He’s the talk of the town following the recent release of ‘The Odyssey’, but with Sir Christopher Nolan‘s glittering filmography sparkling in an even more dazzling light than ever before, the toughest conversations have shifted away from ‘How good is the Odyssey?’ to ‘Is ‘The Odyssey’ Nolan’s best ever piece of work?’. Well, luckily for you, Jake Gable gives us his verdict with his own personal hot-take on Nolan‘s decalogue of big hitters (and there’s no room for TENET).
These are: CULTR’s Top 10 Christopher Nolan Movies…
10. MEMENTO
Most likely to be the one you’ve not seen yet, make no mistake about it, Memento is an underrated masterpiece. In fact, by any other director’s standards, this would be the jewel in the crown of their CV, but for Nolan, it was simply a hors d’oeuvre for the cinematic feast that lay in waiting. Remarkably ripping up the idea of linear storytelling, Memento jolts between colour and black-and-white, starting at the end and finishing at the beginning. As the pieces of the jigsaw unravel and our noir narrator, Leonardo (played by Guy Pearce) slots it all into place, the audience is left gasping at the culmination of the amnesia-fog lifting.
9. DUNKIRK
Filled with a breathless score from Hans Zimmer, evoking every inch of the panic and fatality-inducing sirens most likely heard in real war itself, Nolan‘s foray into the story of Dunkirk is split into three-equally mesmeric chapters. Whilst the POV cameras swing round behind soldier footsteps like a scene from ‘CoD’, the roaring waves and desperate lunges into boats are all watched by the frenetic work of Tom Hardy in the skies, as planes thunder attack-after-attack onto the coastal territory, situated just a few miles from the Belgian border. Come the finale, no character is assured of life itself, with Zimmer’s score swelling magnificently amid the chaos and despair.
8. BATMAN BEGINS
Breaking away from the slapstick-affairs of the early 90s, Nolan‘s ability to transform the caped crusader from figure of ridicule, to brooding hero, was nothing short of miraculous, come 2006, and the start of this iconic trilogy. Moving away from camp and cringe-inducing villains in the DeVito-Carrey-Schwarzenegger mould, Nolan focused Batman Begins on Bruce Wayne‘s biggest adversary to date: Fear itself. Grounding our protagonist in a version of Gotham that felt entirely gritty and realistic, Christian Bale stepped into the role with aplomb, straddling another near-perfect score from… Yep, you guessed it, that man Zimmer again.
7. OPPENHEIMER
Armed with a truly stellar cast (Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon), pronged by the Oscar-winning performance of Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer‘s haunting realisation at the tail-end of this 2023 classic, is truly one of the most devastatingly fearsome moments in movie history. While the movie can sometimes suffer from surprisingly slow pacing, particularly during the middle act of what is, essentially, a 3-hour courtroom drama, the way the crescendo pieces together the profound impact Oppenheimer (aided by his good friend, Mr Einstein) had caused to humanity, is absolute cinema.
6. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Often given a tough rap in recent years on account of the, frankly impossible, task of living up the lofty heights of its predecessor, the final instalment in Nolan‘s Batman trilogy was very much the David Moyes to TDK‘s Sir Alex Ferguson. However, when you take away the insane levels of 2008’s biggest cinematic smash, 2012’s follow-up was still another huge Summer blockbuster which truly bashed up the Box-Office, grossing $1.085 billion worldwide. Hardy offered sheer physicality in his intense (yet often muffled) performance as Bane, while Anne Hathaway‘s slick-and-nimble showing as Selina ‘Catwoman’ Kyle, surely laid the groundwork for her future casting alongside Nolan once again, in The Odyssey.
5. THE PRESTIGE
Intoxicatingly addictive, The Prestige lurks from one surprise to another through a bewitching and beguiling 130-minute run time, in which both Bale and Hugh Jackman go toe-to-toe, constantly outdoing the other as competing ‘magicians’ in a Victorian era, where the consequences of their showmanship often have disastrous, and deadly, consequences. With Michael Caine reprising his role as Christian Bale’s trusty paternal assistant once more (‘Hello, Alfred’), this hidden gem is just as exhilarating as any of Nolan‘s other major blockbusters, and twists the audience down the same ill-fated path of audible gasp come the finale’s thrilling plot-twist.
4. THE ODYSSEY
Well, we covered 2026’s most in-demand flick somewhat comprehensively in last week’s official review, but where does this outrageously daring IMAX spectacular rank in the great pantheon of Nolan Gold: The Greatest Hits? Certainly, in tracking Odysseus’ battles with Gods, Sirens, Witches, and Cyclops, it might just be the most audacious Nolan effort to date. Backed by the superb performance(s) of Tom Holland in his role of Telemachus, and the dastardly Antinous (Robert Pattinson), this modern cinematic triumph just misses out on a place on the podium… And (see below), what a podium it is!
3. INTERSTELLAR
Truth be told, these bronze-silver-gold positions could be rearranged in any variation, and very few could have any plausible argument, such is the extravagant brilliance of each. But it was perhaps Interstellar that truly cemented Nolan‘s reputation as a director worthy of Knighthood accolade. Once again (much like The Odyssey or Inception), Sir Chris’ plot centres around the tale of a heroic man looking to find his way back home, navigating the stormiest of paths in a desperate bid to reunite with his beloved family. Matthew McConaughey sparkles as Cooper, the intergalactic astronaut tasked with finding the remedy to an almost-certain extinction of life on Earth. Building towards a truly tear-jerking conclusion, this might just be one of the most beautifully poignant and emotive slices of directorship ever witnessed on the silver screen.
2. INCEPTION
If Interstellar managed to bend the minds of many, then Inception (2010) obliterated them, completely. Empowered by his financial success with The Dark Knight in 2008, Nolan’s return to box-offices just two years later featured his most ambitious plot to date, the unexplored area of lucid dreaming and delving into several layers of one’s own subconscious. Led by the charismatic Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), with support from Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Mario Cotillard and Joseph Gordon Levitt, this ultra-smart psychological thriller blends mind-warping cinematography with a dizzying range of Bond-like action scenes, and arguably, Hans Zimmer‘s finest ever eargasm, the wonderfully wistful ‘Time‘. As for that ending…. We’re still not in agreement over whether it ever stopped spinning, which only adds to the beauty.
1. THE DARK KNIGHT
A full-strength, in-your-face, frenetic assault on the senses, spearheaded by one man’s eerily-crazed performance… This movie will always be Heath Ledger‘s piece-de-resistance (‘WHY SO SERIOUS?‘), such is the depth and complexity of his chaotic Joker. But it takes a great director to evoke such a showing from an actor, even of Ledger’s blinding talent, and one which Nolan extracts to perfection. This visceral and terrifying performance not only turns our main character into a side-act, but is paced to perfection, and packed with a range of ruthless surprises at every turn, including THAT iconic opening scene. Not just the greatest Nolan movie ever made, but a genuine contender for the greatest movie ever made, full stop.
Agree/disagree with our selections? email [email protected] to kickstart the debate!
