This year has marked the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's heralded Batman trilogy. In addition, I think it's safe to say that it has marked an end of an era for Nolan himself. While his career thus far has been more or less defined by the success of his take on the Caped Crusader, his overall record over the last decade or so has been nothing short of astounding.
I don't think there's ever been a filmmaker who began his career with so many consecutive successes, both critically and commercially. There are surely examples of filmmakers who made art-house or independent movies that had better track records. But, in terms of both audience appeal and love from the critics, Nolan is in an elite class.
All in all, he has directed seven feature films -- eight if you count Following, which I don't. I'm leaving Following off the list for no good reason other than I haven't seen the whole thing. I keep starting it (it's streamable on Netflix) late at night and have fallen asleep, which is more of a commentary on my ability to stay awake than on the movie itself. Other than that, it doesn't count simply because it was never really released in any real form other than to show people what Nolan did before he became famous. Yet, even that's a crappy reason for not including it.
I'm just not counting Following, okay? I don't have a good reason.
So...where was I? Seven feature films directed by Christopher Nolan. I will do my best to rank them here. One thing to keep in mind: I hold all of these movies -- almost all of them anyway -- in very high regard. Nolan is simply an incredible filmmaker and a master storyteller. Those that appear lower on the list are all high-quality films, they're just low on Nolan's list. They'd probably be near the top of a list ranking the works of virtually any of Nolan's contemporaries.
