Like many who have seen it (and if you haven’t yet seen it, stop reading this and go see it) I think that Inception is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

It’s a movie that you don’t only enjoy while you are watching it (and that was an awesome experience for me) but it’s one where you keep thinking about it for days (or in my case I guess it’s up to weeks) after you see it.

And one of the things I’ve thought about a lot since I saw the movie is how it managed to make what happens in the dream worlds matter. I think this is the principle “trick” that made the whole thing so powerful.

Of course if you’ve seen the movie you know that Christopher Nolan (writer/director) does this by making it possible to both steal information (and place ideas) within dreams. Within a reality where this is possible, what happens in dreams can be very important.

It’s making what happens in the dream world important that makes this movie work so incredibly well. It allows us to experience this surreal dream world without it all being “just a dream.” Yes, most (or all depending on your interpretation) of the movie is dreams, but they are very important dreams within the framework of the story.

“Trick” / Memento

The word “trick” has a bad connotation but I don’t mean it that way. I think what Christopher Nolan did here is brilliant.

It reminds me of how his movie Memento told it’s story backwards. I remember some movie critics dismissing this as nothing more than a “trick.” I thought that was ridiculous.

Sure it’s a trick, but it’s a brilliant one that put the viewer in the same place as the main character. He found himself places but didn’t know how he got there. It brought the theme of the movie (the nature of memories) to the forefront in a really interesting way. It made the viewer a participant in the experience rather than just a viewer.

Like Inception, Nolan wrote Memento (based on a short story by his younger brother Jonathan Nolan.)

Christopher Noland is a Bad Ass

I guess this is really what I’m trying to say. Look at the string of movies this guy has done: Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Night, & Inception. These were all fantastic movies. Some of them are all time greats. That’s a pretty amazing track record. I already know I’m going to see his next movie – whatever it is.

The only film of his I haven’t seen yet is his small budget black & white debut (Following) which was released in 1998.

IMDB Ratings

To further cement what a bad ass Nolan is, check out the IMDB ratings for his movies:

Following: 7.7
Memento: 8.7 (#29)
Insomnia: 7.2
Batman Begins: 8.3 (#108)
The Prestige: 8.4 (#72)
The Dark Knight: 8.9 (#12)
Inception: 9.2 (#3)

How sick is that? The guy is cranking out classics like a machine.