Christopher Nolan Movies, Ranked

While the 2000 indie hit Memento was the director's first introduction to most filmgoers—kicking off a stellar career that may only now be reaching its peak—Nolan actually made his debut with the no-budget, black-and-white crime thriller Following two years earlier. The film barely screened in the United States (though it did win the top award at Sundance companion festival Slamdance), and it has grown in stature a bit in recent years. Two decades ago, however, critics recognized Nolan's budding talent but felt that his film was a bit too slight.

"There are moments in Christopher Nolan's thematically ambitious film noir that make you wish he had the time and money and, to a certain degree, talent, to fulfill his lofty goals." —Michael Blowen, The Boston Globe

In 2006, Nolan followed Batman Begins with this thriller about rival magicians (played by Hugh Jackman and Nolan's Batman star Christian Bale) in late 19th century London. Adapted from a novel by Christopher Priest, the film itself attracted a rival in the form of The Illusionist, another film about turn-of-the-century magicians directed by Neil Burger and released a few months prior to Nolan's film. The Illusionist scored slightly better reviews (some critics didn't like the excessive trickery present in Nolan's work), but The Prestige won the box office battle.

"It's a gorgeous, strange little piece -- but I did find myself wishing it poked fewer aces out its sleeve after urging us to pay such close attention." —M.E. Russell, The Oregonian

Its release delayed multiple times over the summer of 2020 and ultimately constricted by the global covid-19 pandemic and resulting quarantines, Nolan's newest action film stars John David Washington, Elizabeth Debicki, and Robert Pattinson in a palindromic story of a CIA agent who must save the world with the help of a little bit of time manipulation. The film also marks the director's eighth collaboration with actor Michael Caine. Though it doesn't quite live up to its pre-release hype, the director is earning praise for his ambition, with critics finding the film mostly enjoyable if also overly complex and repetitive.

"Tenet reaches for cinematic greatness and, though it doesn't quite reach that lofty goal, it's the kind of film that reminds us of the magic of the moviegoing experience." —Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

Released in the summer of 2005, the first of three wildly successful Batman films directed by Nolan introduced Christian Bale as the Dark Knight. It easily became Nolan's highest-grossing movie upon its release (it was just his fourth film, and first with such commercial appeal), and it also became the highest-grossing Batman film since Tim Burton's 1989 feature, reviving a property that had been dormant since 1997's Batman & Robin.

"This is the Batman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for, because I didn't realize that more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action was just what was needed. The movie works dramatically in addition to being an entertainment. There's something to it." —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Nolan's ambitious 2014 sci-fi epic follows a crew of astronauts on a mission to another galaxy in a last-ditch attempt to save the human race from extinction. Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain head the cast for the well-reviewed box office hit, which picked up an Academy Award for its visual effects.

"Interstellar may not be perfect, but tent-pole filmmaking with such ambition and grandeur is always worth celebrating." —Ben Nicholson, CineVue

One of Christopher Nolan's most memorable and visually inventive films, this 2010 sci-fi action thriller about agents who can infiltrate dreams stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Unlike the director's previous film (widely praised The Dark Knight), Inception was nominated for best picture—and seven additional Oscars, winning four of them (all in technical categories). The 2010 release remains one of the highest-grossing non-franchise films of all time (behind only Avatar, Titanic, and, weirdly, Bohemian Rhapsody), grossing more than $800 million worldwide.

