batman, anyway?)

The Prestige (2006)

The craft is really superb and the thematic elements are intriguing, but on the whole it comes off as very gimmicky. In the end I felt kinda cheated.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Watched this one because of all the high ratings on the internet sites. The craft is really superb and the thematic elements are intriguing, but on the whole it comes off as very gimmicky. In the end I felt kinda cheated. (What truly serious director does Batman, anyway?)

Inception (2010)

Nolan's best effort yet, and while the craft is really superb and the thematic elements are certainly intriguing, on the whole it comes off as *extremely*, pointlessly gimmicky. In the end I felt kinda cheated.

Overall assessment:

M. Night Shyamalan with more elaborate gimmicks. Emperor Nolan isn't wearing any clothes, you philistines!

In giving this an 8/10 rating, that goes into the top 7% or so of about 2500 movies I've viewed so far. Indeed, it falls right into that category of "one of the great films you most likely haven't seen." Why movies like this go unrecognized like they have is beyond me. If you've seen it, you already know what I'm talking about, so I wonder if I'm preaching to the converted here. I doubt I have much to say beyond what any other reviewers have already covered. This is a gritty and real, and yet also romanticized, take on the Western, beautifully shot (by DP Gordon Willis of the Godfather movies - enough said) and littered with dark comedy, not of the laugh-out-loud variety, but of the "these guys are so sad" variety. It also happens to be the second movie I've seen with both Jeff Bridges and David Huddleston, some 25 or so years prior to an actualized cult classic. The combination of these two actors in a film, appearing together in scenes only briefly, seems somehow, inexplicably, to touch a film with a certain genius.