Living in a Media World

Christopher Nolan in 2024

I would be hard pressed to name a more interesting activet film director than Christopher Nolan. His upcoming adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey is the most anticipated movie of the summer, and with Oppenheimer, he managed to turn a historical science drama dealing with anti-semitism and quantum mechanics and having no digital effects into a summer blockbuster.

To me, the most fascinating thing about Nolan is what a varied library of films he’s produced over his nearly 30-year career so far.

I would never try to name his best film or try to rank his works from best to worst. But I will discuss my favorites of the dozen feature films so far in his filmography.

Favorite Early Film – The Prestige 

The Prestige was one of two Victorian-era magician films to come out in 2006 (along with Neil Burger’s The Illusionist), both of which, in my view, were excellent. But The Prestige stood out for its imaginative storytelling. It is the tale of two competing magicians played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale (who has been in a number of Nolan’s films, including his Dark Knight trilogy) with Michael Caine (another Nolan regular) playing an ingénieur (or magic trick engineer). But the most notable performance is from David Bowie playing a fictionalized version of the enigmatic electrical engineer Nikola Tesla.

The movie’s title, as Caine explains, is part of the structure of a magic trick: The pledge, the turn, and the prestige. And the movie’s screenplay (co-written by Christopher and his brother Jonathan) follows that same structure. (There’s a great explanation of this from Michael Caine in the trailer below.)

The Presige, despite coming after Nolan’s massive success of Batman Begins, qualifies in my mind as the last of his early films, being a relatively small-budget production of unfamiliar material.

If you have not seen it yet, do no research on the movie or the book. Just sit down in a darkened room and be prepared to be transported into a world of magic, competition and revenge.

Favorite Blockbuster – Dunkirk

Nolan has made so many acclaimed blockbusters – his multi-Oscar winning Oppenheimer; his genre-defining The Dark Knight with Heath Ledger’s astonishing turn as the Joker; or his time-bending science-fiction epic Interstellar that has been compared to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey – all of which were financially, artistically, and dramatically successful. But it was the smallest of his “big” films (with a budget of $100 million), Dunkirk, that has left the strongest impression on me.

Dunkirk tells the story of the small-boats rescue flotilla sent out to bring home the British troops trapped on the beaches of France in 1940. The movie, shot primarily on IMAX 70mm film, tells the story over three timelines:

• Over one week from the point of view of the soldiers trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk;
• Over one day from the point of view of one of the small boats sent in to rescue the troops;
• And over one hour, from the point of view of a fighter pilot trying to protect the troops.

The three narratives are woven together throughout the film, and though three timelines could be a mess, instead they show a converging story where the three narratives all end at the same point. Dunkirk could easily be compared to Kubrick’s 2001 because it has very little dialog, telling the story instead primarily through cinematography, sound effects, and a stunning score by Hans Zimmer.  (I’m not generally a huge Zimmer fan, but his score brilliantly advanced the tension within Dunkirk.)

I was fortunate enough to see Dunkirk during its initial IMAX run, but it is worth seeing under whatever format you have available. But like so many of Nolan’s films, it calls for watching with your full attention in a darkened room.

Dunkirk has an ensemble cast including Fionn Whitehead, Harry Styles, Barry Keoghan, Kennth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy. But this is not a story of stars or celebs – it’s the visual storytelling that matters.

Favorite “weird” film – Tenet

It is only fair to note that many of Nolan’s films could fall into a range of categories. For example, his debut commercial film Memento would fall into both the “weird” category and “early” category; and Interstellar, with its strongly non-linear and time-bending structure, could be both a “blockbuster” and “weird” film. But I will hold up his COVID pandemic release of Tenet as my favorite of his weird films.

Tenet is the only one of Nolan’s films that could potentially be considered a flop, having been released in the fall 0f 2020, when theaters were just beginning to reopen from the pandemic lockdown. As I wrote at the time:

The release has not gone particularly well.  Made on a budget of $200 million, Tenet has made $45 million in the US and $262 million internationally. And it’s not because people aren’t interested in seeing it – they’re just not ready, at least in most of the US, to go out to the movies.

I went to see Tenet at my local theater last Sunday at a 1 p.m. matinee.  I figured it would be reasonably safe given that I was expecting only sparse attendance at that time for a movie that had been in theaters for a month.  I was correct.  There were about 7 people total at the screening in a mid-sized theater at my local multiplex.

It was great fun to go see my first movie in a theater since probably February of this year.  Popcorn, a Diet Pepsi, and a darkened theater with a bigger than life movie.  Admittedly, it was not the same as going to Council Bluffs to see the latest Nolan release at the IMAX as I had been hoping to back in December, but it was still a lot of fun.

(Tenet ended up earning $58 million in the US and a total of $365 million globally.)

But Tenet was also a challenging film. It was an action thriller that moved in two temporal directions at once. Guns fired ammo that moved back in time, cars drove backwards down the road and through time, commando teams attacked a single target in a “temporal pincer move.” Don’t try to make sense of you. You won’t be able to. It’s a hoot to watch as long as you don’t really try to make sense of it. Most of Nolan’s films play around with timelines to some degree, but for Tenet, the screwy timeline was the central point.

For me, I think Nolan was trying to get back to the level of weirdness he was allowed to have when he made low-budget movies. But it was a bit too much for a big budget pandemic-era movie to carry.

Following – The freshman film that tells you exactly who Nolan will be as a director

Following was Nolan’s first movie, shot in black & white on 16 mm film, that he  self-financed with mostly friends and relatives as actors. It’s a neo-noir crime thriller that is told out of sequence where you are never quite sure what’s going on until the final reel. It’s a surprisingly good movie given it was shot on weekends over a several-month period where the film was being paid for each week out of Nolan’s day-job paycheck.

The amazing thing about Following is that you can see in it almost every central characteristic of Nolan’s subsequent films. It’s a tight 70-minute flick, and is well worth a view on the library-connected Kanopy streaming service. (Kanopy is a free movie and TV streaming service connected the e-book and audiobook library service Libby/OverDrive. You log in using your credential from your local public or academic library.)

So, what are your favorite Christopher Nolan films? Let us know what you think in the comments.