The Christopher Nolan Retrospective Part 3: Insomnia

The Christopher Nolan Retrospective continues! Last time, we examined the film that put Christopher Nolan on the map: Memento. Today, we look at his anticipated follow-up Insomnia and see how this one out of all of them seems to differ the most from the rest of Nolan's filmography.

Just as before, I have to mention that I will be skipping the Batman films for now and save them for a Dark Knight trilogy special (Which will include The Dark Knight Rises) at the end of the retrospective. Also worthy of note, this article will feature major spoilers of the film being discussed. Thankfully, Insomnia is on Netflix Watch Instantly at this very moment so if you'd like to catch up with this marathon, you can watch along.

And if you're just tuning in, you can read Part 1 on Following and Part 2 on Memento.

With that being said, it's time to see Christopher Nolan's first foray into Hollywood filmmaking...

The Christopher Nolan Retrospective Part 2: Memento

The Christopher Nolan Retrospective continues! Last time, we delved into the twisty potential in Nolan's debut feature Following and how it contains the themes that would eventually become benchmarks in all his work. Now, we move on to one of Nolan's most lauded films, said by many to be his masterpiece, Memento.

Before we begin, a few notes: Again, I'm going to be skipping the Batman movies for now and I'll be saving them for a special Dark Knight Trilogy special at the end of this retrospective that also ties into The Dark Knight Rises, so we'll get to those much later.

Secondly, I did my best to avoid spoilers in my analysis of Following but it's pretty much impossible to really delve into the themes and structure of Memento without getting into incredibly major spoilers. So if you, for some reason, haven't seen Memento yet and you're just delving into this marathon, do yourself a favor and see it before reading this.

With that being said, let's dive right into The Christopher Nolan Retrospective Part 2: Memento.

The Amazing Spider-Man Movie Review

[The Amazing Spider-Man

Directed by Marc Webb
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Rhys Ifans
MPAA: PG-13 - For Sequences of Action and Violence]

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The Christopher Nolan Retrospective Part 1 - Following

The Dark Knight Rises is coming in just about two weeks, and like everyone else on the internet, I'm getting more excited the closer it gets. Like it or not, Christopher Nolan's Batman films are one of the defining pictures of the superhero genre and having their grand finale is kind of a big deal. It's especially a big deal for Christopher Nolan himself, who has become one of the most influential and important filmmakers of our generation. The way he's able to get mainstream audiences into seeing some very dark, mature, and intellectual material in an age of whiz-bang pacing and fireworks is a testament to his propulsive pacing and imaginative storytelling.

Christopher Nolan pretty much has every director's dream trajectory: He started out with two very small independent films, got noticed, slowly got bigger and bigger actors and projects, built his reputation, and before you know it BAM, he's become one of the most lucrative auteurs in the business. It's fascinating to see such an evolution from his small thrillers to his epic blockbusters, and it's especially interesting to see all the themes that connect all of his work.

So interesting, in fact, that I've decided look back at that trajectory from the very beginning and go film by film viewing the evolution of Christopher Nolan. Starting today is my Christopher Nolan retrospective, where we analyze that evolution and see how his stamp starts to form over the course of his career, starting from his first indie films all the way up to my review of The Dark Knight Rises when it releases.

But do take note that I won't be doing the Batman films until after The Dark Knight Rises, mainly because it will be more interesting to compare those two films with the conclusion that they ultimately build up to. However, expect me to talk about the rest of your favorites, including Memento, The Prestige, Inception, etc.

Without further ado, our marathon starts with Nolan's debut, the black-and-white noir thriller Following.

Brave Movie Revew

[Brave
Directed by Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
Starring: Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, and Billy Connolly
MPAA: PG - For Some Scary Action and Rude Humor]

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Beasts of the Southern Wild Movie Review

[Beasts of the Southern Wild
Written & Directed by Benh Zeitlin
Starring: Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry
MPAA: PG-13 - For Thematic Material Including Child Imperilment, Some Disturbing Images, Language, and Brief Sensuality]

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Moonrise Kingdom Movie Review

[Moonrise Kingdom
Written & Directed by Wes Anderson
Starring Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, and Bruce Willis
MPAA: PG-13 - For Sexual Content and Smoking]

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The Podcast Returns! E3 and Prometheus

It's been a while, huh? Well, we're finally back with a new and improved, hopefully weekly version of the CinEffect podcast. If you're wondering what happened to us and why we had a hiatus, the answer could be shortened in two words: Mevio are a bunch of fucking sell-outs.

But yeah, you get the idea. Now we're under a new hosting site, Podomatic, which will hopefully work smoothly or us. Regardless, our new episode (which was split in two due to being overtly lengthy), discusses only two topics: E3 and Prometheus. So have a seat and listen to our ramblings as we discuss how disappointing every E3 press conference was and how totally not disappointing Prometheus was.

Prometheus Movie Review

[Prometheus
Directed by Ridley Scott
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, and Charlize Theron
MPAA: R - For Sci-Fi Violence Including Some Intense Images, and Brief Language]

[Warning: While this review contains no spoilers for the film itself, there are a few things I mention that might hint at some things that may be best left unread if you're planing on seeing this film with as little spoiled as possible. You've been warned.]

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Sound Of My Voice Movie Review

[Sound Of My Voice

Written & Directed by Zal Batmanglij
Starring: Christopher Denham, Brit Marling, and Nicole Vicius
MPAA: R - For Language Including Some Sexual References and Brief Drug Use]

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