I Dreamed A Dream: Christopher Nolan & Inception

Amidst my general cynicism about the tastes of the mainstream American public, it's nice to stop and think for a moment that in a world overrun with Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich, and their ilk, Christopher Nolan has quietly become one of the premier blockbuster directors working today.



Dark, moody, atmospheric, tightly plotted and written, his films are auteur's work, unlike the committee-created paint-by-numbers summer movies that pop up year after year.



He leapt fully into the blockbuster arena with Batman Begins, and hasn't looked back, following up with several mainstream successes.



Some constant Nolan themes are identity conflict and the nature of reality, themes that have carried over into his blockbuster efforts.



What sets him and his creative team apart as artists rather than assembly-line moviemakers is that even when they misfire, the results are at least interesting.



Inception, in my opinion, joins The Prestige as one of Nolan's flawed-but-fascinating misfires, dragged down by a vague plotline and an overextended climax. It's also more interesting and artful than pretty much any feature by the Jerry Bruckheimer cohort you could name. Nolan's instinct is to fill his movies to the breaking point; but that beats leaving them empty any day.