I have always been told “stay away from films that are written, directed and produced by all the same person.” And that used to be true. In the days of low-budget schlock films, one person had to do all the duties because they could afford to hire anyone else. And we got albatrosses like “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and “Manos- the Hands of Fate” and the even bigger-budgeted “Heaven’s Gate (a director driven film). But there are great films helmed by one man or woman. This is one of the best.
This film takes some work, not because its bad, but because its that good. It has a depth that many modern movies don’t (modern being 2000 and later). Don’t misunderstand, the new millennium has brought us great movies like ”Hidden Figures”, “The Dark Knight” and “The Help” but the real standouts seem much fewer and far between.
Look at the 3 periods in question: ’50 to ’75, ’76 to 2000 and 2001 to now. Then look at the top movies of all time lists. Most of them fall in ’50 to ’75, less in the next group, and the fewest in recent times. All the while people are spending more and more on films. Interesting yes? Inception is a brilliant film, and it took me three viewings before I finally started to really get what Christopher Nolan was doing. Yes it’s a Sci-Fi film, but it’s also so much more, and very reminiscent of Philip K. Dick stories where the main thread running through the story asks ‘what is real?’.
The film is definitely a metaphor for film making itself where one person shares thoughts and visions, and invites others into the process, but it’s not preachy about it. Leonardo DiCaprio is absolutely the right choice to head up the film (if you haven’t seen him in “The Man in the Iron Mask” it’s a can’t miss performance by the man). Everybody loves thief/heist movies and DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a thief who steals people’s secrets from their subconscious, who now has to put something in instead of taking it out. As I said, very reminiscent of “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (Total Recall)” and other PH Dick works.
Add in Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Dark Knight Rises), Tom Hardy (Warrior 2011, Dark Knight Rises )and Ken Watanabe (Godzilla 2014) and you have a stellar cast that would be hard to screw up- unless your story is worthless (we will discuss plotting/story vs casting, in depth, another time). Yes there is a plethora of stunning visuals, but the plot is not lost in all the special effects and artistic touches (as is the case with most modern super hero films that aren’t Marvel). The movie runs in and out of consciousness, in and out of dream, in and out of real, and in and out of manufactured. It can be tough to follow for first-time viewers. And to be honest, many people don’t want to think that hard to watch a movie. I do.
My wife (who is also a writer) and I love to sit down and tear movies apart for plotting, dialogue, continuity, casting, anachronistic blunders (things out of time, like in the Chinese produced series about Bruce Lee which has him cleaning up garbage in San Francisco, the garbage including Costco pizza boxes) and anything else that catches out attention.
Even at all that, we have to be ready to sit down and watch Inception. It’s that layered, that complex, that complex, that intricate, and a dozen other synonyms that could come to mind. It is, without apology, one of the best films ever created since 2000, and is likely a candidate for “Best Sci-Fi Films of all time”.
IMDB says 8.8/10. Yeah, I’ll bump it to 9/10 ranking it even with “The Dark Knight” “Godfather 2” and “12 Angry Men”. It’s that good.
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