Why Christopher Nolan is the Best Director of Our Generation

It's tough being an entertainment writer these days because nothing is original anymore. Everything is a copy of a copy. In a world where sequels have sequels and the same mediocre movies get remade every two years, it's refreshing to see something that's actually unique, inspired and well-executed.

I'm pretty sure the last time I was as blown away by a film as I was by "Inception" I had just watched "The Prestige." And it's because Nolan has mastered the art of turning mindless entertainment into something that requires you to think.

All his films, even the early and underrated "Memento," are like an intricate painting. They are beautifully crafted and involve layers upon layers of meaning, and ultimately the viewer can interpret it any number of different ways. It's impossible to leave the theatre without arguing about whether or not what you saw really just happened.

His ideas are so fresh and so well put together that it's impossible not to take notice. Everyone knows him now as the man that forever changed the superhero genre but there's so much more to him than that. He takes filmmaking and turns it on its ear. He takes genre blending to a whole new level. With "Inception," he creates an exciting action movie that's also a heist, a psychological thriller, a touching story of redemption all encapsulated in the world of dreams. And it's up to you to decide what's a dream and what's reality.

Even before the twist-at-the-end trend started to get old, he wrote and directed "Memento," showed the movie in reverse and put the twist at the beginning. When he released "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" he turned colorful caricatures into complex personalities. With "The Prestige," he grabbed your attention the way a magician enthralls a child and his subtle sleight of hand tricked us anyway even though we know better.

He's constantly reinventing the Blockbuster. And not the way James Cameron rewrote Pocahontas and added CGI or the way M. Night Shyamalan forces a predictable twist to every mediocre movie he puts out; Christopher Nolan's actually creates something you could never have imagined. And he does it so well that it's impossible to decide which is better: the idea or the execution.

So if I have to wait another two years for his next feature, I don't mind, because I know it'll be worth the $10 movie ticket, which, unfortunately, can't be said for much these days. I'll let him take me anywhere from the heights of Gotham to the depths of the human subconscious. If there's nothing else that's certain, you can be sure that when Nolan asks you "Are you watching closely?" he means it.