We rank all of Christopher Nolan’s movies. From Memento to Oppenheimer, we rank them all from worst to best.

With Oppenheimer hitting theatres this weekend, it’s time to look at the work of one of the greatest directors of our generation: Christopher Nolan. A caveat – our Christopher Nolan movies ranked list is just one person’s opinion, and his work is divisive. Everyone has their favourites (and least favourites), so I’m hoping this ranking will open up some discussion in the comments below. We do not include Following in this list, as it’s not feature-length (only seventy minutes) and can’t be put on the same level as his other work – although it’s an interesting curio. Also, note that this list ranks all of his movies from worst to best, so if you don’t see your favourite film of his right off the top, don’t panic!

Insomnia

In my mind, Christopher Nolan has never made a bad movie. So, when I say one of his movies is his “worst,” that doesn’t mean it’s actually bad. Insomnia is based on a tremendous Norwegian film that stars Stellan Skarsgård in the lead, and I think his performance is slightly better than Al Pacino’s here. That said, Robin Williams gives a genuinely unnerving performance as the movie’s antagonist, and it also has gorgeous cinematography by Wally Pfister. It’s just that – at least compared to other films on this list – it’s the one that feels the most like an assignment.

Interstellar

One of Nolan’s most ambitious efforts, Interstellar is brilliant at times and annoyingly conventional at others. For me, the movie works wonderfully when Nolan is attempting to make his variation on 2001: A Space Odyssey. But I’ve never liked the side plot where Matt Damon is found marooned and becomes an antagonist. A movie like this doesn’t need a “bad guy.” However, Matthew McConaughey is terrific in the lead, and the cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema is a revelation.

Tenet

I found this movie utterly incomprehensible when I saw it in theatres, due mainly to the atrocious sound mix. Throughout his career, Nolan has taken a lot of heat for not having clear dialogue, and he went overboard with the mixing here, as it obscured an already tough-to-decipher plot. It made me quite angry when I saw it the first time, but I enjoyed the movie more when watching it at home – with subtitles. Like all of his films, it’s visually arresting, and the score by Ludwig Göransson is a winner. Nolan has always been inspired by the James Bond franchise, and his two heroes in this one, John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, are likely the closest we’ll ever get to seeing how Nolan would tackle that series (although then again – who knows?). Also worth noting, Nolan must have taken the audio criticism to heart because all of the dialogue in Oppenheimer is clear as a bell.

The Dark Knight Rises

I enjoyed Nolan’s divisive end to his Dark Knight trilogy, even if it couldn’t help but pale compared to its predecessors. Tom Hardy’s Bane is a bit of a letdown as a villain, at least compared to Heath Ledger’s Joker, but I still think it serves as a satisfying end to the franchise. It’s also the first movie where Nolan’s sound mixes became problematic, and I’ll never forget how hard it was to figure out what Bane was saying the first time I saw the opening action sequence when it was attached as a teaser to IMAX showings of Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Memento

I know this will be a controversial place for the movie that put Nolan on the map. Structurally, it’s brilliant; I just personally don’t think it holds up to repeated viewings as much as other movies on this list. Even still, it’s pretty audacious filmmaking, and one can see that this immediately made him a superstar director.

The Prestige

This one has always been the most underrated movie in Nolan’s filmography, as Disney’s Touchstone didn’t position it as the event it would have been had it come out just a few years later. Hugh Jackman gives the performance of his life as one of two duelling illusionists who have a rivalry over a teleportation trick that leads to devastating moral consequences for both men. This is one of Nolan’s movies that gets better every time you watch it, with Christian Bale’s performance a bit of a puzzle that only really comes together on its second viewing. This also has one of my favourite bits of Nolan casting ever – David Bowie as Tesla.

Batman Begins

Nolan started to reinvent the superhero saga with this, and I remember, when I first saw it, thinking it had more in common with epic adventure movies like The Last Samurai or Gladiator than anything else I’d seen. To me, it paid off, and Christian Bale makes for an iconic Caped Crusader, while Michael Caine will always be my favourite Alfred. 

Dunkirk

This one seems divisive, as some think Nolan’s WW2 movie is too thinly plotted. To me, they’re missing the point, as this is supposed to be a raw experience that puts you in the shoes of the various soldiers participating in the evacuation of Dunkirk. It’s his shortest movie since Following, and it can’t be beaten on a technical level. Tom Hardy has one of his best roles as a heroic RAF fighter pilot, acting almost completely with his eyes until the final shot.

Oppenheimer

When it was announced that this would be a three-hour biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, people cracked wise on Twitter that it would just be three hours of men talking in rooms. And you know what – it is. But Nolan knows precisely how to make a movie like this, and it’s one of the tightest, most explosive three-hour dramas you’re ever likely to see. This is genuinely epic filmmaking and a masterpiece on every level, featuring perhaps Nolan’s best-ever cast. Cillian Murphy is brilliant as a man who shaped the modern world, for better or worse, while Robert Downey Jr gives his best performance since Iron Man in a critical supporting role. 

Inception

What else can be said about one of our generation’s best science fiction movies? It’s the movie that proved a dazzling action movie can be just as challenging as an indie and still make hundreds of millions of dollars. It also boasts one of my favourite musical scores of all time, with Hans Zimmer’s work career-defining.

The Dark Knight

But, as good as Inception is, to me, Nolan’s masterpiece will always be The Dark Knight. It’s still the best superhero movie ever made, and I firmly believe it belongs in any serious conversation about the best movies ever made. It’s thematically rich and features one of the most outstanding modern performances, Heath Ledger’s Joker. Fifteen years later, it’s still the tentpole movie every would-be blockbuster wants to be. 

