Rated Greg’s Christopher Nolan Rankings
- The Prestige (A+)
- Interstellar (A+)
- Inception (A+)
- The Dark Knight (A+)
- Batman Begins (A+)
- Dunkirk (A-)
- The Dark Knight Rises (A-)
- Memento (A-)
- Insomnia (B+)
Dunkirk was the most anticipated film of 2017 in the Rated Greg poll of one at the beginning of the year. What can I say, like a lot of men between the ages of 18-35, I worship at the church of Christopher Nolan. He’s LeBron James to Martin Scorsese’s Michael Jordan, and while LeBron will likely never surpass his Airness in titles I am fairly certain that Nolan’s catalog will eclipse Marty’s within the next ten years, probably five. It’s one thing to never make a bad movie, it’s a whole other thing to ONLY make great movies. Shit, I think each of his top five are my favorite films from that respective year (The Prestige, currently streaming on Netflix, is my favorite movie of the past 20 years). I realize being a Nolan stan is an extremely basic sentiment, but I just can’t help it. His works of art are so remarkable on such consistent basis that it sets a ridiculous standard.
Which brings us to Dunkirk. For most directors Dunkirk would be their masterpiece but in this case it’s just an average at bat for Nolan. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very good, but I was expecting it to be the best movie of the year…… which it’s not. The one thing you need to know going in is that it’s really more of a ride than a movie. There’s not a ton of dialogue or plot pivots. Just three interweaving, action packed stories capturing the British army’s miraculous evacuation from the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940, all in a brisk 100 minutes. Many blockbusters are shown in IMAX theaters but very few are actually made for IMAX, with IMAX cameras, like Dunkirk is. The investment clearly paid off because it looks flat out AMAZING. The fighter pilot scenes specifically, led by Tom Hardy’s tender eyes, might be the most beautiful action sequences I’ve ever seen on the big screen (short of Fury Road, it always comes back to Fury Road). I know it can be a pricey hassle, especially for those with kids, but if this movie interests you at all it needs to be seen in the theater. Unlike Fury Road (again, it always comes back to Fury Road), I’m not positive this will translate as well to the TV screen. It might, Nolan’s films do tend to age like fine wine, but for some reason I have a feeling the small screen experience might be a little underwhelming. It would be like listening to Pink Floyd with shitty headphones. We’ll see I guess. Grade: A+
Rated Greg 