Every Christopher Nolan movie, ranked
Oppenheimer's Oscar chances are pretty good, but where does it rank in terms of Christopher Nolan's filmography?
Film Features Christopher Nolan
In the years since Christopher Nolan’s feature directorial debut, Following, was released, Nolan has risen from indie darling to blockbuster sorcerer, one of those rare modern filmmakers who’s captured the attention of both mainstream audiences and die-hard cinephiles, and one of the few directors working today who seems to have carte blanche to follow his imagination wherever it takes him.
And that imagination has taken him to some pretty wild places, from the depths of a pre-constructed dream world to the mind of a man with anterograde amnesia to the very fabric of spacetime itself. Over the course of a career that now spans a dozen films, he’s made superhero movies, noir thrillers, historical dramas, and science-fiction spectacles, and he’s done it all with a style that’s endeared him to a devoted fanbase hanging on every new release.
Now, with Oppenheimer’s 13 Academy Award nominations, we’re taking a look back at how this career came together, and how each of his dozen feature films stack up against the rest. This is every Christopher Nolan movie, ranked.
108 Comments
Number one is Oppenheimer, and the sound mixing’s still fucking awful:
“Pssssst. Hey. If you liked memento, watch this.” my friend said as he handed me a DVD of ‘Following’ all those many years ago. It was quite good.
Oppenheimer aside, a Nolan list where The Prestige isn’t at the top strikes me as somewhat suspect.
I second that.
Apart from the things that are true in every one of his films, I can’t for the life of me understand what we are meant to like about the Prestige.It’s pretty and well-enough executed, but what’s interesting or exciting exactly?
A fine film. Memento is his best, though.
The Prestige isn’t even in his Top 5.
“…with a particular focus on his role in creating the first atomic bomb.” Yeah. Kind of the whole point!
Truly a bizarre thing to say. What else would an Oppenheimer movie be about?
His little known musical theater career?
His love of the Indonesian dish nasi goreng? I’m not making that up. I don’t know if the movie brings it up (I haven’t seen it yet), but “American Prometheus”, the biography of Oppenheimer that the movie is based on, brings it up like three times. I guess maybe because in those “steak and potatoes” days, liking Asian food was odd for white Americans?
Well that, and all those commie bastards he hung out with.
I did not think Tenet was “a joy to watch”. Except for the freeway chase sequence, I hated every second of this self-indulgent garbage. The deliberate decision to make the dialog unintelligible is completely baffling.
Seconded in every regard.
Now, I don’t mean to come across like a fucking hippie, but I just don’t understand the need for this kind of vitriol. You know? Why can’t we all just discuss it the same way we’d discuss it if we were having a beer with Chris Nolan?I agree the dialogue was completely unintelligible, but there was some awfully good stuff in there. The different ways they set up scenes as palindromes (e.g. revisit an earlier scene while moving in the other direction, or have two groups moving through the same scene in different directions, etc.) are pretty neat.
I haven’t seen Oppenheimer yet, but currently I’d say Memento is best, Prestige second, Dunkirk third.Opinions are opinions, but placing Memento (and Insomnia, even) so, so, so low on this list (under Interstellar, even!) is almost objectively disqualifying.
I’d agree with that order, possibly putting Dark Knight in front of Dunkirk since probably is the best superhero movie since the original Superman. But the plotting on Momento and Prestige is too tight to not have them at the top.ETA: Setting aside Oppenheimer, obviously, since I haven’t seen it.
Memento and The Prestige are certainly his best. There was nothing to compare with the experience of watching Memento in the early 2000s. You could see right away that Nolan was a director of rare talent. And The Prestige is one of my ten favorite films, easily. To paraphrase Lenny, it gets better every time I watch it.
…and it is tight as a drun. I saw it in SF the weekend came out, and there was an awful lot of laughter in all the right spots. “…no… he’s chasing ME.”
“I don’t feel drunk…”
Agree about The Prestige. I get more out of it every time I watch it. Watching two men destroy themselves as they destroy each other is mesmerizing and I almost feel bad as a voyeur, but I suppose that’s one of the points. No need for Interstellar’s surreal sets or Tenet’s loud and mechanical tricks. Nolan plays with time (as usual) but all of the trickery is in the performances. It’s all about the cinema and the illusions: “You want to be fooled.”