Footage has arrived for the latest The Walking Dead spin-offs, focusing on Daryl Dixon, Michonne and Rick Grimes.

The walking dead are about to trek even farther, as the first teasers for two spin-off series – The Ones Who Live and Daryl Dixon – have arrived, building on the ever-expanding universe of the franchise.

In the teaser for The Walking Dead spin-off The Ones Who Live, we see Michonne (Danai Gurira) in silhouette, wielding her beloved katana as she moves towards the screen, a voiceover going, “I’ve been out there a long time…I lost someone years ago…And then things changed…I found out he’s alive.” Mixed with just a touch of action and a glimpse at Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes. Michonne, who debuted in the season two finale “Beside the Dying Fire”, would go on to become one of the most respected characters in the entire series. The show will also feature Pollyanna McIntosh as Jadis. The Berts (Amber Templemore-Finlayson and Katie Ellwood – who helmed episodes of Hawkeye and Our Flag Means Death) are set to direct the first episode.

As for Daryl Dixon, this The Walking Dead spin-off will obviously center around Norman Reedus’ character, who we see wash ashore in France, setting off the events of the series, which will find him trying to find out how he got there while also being hunted. Based on the teaser, we can see why Reedus said that the show will be “f*cking epic.” It was announced at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con that the show has already been renewed for a second season even though the show has yet to premiere.

Both The Walking Dead spin-offs look to have a lot of potential to be hits with the fanbase, which has been spoiled with content. The first spin-off, Fear the Walking Dead, came out while the original series was still on the air, while limited series World Beyond, anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead and Dead City – which focuses on Maggie and Negan – followed.

While no release date has been announced for The Ones Who Live, it will arrive next year. Daryl Dixon, meanwhile, is set for September 10th.

Are you looking forward to The Walking Dead spin-offs? Which captured your interest the most? Let us know in the comments section below!

Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at [email protected].

80’s Villains by Dusty Abell

Barbenheimer by Rux Dardiror

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm by John Dunn

Full Metal Jacket by Aleksey Rico

Jimi Hendrix by Fresh Doodle

McDonalds by Chiara

Mission Impossible by Javier Hueto

Scarface by RYVE Creative

The Sopranos by Sorin Ilie

Spider-Man by Kevin Tiernan

We review The CW’s four part documentary series Greatest Geek Year Ever: 1982, revisiting classic genre films from that year.

PLOT: A deep dive into all the great movies that came out in 1982.

REVIEW: Everyone has their own take on the greatest year ever for cinema. Scholars tend to cite 1939, as that’s the year Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Gunga Din, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and several other seminal classics came out. Modern film fans tend to cite 1999, thanks to The Matrix, Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Magnolia and many more. I’d make a strong case for 2007 myself, with Into the Wild, The Assassination of Jesse James, Gone Baby Gone, Zodiac, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, and others. But, if you’re a movie geek, one year stands above them all, and it’s 1982.

Think about it. E.T., The Thing, Star Trek II, Rocky III, Poltergeist, Blade Runner, the list goes on and on. And now, 1982 is getting a documentary series of its own from Mark A. Altman (Free Enterprise), Roger Lay Jr and more. Now, one name you’ll see in the credits is JoBlo Founder Berge Garabedian, who’s the executive producer. The fact that JoBlo had a hand in the documentary is why we didn’t initially review it, but I must admit that I pushed for a review just because I finally sat down and watched all four episodes and loved it. I have no involvement in the film whatsoever and wasn’t asked to tackle it, but I like what I like, and to me, this was so much fun that it’s worth shining a light on it.

Each episode focuses on a few movies, with many of the folks involved with the films giving interviews. While you may not see Spielberg talking about E.T. or Stallone going on about First Blood or Rocky III, you do get William Shatner discussing both Star Trek II and Airplane 2: The Sequel and Ron Howard discussing Night Shift as well as revealing that he was initially up for the job to direct Star Trek II. The best interview of all is Barry Bostwick, who lets it all hang out and comes across as super charming as he remembers making MegaForce, a movie he says he was terrible in (I disagree). Bostwick is great here, with him saying the schedule was a mess and that one day he went out, got super stoned by the pool, but then discovered to his dismay, that he had to film that day.

The documentary is packed with gems like this from all the talking heads, with a favourite story of mine coming from Menace II Society producer Darin Scott, who remembers being the one black guy in the theatre-going nuts when Mr. T’s Clubber Lang defeats Rocky Balboa early in Rocky III and also notes that The Road Warrior was the movie that first made him aware of surround sound. Everyone involved clearly loves the stuff being discussed, and the doc makes it a point to not only focus on genre, with movies like Missing and The Verdict also getting a spotlight.

If I have any issues with the documentary, it’s that some of the stories have been told before. I’m not sure they needed to go into the sucky video game E.T. spawned, as that already got a cool documentary of its own (Atari: Game Over), and the “who directed Poltergeist” debate has been done to death. Then again, I wonder if a documentary about those movies is complete without those older stories, so I can’t judge them too harshly. As a seasoned fan, I couldn’t get enough of the stories I didn’t know, such as Orson Wells being drunk and surly when they recorded the trailer for Conan the Barbarian (they even have the outtakes).

Overall, Greatest Geek Year Ever: 1982 is a nostalgic blast. The third of four episodes airs tonight on the C.W., but if you missed the last two episodes, you can download the C.W.’s app and watch them there. If you’re an eighties movie enthusiast, you’ll love it.

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