This man is an absolute genius. I could write an entire book about why Christopher Nolan is amazing. He is my absolute inspiration. As you can see above, some of his films include Following, Memento, Insomnia, The Dark Knight trilogy, The Prestige, and Inception. If you’re reading my blog, I assume you’re somewhat interested in film. If that assumption holds true, I bet you’re familiar with at least one of Christopher Nolan’s phenomenal stories. If you have any experience with Christopher Nolan, you’ll recognize that he has a very distinct style. Mind bender plots, that don’t always progress chronologically. If you’ve seen one of these films, you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve made it a personal goal for myself to watch anything that Christopher Nolan has been involved in, simply because he is awesome. He’s done some production work on Transcendence and Man of Steel, and has a new movie, Interstellar, coming out later this year. I’m going to review a few of my favorites from Nolan’s filmography, but I encourage you to check all of these films out.
This is one of Christopher Nolan’s most well-known films. Inception. This film took Nolan ten years to write, if that gives you any indication of how mind blowing this movie is. This film features an all star cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Michael Cain, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy. You’ll see plenty of these characters in Nolan’s other films. This film was my first IMAX experience, which made it even more amazing. This story is extremely complex, and you’ll need to be paying close attention to grasp the story. Watching it more than once will probably help. I’ve seen this movie at least 100 times, and I still can’t completely determine my take on the ending.The story completely blows me away every single time I watch it. The actors are all incredible, but Leo (of course), along with Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt give exceptional performances. The basic premise of the story is that Saito, played by Ken Wantanabe, makes a deal with Dom, played by DiCaprio, and his team. The team specializes in extracting information from people’s minds through their dreams. Saito wants them to implant an idea into the mind of his business rival: Inception. If I tried to explain the plot in detail, I would just confuse you and take away from the story, so you can check out the trailer for yourself. This is one of the best movies ever made in my opinion. The story completely blows me away every single time I watch it. The actors are all incredible, but Leo (of course), along with Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt give exceptional performances.
I know that people have very strong opinions concerning superhero films. This is my particular opinion, but feel free to share your own with me! To say that I love this film would be insulting. I saw this movie seven times in theaters, three times in the first 24 hours of its release (judge me). The cast is fantastic. Christian Bale will forever be the image I see when I think of Batman. Tom Hardy as Bane was absolutely incredible. With the majority of his face covered by a mask, and his voice altered, he still manages to convey emotion perfectly. Gary Oldman is one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood, who doesn’t receive enough credit. His portrayal of Commissioner Gordon in this film is no exception! Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great in Inception, and his performance in this film did not disappoint. I do have one complaint about this movie, and that is Catwoman. Sure Anne Hathaway did okay, but of all the people they could’ve cast, I don’t understand why they picked the star of The Princess Diaries. But never the less, this movie was still phenomenal. On a side note, Hans Zimmer composed an incredible film score for this movie (and the other two in the series). The composers don’t seem to get a lot of recognition, and this score is definitely worth mentioning. Here’s the trailer for the movie. All three of Nolan’s Batman movies are great, and definitely worth watching (Heath Ledger as the Joker is one of the greatest performances ever), but this is my favorite in the series.
Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.
As with most Christopher Nolan films, trying to explain the plot of this movie would serve no purpose. Here’s the trailer so you can get an idea of the story. This review will give you a bit more about the plot. This film stars Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as two rival magicians. This story is pretty unique, but I love the theme of magicians. The overall look of the film is very appealing, and everything just works. It took me a while to get my hands on this film. Waiting for a movie to hit the shelves of Edward McKay Used Books & Movies (because if you’re a broke college student, that is what you do) doesn’t always work. I finally broke down and ordered it on Amazon. Like the review I posted above says, in the beginning of this film, nothing makes sense. But by the end of the film, you’ll fall in love with it.
If you guys have any films or directors you would like to see up here, please comment and let me know! Or if you simply want to share your opinion about one of the films I’ve reviewed, I’d love to hear it. I also really want some film recommendations from all of you, so please share a small portion of all the cinematic wisdom that I know your mind contains. 🙂
Creativity is Defiance 
Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Posted: June 18, 2014 in UncategorizedTags: actress, american psycho, bethenny frankel, bruce willis, carrie, celebrity, christian bale, christopher nolan, comment, creative, creative writing, creativity, daily post, dark knight, die hard, director, emma watson, fiction, film, film buff, films, for a day, frank darabont, horror, horror fiction, incpetion, it, kathy bates, keira knightley, leonardo dicaprio, maggie gyllenhaal, misery, movie buff, movies, novel, opinion, paranormal, plot, real housewives, response, review, reviews, sandra bullock, scared, scary, share, stephen king, story, supermodel, texas chainsaw massacre, the green mile, the mist, the shawshank redemption, the shining, the walking dead, tobe hooper, typewriter, watch, will smith, words, write, writer, writing
When I read today’s topic from The Daily Post, countless ideas flooded my mind. If I could be any celebrity for one day, who would it be?
My first thought was whatever supermodel was fortunate enough to be currently dating Leonardo DiCaprio. No, that would be a waste of the day. (I’ll come back for you, Leo.)
After that notion faded, my mind came to a few of my favorite directors. Frank Darabont (The Mist, The Green Mile), Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Knight), or Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist). I can’t imagine what fifteen minutes inside the mind of any one of these men would be like. Maybe it would inspire a new way of thinking that would skyrocket me to fame, my name mentioned with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino. I kind of envision me just walking around in their minds as if they were museums. I would see all the fantastic ideas they had already claimed as their own, without thinking of any for myself.
Okay, maybe I’ll be an actress. Working under the direction of one of the greatest directors to ever life has to be inspiring, right? My favorite actress is definitely Kathy Bates. If you haven’t seen the movie Misery, watch it and tell me she isn’t the most incredible actress to ever walk the earth. Or maybe I could play a Victorian era goddess compliments of Keira Knightley. Can I go back in time to be Christian Bale in American Psycho? I have the Huey Lewis & The News scene memorized, I would blow everyone away. Then again, I feel like there is never a day that being Bruce Willis is a bad idea. That could work. I can do Die Hard. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Will Smith, Sandra Bullock and Emma Watson are also among my favorites. Or I could be Bethenny Frankel from The Real Housewives of New York. (The last one is a joke.)
Then the answer came to me.
The most brilliant writer to ever put pen to paper (or fingers to keys). Horror maven, Mr. Stephen King. The man responsible for The Shining, It, Carrie, The Mist, Misery, The Green Mile.. Shall I continue? Clearly this man’s imagination is a gold mine. If I could think like Stephen King, there was nothing I couldn’t do. Although, I wouldn’t just want to inhabit his body and live as him for a day. Can I just sit in a dark corner of his flourishing mind and see how his imagination works?
Come to think of it, Stephen King’s mind is a celebrity in itself. That is who I would be. A fly on the wall in the mind of the Master of the Macabre, himself.