It’s also a nice touch to have so much handheld camerawork in a period piece. It’s got a nice observational quality, but verite blends “the future” in nicely without hitting us over the head with it. — and Bowie is terrific.
Yes! And thanks for the reminder about Bowie. What a perfect choice.
I’m baffled by the low ranking of Memento and I love all of his films (although I’ve never seen Following).
Plus The Prestige has Batman, Wolverine, Black Widow, Gollum, and David Bowie as Nikola Tesla in it.
Insomnia is his worst film. It has no need to exist, when you could just watch the superior original without losing anything.
Counterpoint: it’s a very solid little movie that led to me eventually seeing the original, which indeed is superior, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
He has made far, far worse films.
Which ones would you say are worse?
I hope y’all like/liked Oppenheimer but I just can’t muster up an ounce of interest for it. I feel like, like Dunkirk, a Nolan movie without some sort of twist or supernatural element just doesn’t do anything for me. I love Memento, Inception, The Prestige, and his Batman movies, but that’s all I’ve seen.
Note that this isn’t a criticism of the movies (which I haven’t seen) or Nolan, but of me and my non-cinephile ass.
Interstellar is fantastic up until a bit of a head-scratcher ending. Until that point the only twist is acknowledging the theory of relativity. It’s definitely worth a watch.
I meant to watch Interstellar back when it came out, I don’t honestly remember why I didn’t. Tenet too, but I wasn’t about to brave covid to see it and had kinda forgotten about it by the time it was streaming.
Other than Following, Tenet is his only movie I haven’t seen and no one has insisted I rectify that. I would recommend Interstallar. A second viewing is actually helpful with respect to the ending.
I didn’t see Tenet in theaters and in general think it’s ridiculous when people say “x HAS to be seen on the big screen” (I thought it was hilarious when that guy ripped Tenet to play on 4 Game Boy Advanced cartridges).That being said, I enjoyed it. I’ve probably seen it 3 or 4 times? So for a movie that’s only been out for 3 years and having seen it that many times, well I’d say that’s pretty good praise. If you’ve enjoyed his other films I see no reason why you wouldn’t want to see Tenet.Are people so picky about films that they won’t see something unless they’re certain it will absolutely amaze them?
I prefered to watch it streaming. That way I could repeat-view and also take advantage of captioning.
Nor being purposely argumentative, but Interstellar has the same issue as Prometheus. How did any of these people get launched into space? Prometheus = they are all idiots, Interstellar = all emotional basket cases
Interstellar’s wacky ending, yes, and also the annoying scene where Ann Hathaway’s character puts love above saving humanity. I hate scenes where it is supposed to be heartwarming or something to put love above all regardless of the consequences. One of the great things about Casablanca is that Rick realizes that love isn’t as important compared to potentially saving the lives of many.
I’m mostly bothered about the way that so many (if not most) biopics are handled. I understand that Nolan departs from the book: American Prometheus. It’s problemmatic when directors take liberties with a subject’s life and reputation. Audience go away believing they’ve gotten a history lesson which is how so much ‘history’ gets distorted. Even if it turns out to be a great spectacle (and Nolan views that as primary) I’ll remain suspect.
Dunkirk was terrible. No character development, flat action, and the fighter plane that magically turned into a lightweight glider. There were plenty of shots of extras standing in one spot, and men staring pensively out to sea. The staring pensively out to sea shots were fucking awesome.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAMP!
I kinda missed not hearing that in Oppenheimer, though there were plenty of other loud noises to make up for it.
I’m struggling to think of another director whose filmography provokes such an intense good/bad reaction in me. Scanning that list, I have deep like for many of his films (Dunkirk is maybe my favorite, and imho most effectively marries his trademark Superior Technical Filmmaking with actual human characters), but holy macaroni do I loathe some of the movies here (to avoid shoe throwing I shant say which, though one does involve love as possibly a fourth dimension). That said, pumped to see Oppenheimer.
Fuck his Batman movies for giving cryptofascism a modern visual benchmark.
Have an original thought once in a while.
Think critically about media for once.
Said the guy with an internet meme for an avatar.
