Inception

One of my favorite movies of all time and one of the films that made me see how good of a director Nolan is. Him and Leonardo DiCaprio are just elite level director/actor and they really show their level in this movie.  Inception starts off very strong making you question where you’re at only to think you’re in a single dreams. To reveal it’s actually a dream within a dream. That moment sets the tone for the whole movie and foreshadows the ending when it shows Cobb on the beach. The pacing is great even with the movie being 2 1/2 hours long, the action is intense, and the way Nolan layers dreams on top of each other without losing the audience is just insane. The way time dilates and makes it slower every time just adds so much detail.  Leonardo DiCaprio is really good as Cobb. You feel how much guilt and pain he carries the whole movie. The supporting cast is great too, especially Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy. They bring a lot of personality and make the movie fun even when it gets really complex. What I love most about Inception is how it plays with time in the dream layers. The deeper they go, the slower time moves, and the way the movie shows that is so cool. Yusuf can have like 10 seconds in the real world while the others are basically living through entire missions. Stuff like that is what makes the movie so impressive to me. Limbo is also such a crazy idea. The thought of being stuck somewhere for what feels like decades while only minutes pass in real life is terrifying. It makes Cobb and Mal’s story hit even harder because they pretty much lived a whole life there. Dom Cobb I also love how each dream layer affects the next one. The rain because Yusuf drank too much, or the van falling causing zero gravity in Arthur’s level. That hallway fight scene is still insane. Probably one of the coolest action scenes I’ve seen. Even little details like Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien slowing down in deeper layers make everything feel so well thought out. The ending is perfect too. The spinning top is such a simple thing, but it leaves you questioning everything. Was Cobb dreaming or not? And by the end, you almost stop caring because all that matters is that he got peace. This movie is just crazy creative. So much is going on, but it never feels messy or overwhelming. Everything just fits.