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If I could only choose one movie to take away from 2011 Inception would be the clear winner. It’s not often that I watch a movie that fulfills me 100% creatively, artistically and as an audience member but with Inception Christopher Nolan did all of that for me.

I am a Christopher Nolan junkie. Now and forevermore, I will see any movie he makes. I can’t think of a bad one in the lot, and in fact with each film I think he improves - and since square one he’s been amazing. I’ve said it before, but if I could apprentice to any director working today I would want to apprentice to Christopher Nolan. I can’t think of any contemporary director that can pull of the perfect mesh of creativity and box office appeal - a mix that would make any studio salivate at the thought of making your movie.

Inception is a movie that makes me want to make movies. That is a powerful thing, and something I am incredibly grateful for.

While I may never be a fan of 3D, let me just say that Christopher Nolan is making me a fan of IMAX. Inception was made for IMAX. By saying that I don’t just mean that Nolan shot it in IMAX, which he did, I mean that it is a film that is so rich visually and aurally that it screams to be witnessed on as large a screen as possible.

This film is simply stunning.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I would LOVE to sit at the feet of Christopher Nolan. The sheer volume of things I could learn from that man would probably astound me. He makes movies on a filmmaking scope that is beyond definition – whether his films are big or small he makes them with an intelligence and commitment that emanates from the screen and Inception is no exception.

For me, there are few things like the experience of a good movie in the theatre, it’s one of the reasons it’s my desire to make films for audiences. A great film is hard enough to do, but if you as a filmmaker can make a great film and suck the audience into its world to the point that the theatre comes under the films control – well there’s nothing like experiencing that. To this day I still remember what it was like when I first watched Jurassic Park and felt that dinosaurs were real, sat in Seabiscuit and realized audience members around me were cheering for a horse onscreen, and I know that the collective gasp and gleeful astoundment that came with the credits of Inception will stay with me as well.

I can’t tell you much about the actual plot of Inception, both because it’s so beautifully complicated I wouldn’t know how to begin, and because the film deserves to be watched for the first time with the freshest eyes you can, so that you too can be completely caught in the wonder. By saying the film is beautifully complicated does not mean it does not make sense, this is a film that is the complex, exquisite brainchild of master craftsman Christopher Nolan.

I do not throw the word auteur around much as I believe film is a collaborative process and auteur limits the results to one man’s contribution, but upon seeing this film I believe Christopher Nolan deserves the title of auteur. Inception could not be made without him completely involved in every aspect of the film – it reeks of an auteur’s hand.

With every film Christopher Nolan seems to be getting better. Even though the man makes giant films that make money hand over fist, I would in no way call him a commercial director, and I mean that as a compliment. Nolan makes films that achieve worldwide attention, steal the top stop at the box office, and gain critical recognition, yet they are by no means simple. Christopher Nolan has mastered the art of being able to tell a worthy, intricate tale in a compelling and entertaining way, getting the best performances possible out of his actors, and trusting the audience to come into his world instead of making his films fit into theirs. This is a balsy approach in a filmmaking era where tentpole films are generally more flash than substance and the audience leaves happy, but rarely thinking about what they actually watched for anything more than the adrenaline that it pumped through them. This is the reason it’s my desperate dream to have Christopher Nolan as a directing mentor – there could be no better hands to sit under and study.

Inception is worthy of all the critical praise it has received and I hope that it continues to surmass more critical and audience praise as it continues down it’s theatrical journey. I for one and excited to see what the visuals will look like on the IMAX screen, as they are already astoundingly visual on the standard screen. I can’t wait to go down the rabbit hole again and begin dreaming with Christopher Nolan one more time.

Director & Writer: Christopher Nolan
Cobb: Leonardo DiCaprio
Arthur: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Ariadne: Ellen Page
Eames: Tom Hardy
Saito: Ken Wantanabe
Yusuf: DiLeep Rao
Robert Fischer Jr.: Cillian Murphy
Browning: Tom Berenger
Mal: Marion Cotillad
Maurice Fischer: Pete Postlethwaite
Miles: Michael Caine
Mash: Lukas Haas

Cobb: You're asking me for Inception. I hope you do understand the gravity of that request.

I am a fan of Guy Ritchie. Snatch is one of my personal favorite movies and I think Mickey is just one of the best characters committed to celluloid in the past few decades. I have been in a Guy Ritchie funk since Snatch came out; sure he did Swept Away and Revolver but neither one of those films got much love…and Swept Away was just ripped apart by everyone. In short, Madonna killed Guy’s career. Those of us that have had that opinion about the Madonna/Guy marriage of course find it funny that Rocknrolla has come out at roughly the same time as the announcement of Guy and Madonna’s split. We’ve all been hoping that this split signals the return of Guy Ritchie to the cinema he does so well.

Rocknrolla is vaguely similar in concept to some of Guy Ritchie’s other films. It takes an odd assortment of characters all somehow involved in the criminal underground in Britain and their paths interconnect and try to pull them all down a ugly and dangerous spiral that will end in their deaths. In this outing One Two, Mumbles and Handsome Bob are the Wild Bunch a trio of moderately successful thugs. Stella is creative accountant to Uri who gives work to One Two under the nose of Uri who is trying to use Stella’s skills to get money to Lenny. Lenny is a blue-collar thug if you will who makes his dime off real estate scams and doesn’t see his way of doing things as old. Archie is Lenny’s enforcer who is trying to track down Lenny’s step son Johnny, a supposedly dead junkie/rocker managed by Mickey and Roman. There is really no way to truly sum up this film’s plot. But if you’ve seen a Ritchie film you can put the pieces together and figure out at least the style that the story will be told in.

While I enjoyed Rocknrolla it is by no means a typical Guy Ritchie film. All the elements are there, and you enjoy watching all the pieces get put in place and whacked back out of order. However, the prevailing feeling that I got out of this film is that Guy is stretching; it’s been eight years since Snatch came out and it feels like Guy is a little unsure of himself. This is not a bad thing however, the film is enjoyable, well done and something that no one except Guy Ritchie could do. It put me in a mood where I enjoyed the film and I know going out of it that Guy is coming back and his next movie is going to be even more like the Guy Ritchie I know and love.

One of the things I do love about Guy Ritchie’s films is that he takes at least one actor in every film that I love and makes them play a character that I couldn’t picture them in. In Snatch that is Brad Pitt and Mickey. In Rocknrolla that is Gerard Butler. I adore Butler and while One Two isn’t as out there of a character as Mickey I just didn’t quite see Butler as a fit in Ritchie’s world – I was wrong. Butler is fabulous.

Go support Guy Ritchie. He doesn’t really need the money, but I want him to keep making gangster movies because that is his genre.

Director & Writer: Guy Ritchie
One Two: Gerard Butler
Mumbles: Idris Elba
Handsome Bob: Tom Hardy
Johnny Quid: Toby Kebbell
Roman: Ludacris/Chris Bridges
Uri: Karel Roden
Councilor: Jimi Mistry
Stella: Thandie Newton
Mickey: Jeremy Piven
Archie: Mark Stong
Lenny: Tom Wilkinson

Archie: People ask the question... what's a RocknRolla? And I tell 'em - it's not about drugs, drums, and hospital drips, oh no. There's more there than that, my friend. We all like a bit of the good life - some the money, some the drugs, other the sex game, the glamour, or the fame. But a RocknRolla, oh, he's different. Why? Because a real RocknRolla wants the f---ing lot.