I sometimes feel that way about some of Ridley Scott’s work.
Oh, one-billion-percent agree. That said, I’m vastly more generous with Scott because his output is so disparate. Whereas Nolan just keeps Nolan-ing in his Nolan sandbox, Scott will be like “a romantic comedy starring a washed up actor that will probably bomb? I’ll do it!”
Yes, lol. He does have range. He directed Thelma and Louis!
In Ridley’s defence, his bad films are likely due to studio fuckery, not his own decisions. I can’t think of a director who’s been more fucked over by coke-addled fuckwits in LA boardrooms.
I prefer Batman Begins to The Dark Knight.That is all.
^ Hear. Hear.
I like your moxie!
You are not alone – TDK has some great moments, but BB (Rachel aside) is one of my ultimate favorite movies. I feel like any superhero movie is as good as its villains and I think the trio (Ras/Scarecrow/Falcone) worked for me more just because they felt closer to “real,” which is more chilling and compelling to me than a comic book type character like the Joker (yes, he was grittier in this iteration). Bale really shines, too (it’s still focused on him and doesn’t become the villain show ala TDK). We’ve all seen the Batman original story too many times, but I can still enjoy this one repeatedly because it’s done so darn well.
Agree 100%. Begins tells a much more straightforward story and offers the most narratively interesting take on Bruce Wayne that cinema has seen. I feel like it approaches perfection as a superhero movie, and revolutionized the industry (for better or worse). TDK has Ledger’s legendary performance going for it, and… not much else. The plotting is all over the place and overstuffed, the action a lot more over-the-top, the Two-Face relegation to B-plot leaves it feeling rushed and hollow, and the whole ferry thing is convoluted and makes the climax come down to things outside both Batman and Joker’s control (the relative morality of two civilians who play no other part in the story).
Begins definitely feels more complete. TDK’s final act is not satisfying. perhaps for understandable reasons.
The Dark Knight Rises is criminally underrated.
Wtf.. joke?
Any list of Nolan films that doesn’t have Tenet as his very worst is suspect. Just before Interstellar, which I have tried to watch thrice but got bored and switched off each time.
Counterpoint: Both those movies are masterclasses in non-linear story telling and exploration of the notion of time, the likes of which the vast majority of writers, directors and producers out there would belly flop trying to pull off. To not like them, find them boring, or subjectively his “very worst” is fine, but they do deserve respect on a technical achievement level at the very least. I personally found both movies captivating.
Well, yes and no. Good handle on story telling, but the explorations on the concept of time, while entertaining, tend to be total nonsense. If you want to spin it positively, the logic is beyond questionable by design to be entertaining and present interesting concepts that in fact make zero logical sense if questioned.My criticism with a lot of modern stuff, including Nolan’s body of work, is that it’s simply overrated. Not at all bad, and no doubt many times rather entertaining and watchable, but not “masterclass”. Being reasonably competent seems to have risen to the same level that being truly masterful used to hold.
It’s possible for other people to have different preferences. I liked Tenet the first time, but I really loved it on repeat viewings, which it rewards. Unfortunately, no one who didn’t like it the first was ever going to bother seeing it again.
It is the one movie of his that really grows stronger on repeated viewings.
I think you could say the same about The Prestige and Memento as well. I love how The Prestige tells you twist right away but you never even notice until you watch again. The glaring weak spot in Tenet is the finale with everyone just running and shooting at basically no one. That part just gets more noticeable on repeat viewings.
Tenet is really obtuse and opaque, with some questionable storytelling and logic. But the acting, visuals and music are still incredible. Even low on this list means very watchable.
I’d suggest any reluctant Nolan fan to watch it. You can watch it over and over on streaming and it slowly begins to make a kind of sense. When it comes to some of his endings I just go with it. I suspect the logic lies somewhere in a realm that the audience has no access to yet.
I hated Interstellar so much I haven’t watched a Nolan film since and thus missed Tenet, which seems to have been a smart move. I will probably alter my policy for Oppenheimer given the reviews but dear lord Interstellar was a miserable experience.
I found Tenet more approachable that Interstellar. The time that the lead character spent in that weird, intergallactic rubrics cube made no sense at all to me.
Ok, just found out it was a Tesseract. Good grief.
