Nolan's Best Film?

The 2006 film about rival magicians desperately trying to learn the secrets of each others tricks.
User avatar
Posts: 189
Joined: January 2013
It's certainly my FAVORITE. As for best....it's a toss-up between Inception, TDK, Memento, and the Prestige.

User avatar
Posts: 2060
Joined: April 2013
josephcq wrote:It's certainly my FAVORITE. As for best….it's a toss-up between Inception, TDK, Memento, and the Prestige.
Can I hear your explanation why? I'm just curious.

Posts: 3394
Joined: September 2013
Location: Copenhagen
The Prestige is Nolan's best film for sure. The complexity of it all is amazing and the two opening shots alone reveals everything. A clone and a twin. Now, that is impressive.
Nicolas Roeg himself would have been proud.

User avatar
Posts: 189
Joined: January 2013
Sky007 wrote:
josephcq wrote:It's certainly my FAVORITE. As for best….it's a toss-up between Inception, TDK, Memento, and the Prestige.
Can I hear your explanation why? I'm just curious.
Sorry about the slow reply!

You can make a case for Memento because of how different it is, and the fact that he made such a profound film so early in his career. There is often a natural inclination to like a director's earlier work, or a band's first couple albums more, whether or not they are actually better. Nostalgia is powerful as is the desire to sound smarter than the contemporary minds. That being said, Memento is a VERY good movie, with a truly unique structure, countless plot twists, alongside fantastic acting and excellent cinematography. It's one of the best noir/neo-noir films of recent times.

Inception is great because first and foremost, it's ridiculously entertaining. At it's core, it's an action movie. But why settle for just being an action movie? How about a heist film with some heart? It's a technical masterpiece. The hallway fight alone is enough to warrant watching the movie. The plot is so convoluted and full of rules made for the world of the film that it's a wonder he was able to keep it sensible. The movie is heavy on exposition, but it's never annoying or overbearing as most exposition is. The score is among Zimmer's best, and the ambiguous ending leaves you with something to talk and think about.
But the MAIN reason for me that it stands out as potentially his best film, is that it is truly HIS film. Aside from Following it's the only one he has the sole writing credit for. This is PURE Christopher Nolan, and in that it exemplifies everything about his style, good and bad. Mostly good.

The Dark Knight "changed things. Forever." He set the tone with Batman Begins, and it has the model and style that countless films would later mimic, but The Dark Knight is the one that brought the amount of attention to Nolan's Batman that it deserved. He was able to write and cast a villain that topped an already iconic performance from 20 years earlier. The pacing of this film is PERFECT. It never let's up and never hit's a boring wall for it's entire runtime. I LOVE TDKR, Interstellar, and Inception, but they have points where the story slows down a bit too much at the end. The one does not, save for a brief few heartfelt minutes with Harvey Dent, setting up the tragic and bittersweet ending. Honestly, People forget how good this movie is. People remember it as really awesome, and they remember Heath, but when I watch it with friends who haven't seen it for a couple years they are STILL floored by it. They forget just how entertaining, suspenseful, and moving this film is. All of that ^^ is about a movie where a guy dresses up as a Bat.

I think I connect with The Prestige more than any of his other films because I see a lot of myself in our flawed main characters. As I get older I see more and more how I am a work-a-holic and the damage it may be causing in my life, just like it did for Borden and Angier. The Prestige, more than anything, is a cautionary tale. And I love that the BIG twist is shoved in our face multiple times, and we STILL don't believe it. Nolan didn't just make a movie about magicians and their tricks, he USED their tricks as ways to tell his story. Magic tricks are pretty silly, but they tell us why it's important (the look on their faces), and I'm sure that's why Nolan makes movies. Because of the experience you can give to someone else and make them believe in something more, if just for a moment. I also LOVE the costume and set design, along with great cinematography. It's got a very noir feel to it even in a non-traditional noir setting. And even if you don't like ScarJo, good hell she is gorgeous in her stage dress.

So it's one of those. Can't be sure which.

Posts: 2
Joined: December 2015
Inception. The concept, the cast the MUSIC OMG. Brilliant Movie! I'm tied here with Inception and The Dark Knight.

Posts: 1
Joined: February 2016
I think it is. Yet in my opinion would have been much. The story, drama and actions were incredible as for the realistic theories
and performance. when it came to the Science Fiction part, it made it acceptable but could been avoided if Angier's double has performed the last rule using tesla's machine. Alfred would still look for the secret and many alternatives would come to the same end.

User avatar
Posts: 54
Joined: December 2019
Location: Colorado
Just rewatched this with my family, and it just may be Nolan’s best work. It has all the narrative/structural brilliance, but the character work and emotional storytelling are a cut above. It’s Bale’s best performance in a Nolan film, for my money, and I think he’s great in all three TDK films. Caine and Hall both give great supporting performances, and I don’t think Jackman has ever been better. He’s such a great showman, and such an emotionally connected actor. It’s the perfect role for him.

The music and cinematography are gorgeous. If it’s not Nolan’s best looking film, it has to be in the running. Everything about it works so well together. There’s all this talk in the film about how the act is worthless once the trick is revealed, but with this film it’s the opposite. The twists are great and it’s fun to revel in them, but knowing everything before hand frees you up to examine the fascinating characters and all themes. If The Prestige doesn’t stand alone, it certainly stands with Memento and The Dark Knight at the very pinnacle of Nolan’s filmography. An ingenious and equally beautiful film.

Posts: 117
Joined: December 2019
Also my first pick.

A little memorabilia, back when it was in theaters I managed to find excuses to go see it 6 times all in different theaters and screens every single time with different friends or relatives.

Also the first time I saw the movie was on a premiere day and I didn't manage to get good seats. It was all the way in the front and on the very side. The screen wasn't their biggest one either, maybe the 5th. Then two or three weeks later I went to see the movie in the same theater again and they had moved the prestige to their main biggest screen. I had to ask the girl in the cashier why because they NEVER do that. And she said, its because the manager thought it was such a great movie and that it deserved that screen and they felt that as many people as possible should watch it. This was in the middle of the week btw, not a weekend.

Knowing not everyone I convinced go watch it with me would enjoy it as much as I did, it was still worth it. And they asked me why I did it? :crazy:
It was the look on their faces after the movie was done. :D
The one critic of the movie that got stuck with me was from a friend who said he didn't like the "supernatural" ending. He'd prefer if it was all logical conclusion without the unknown. But this is actually why I love Nolan movies so much. I find it one of his best strengths to push for the unknown a little bit while always holding on to reality with an anchor. Letting the imagination fly off while the audience decides what to read into it. It was exactly why I loved interstellar so much as well that it allowed for a supernatural explanation. Being a religious believer I find this very bold and satisfying but I know some people will get provocative by such statements. And to them I have nothing to say really. Most didn't enjoy Interstellar anyway so.

Posts: 9
Joined: October 2019
Inception is his best IMO, TDK and Prestige are a close in second place.

Posts: 602
Joined: May 2020
1. Inception
2. Dark Knight

Post Reply