According to the director, Christopher Nolan's most underrated film is Insomnia

Christopher Nolan has been one of Hollywood's most talked about, lauded, and fiercest directors for years. He is the filmmaker with the most films on the IMDb Top 250 listhe has navigated the industry by handling an impressive mix of original designs and intellectual property, one of his greatest films may have single-handedly changed the Academy Awards foreverand each new film of his seems like a proper event. (You may have seen the hype his recently announced adaptation of “The Odyssey” next year.) His filmography is combed and argued over where cinephiles congregate, and members of his passionate, almost cult-like fan base are ready to go to bat for any of his features.

While I don't know if Nolan himself has weighed in on what his best film is, the director has recorded what he thinks is the best. underrated is a film that gives a fascinating insight into how he looks at his works.

In The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries and Marvels of Christopher Nolan, 2020 by Tom Schon Sean was able to spend a lot of time with the director over the years to talk in depth about each of his films, and Nolan cited one of his earliest feature films as the project that is perhaps the most unfairly dismissed film in his entire filmography. body of work.

“I think 'Insomnia' is probably the most underrated of all my films,” Nolan says in The Nolan Variations. He also gives a possible reason why audiences may not engage with it on the same level as his other films, and why for him that couldn't be further from the truth:

“People will say things like, 'Oh, this isn't as interesting or as personal as Memento,' but there's a reason for that. It's from someone else's script. It's a remake of another movie. The reality is, it's one of my most personal movies to make.” in terms of (…) Of all the films I've made, it's the most accurate or comfortable in the genre I've tried to be in. It's not really challenging the genre, and that's what people have come to expect from my other films but now and again I meet a filmmaker and it is actually a movie they are interested in or talking about. Yes, I'm very proud of the film.”

Three years before Nolan called Insomnia the most underrated of his films, we / Film came to the same conclusion and wrote about our reasons why we think this is the case. I encourage you to check out this piece, and if you haven't re-watched Insomnia in a while, check it out again. The film may not turn the crime thriller genre on its head, but it features absolutely top-notch work from Oscar winners Al Pacino and Robin Williams in a cat-and-mouse game set in a uniquely atmospheric setting. If nothing else, it will make you appreciate the power of a good night's sleep.