"Nolan blurs the distinction between dreams and reality so artfully that Inception may well be a masterpiece masquerading as a summer blockbuster." —Lou Lumenick, New York Post

Nolan wrapped up his Batman trilogy in 2012 with a film that couldn't quite live up to its predecessor in terms of quality, but nevertheless became the highest-grossing film of the director's career. Tom Hardy, who co-starred in Nolan's previous film, Inception, played the film's infamously muffled villain, Bane. Nolan has not directed a comic book film since, though Batman returned to the screen (in the form of Ben Affleck) as part of the DC Extended Universe in Zack Snyder's 2016 feature Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

"The Dark Knight Rises may be a hammy, portentous affair but Nolan directs it with aplomb. He takes these cod-heroic, costumed elements and whisks them into a tale of heavy-metal fury, full of pain and toil, surging uphill, across the flyovers, in search of a climax." —Xan Brooks, The Guardian

Nolan's first major studio film arrived in 2002, two years after his breakthrough, Memento. A remake of a 1997 Norwegian film, Insomnia is a crime thriller set in a remote Alaskan town that stars Al Pacino, Hilary Swank, and—in a rare villain role—Robin Williams. Insomnia remains the only film directed by Nolan for which he does not also have a screenplay credit.

"Less gloriously showy than "Memento," but it proves you can still craft fine art under the auspices of a big studio." —Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer

Nolan's buzz-generating second feature (following Following, his little-seen debut) and final indie film centers on a man (Guy Pearce) who seeks revenge for an attack on his wife—only to be hampered by a severe and unusual form of amnesia in which he can only hold on to short term memories for about 15 minutes, forcing him to turn to Polaroids and tattoos to record important information. Released in 2000, the cleverly structured film marked Nolan's first collaboration with his oft-used cinematographer Wally Pfister, while the story originally comes from another of the director's frequent collaborators: his brother, Jonathan Nolan. The siblings picked up their first career Oscar nominations in the process. (Despite being nominated again in the future, Christopher Nolan has never won an Academy Award.)

"Operates in an orbit somewhere between Oliver Sacks and Lewis Carroll. I can't remember when a movie has seemed so clever, strangely affecting and slyly funny at the very same time." —Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

Easily one of the best (if not the best) comic book movies ever made, Nolan's second Batman feature is the director's first billion-dollar-grossing film (exceeded only by the film's sequel, and just barely at that) while also ranking #2 among the director's works in terms of critical acclaim. Reviewers singled out the performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker, and the actor (who died just months before the film's release) would go on to win a best supporting actor Oscar for his work. In all, The Dark Knight received eight Academy Award nominations, though it was omitted from the best picture race to the disappointment of many fans and industry observers.

"Enthralling...An ambitious, full-bodied crime epic of gratifying scope and moral complexity, this is seriously brainy pop entertainment that satisfies every expectation raised by its hit predecessor and then some." —Justin Chang, Variety

While most Nolan films are filled with action, 2023's much-hyped Oppenheimer is a character study focusing on Manhattan Project physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) as he works to develop the world's first nuclear weapons. But Nolan structures the first-person (and partially black-and-white) biopic as a thriller (or even, at times, like a horror film), which makes the three-hour epic fly by, according to critics. And it's designed for the big screen, not home viewing—all the better to showcase Nolan's love for practical effects including a simulated atom bomb explosion filmed without CGI. The result is one of the finest works of Nolan's storied career.

"Oppenheimer is a monumental achievement in grown-up filmmaking. For years, Nolan has been perfecting the art of the serious blockbuster — crafting smart, finely-tuned multiplex epics that demand attention; that can't be watched anywhere other than in a cinema, uninterrupted, without distractions. But this, somehow, feels bigger." —Paul Bradshaw, NME

A departure for the director in terms of subject matter and visuals (with the latter relying more on practical effects than computer-generated wizardry), this action-filled 2017 WWII drama is Nolan's only film to focus on actual events, recounting the evacuation of Allied soldiers from northern France in 1940 from three different perspectives. In addition to scoring the best reviews of the director's career, Dunkirk finally brought Nolan his first best director Oscar nomination, and he received a second nomination for the film (as a producer) in the best picture category.

"The surpassing accomplishment of Dunkirk is to make us feel an almost literal fusion with its story. It's not so much that we've seen a splendid movie, though we have, but as if we've been taken inside a historic event, become wholly immersed in something real and alive." —Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times