Inception

RATING: A+

Christopher Nolan is known as one of the best film directors currently in the business. Mostly he's known for the Dark Knight trilogy, all three films of which are brilliant pieces of filmmaking. Unlike some of his other work, though, they're relatively simple films. Not any over-complicated concepts. That's not particularly in the case in his two other recent non-Batman films; Inception and Interstellar. Both of which are mind-bending films. 

Inception takes place in a world where military technology exists that allows people to infiltrate the subconscious of another person through shared dreaming. Dom Cobb is a particular master of the art of "extraction," as it's referred to. He's also trying to get back to his kids, as he's considered a criminal back in the U.S. He is offered an opportunity by a Japanese businessman with connections who can get him his life back; in return for performing "inception" (planting of an idea into a subject's subconscious) on a business rival. 

There's not too much more I can explain about the plot itself of the film without giving away spoilers. There's plenty of complicated concepts, and yet the film does a surprisingly good job of explaining itself (*if* you're paying attention, anyway). It manages to make the "dreams" concepts plausible, thanks to various truth nuggets such as "Dreams feel real when we're in them; it's only when we wake up that we actually realize something's strange." 

Inception overall is a brilliantly made film, loaded with exciting action sequences, an ultimately genius story and plot, well-written dialogue, a fantastic soundtrack from Hans Zimmer, and a strong cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, who I'm not normally a fan of but does quite well here. The rest of the cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, and Michael Caine (a surprisingly minor role for him, but he still does well as usual). 

The nice thing about Inception is that even those who can't quite grasp the concept or plot will find some appeal in the film with its action sequences and brilliant visuals and strong acting. It's a difficult film to straight-up dislike. The film also helped to confirm that Christopher Nolan wasn't a one-trick pony, and that he was here to stay. And even if Interstellar didn't quite reach the same heights of his other films (it was still quite good), that still remains true.