Memento is my favorite of his films so far (like most here, I haven’t yet seen Oppenheimer). Baffled that it was ranked so low on this list.
The Dark Knight Rises is easily Nolan’s laziest film.
To go from “The Dark Knight” to “Inception” to… “The Dark Knight Rises” was such a letdown. He may have some films that are part of the “cinema,” but he also has this movie.
lol…
“this film might be the purest possible distillation of Nolan’s own cinematic philosophy” – The Prestige“but if you’re looking for the purest distillation of a ‘Christopher Nolan Movie,’ look no further than Inception” – InceptionThere’s a lot of distillation going on here.
Distillaception.
It seems his “worst” movie is many directors’ best.
Hmmmm…care to offer some examples using “A” list directors?
Memento is way, way too low.
DKR is better than DK, which is better than Batman Begins. QED.
1. Memento 2. The Prestige 3. The Dark Knight 4. who caresI have never seen a steeper drop in quality than Nolan after The Dark Knight. He started believing his own hype and stopped trying to cover up his flaws. By now his formula is clear:- The main character is always a sad man working through his personal demons.- Every movie spells everything out in dialog, usually by a character whose only personality is to spout exposition. The intended message of the movie is stated explicitly. The actual plot of the movie usually contradicts this stated message.- If it’s SF/fantasy, there are time shenanigans which don’t actually make sense. If it’s set in the real world, there are distracting time shenanigans the movie would be better without.- The main selling point of the movie is based on something half-remembered from a high school class and/or an xkcd comic that Nolan gets wrong.
I’d flip Memento with The Prestige, but otherwise I agree with the list. Which I guess means I need to go see Oppenheimer ASAP.
The Dark Knight + Inception tied for first place in my head.
I am learning from this comments section that everyone does not like Interstellar as much as me…..
Memento is probably the finest depiction of how anterograde amnesia actually works, and how episodic and semantic memories are served by different systems that I have ever seen. Indeed, I use clips of it in a class on memory I teach.
Clearly Tenet is number 10 as part of a temporal pincher move and is really number 3
Honestly even his worst films are mostly watchable. Maybe not the Dark Knight Rises but the rest are
That opening scene is top three Nolan set pieces though. After that it’s just ok other than Batman’s return on the highway scene.
1. Tenet may be well made but its plot makes it nearly unwatchable. “It insists upon itself.”
2. Interstellar is one of the most overrated SF films in history and it’s criminal to compare it to 2001 on ANY level. It’s actually anti-science by the end. Overacting by the actors is cringeworthy, e.g. McConaughey, Damon, and Hathaway. Ugh. The library scene at the end? WTF?
3. The original version of Insomnia (starring Stellan Skarsgard and taking place in Norway), is a better film but hardly anyone mentions that Nolan’s is a remake.4. I will never understand the hate for The Dark Knight Rises.
5. I have not seen Oppenheimer yet, my #1 and #2 of his films would The Dark Knight and Dunkirk.
The Dark Knight is my least favorite Batman film. It’s good, I just like the other two better.
Insomnia never gets enough love, and I can see Oppenheimer joining the ranks of Crash in being one of the most over-hyped movies of all time.
If I have one thing to say about Nolan’s movies, it’s that they really benefit from multiple viewings and contemplation. Sometimes they don’t hit right away, but the are all brilliantly thought out filmmaking. I’ve been rewatching Interstellar recently and I’m feeling like it’s going to become the 2001: A Space Odyssey of out time.
Memento at EIGHT is extremely silly. You really think *Inception* is a better movie than Memento.
Absolutely. It’s not even close.
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Just saw Oppenheimer last night. It’s very gripping, and it holds you for all three hours (which don’t seem like three hours) but I don’t think it’s his best. I’d still put Dunkirk at the top, then perhaps Memento and Interstellar. I’ll need some distance (time) before I feel comfortable ranking Oppenheimer. It’s definitely worth seeing… the current cinema is a sad wasteland of superhero films, so whenever something like Oppenheimer comes along it’s a huge breath of fresh air.
Difficult to order these films as they are almost all masterclass pieces.Interstellar tops my list though it has taken several viewings for me to appreciate its majesty. It just keeps getting better and better the more I watch it.
I love reading the comments. ‘His best is the absolute worst, and I hated that movie that others thought was a masterpiece.’ Almost like a Nolan film.
God, I loved Inception when it came out. It was such a fantastic movie to see in the theaters. Now I watch it with amusement at how the supporting cast acts circles around DiCaprio.
Unpopular take: Tenet is ‘great’…once you watch a bunch of slo-mo YouTube breakdowns of the physics involved and how the “rules” are followed in every scene, AND THEN, watch a bunch of other videos showing who’s where at what point in the timeline.It’s ike listening to a prog rock album that gets more enjoyable once you dig into all the lore and translate all the weird shit.Understandably, I realize many think a film fails if it requires all the extra work. If all the extra work *didn’t* reveal more depth, I’d agree. I feel like Tenet is worth the work, but I’m a sucker for time travel shenanigans.
Had no idea Nolan directed Insomnia. Agree, it was a perfectly fine little film, also one of the few which features a non-shouty Pacino. He captures the dread and darkness of sleeplessness very well.
Congratulations – you are literally the only critic alive who things Inception is better than The Dark Knight.
I have not see Oppenheimer yet but I would say:1. The Prestige2. The Dark Knight3. Memento4. InceptionI don’t know for the rest. Insomnia and Dunkirk may be last. I liked Tenet.
Every Christopher Nolan movie: wank
I’ve been hesitant to call Oppenheimer Nolan’s best movie, but I can’t find enough reasons not to. It truly feels like something stronger than his other works; A career that, let’s be honest, rely often on cinematic gimmicks. I fully agree that he is evolving as a filmmaker, and there’s no better example of that than how much the female characters are an improvement, (both Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt leave huge impressions in this movie) and how much the film is about a human being, rather than a prop for a plot- His examination of the famed figure is a far cry from the director who’s last lead was literally just named “Protagonist.”1. Oppenheimer2. Memento3. The Dark Knight
4. Inception
5. Batman Begins6. The Prestige
7. The Dark Knight Rises8. Interstellar9. Dunkirk10. TenetN/A- InsomniaN/A- FollowingMy list isn’t even to say I think any of these are bad movies, as I have enjoyed most of them. His last couple just left me a little colder than the rest. As war movies go, I didn’t find Dunkirk very memorable beyond how it plays with time. Perhaps far too many nameless soldiers I couldn’t get attached to. So for me, Dunkirk is only notable for being the title I keep wanting to call 1917. As for Tenet, it basically had to spend its whole run time explaining its rules, which left it no time to develop anything else, so that’s the mark of a director who’s own script got too lost in the weeds.
Just saw Oppie yesterday. Good but not great, didn’t leave much of an impression on me except it is a fantastic cast. I think Nolan’s more recent films (except Dunkirk), can’t match his previous gems.
1. This has even more hyped to see Oppenheimer next weekend. Nolan is one of those filmmakers I will always be excited for because he’s earned a lot of goodwill from me. Even if I don’t fully connect with the film, it’s usually a big cinema experience.2. I couldn’t disagree more with this ordering. For me, no matter how big his budgets and stars gets, Memento remains untopped. It’s possibly the best ‘gimmick film’ of all time and never stops being inventive, clever, darkly funny, and eerie. The Prestige is also just a brilliant, brutal film that I could watch endlessly and never get bored of. On the other hand, I need to watch Interstellar again because I didn’t connect with it at all on a first viewing.
AVClub is usually really bad at these, but this one is pretty decent. I haven’t seen Oppenheimer yet, so I can’t comment on where it ranks, but I’d easily put The Dark Knight ahead of Inception. I also consider Interstellar better than Inception, but I have come to accept that I am alone in that regard. I believe it is his most emotional and visually and aurally stunning film, as well as his most rewatchable film. I think most people underrate Interstellar because they let the “love is the 5th dimension” overshadow an otherwise amazing film and put too much weight on that (admittedly terrible) plot contrivance.
2 thru 8 are largely interchangeable, otherwise, you’ve got it, especially the bottom of the rankings. I’d go: The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Inception, Memento, Dunkirk, The Prestige, Batman Begins, Insomnia, The Dark Knight Rises, Tenet, Following.