This movie certainly did not need to be made.  INSOMNIA is exactly the type of grim, useless movie I cannot stand seeing.  Why did I watch it?  First, I wanted to watch the lone remaining Christopher Nolan film I was yet to see.  Second, I read basically nothing about the movie so as to go in fresh.  It is certainly evident that this is the only film that Nolan did not also write.  Add to that that Al Pacino and Robin Williams are probably my two least favorite actors, and a completely monotone pace, and really this movie can be skipped as I do not view it as a true Nolan work.

Another major problem with the film is that every single character is totally unlikable, save for the too perky to be real police detective played by Hilary Swank.  For a movie titled INSOMNIA, Al Pacino’s character’s insomnia was only touched upon when convenient.  No way can I believe that a person can continue to function past 6 days of no sleep to the level Pacino can.

The only mildly tense parts of the movie involved a search through fog and then a chase over a river of floating logs, which was original.  Who knew floating logs could be so menacing?

Still, the movie did not need to be made.  The movie does not need to be seen, unless you absolutely want to be a Nolan or Pacino complete-ist.

Last week I saw Christopher Nolan’s latest, INCEPTION, but I had never seen his debut, FOLLOWING, so I put it to the top of my Netflix queue.  I tried to avoid reading anything about the plot or story, and assumed that the plot would twist time, etc., which it did.  Like most non-Batman Nolan films, you would be hard pressed to describe it in a single sentence.

Although the movie was definitely not feel-good, I ended up really liking the very low frills, low budget aspect of the film and Nolan’s choice to use black & white.  Besides writing and directing, Nolan also did the camera work himself.  If like me you saw INCEPTION first, you will immediately recognize the names of one of the main characters of FOLLOWING, Cobb.

The main character is Bill, someone with not much to do who decides just to follow random people one day to see what their days are like.  I thought that sounded like a great way for a loafer to spend time and a clever starting point for a movie.

There are three distinct story lines, which you can distinguish by Bill’s appearance.  They are twisted together, but in the correct balance of providing clever story telling, but in an understandable way.

FOLLOWING is a movie that almost demands a second viewing because of both its plot twists and its very short 82-minute running time.

Due to watching a lot of an Animal Planet show called Escape to Chimp Eden, I finally decided to watch GORILLAS IN THE MIST.  I now know I knew absolutely nothing of the Dian Fossey story, as I was quite shocked by all the events at the end of the movie.  I also did not know I was seeing real gorillas on screen as much as there were, and especially that Sigourney Weaver just went out and interacted even with the silverback right away.

The opening of the movie was great (though not factually true).  Her whirlwind life transfer to Africa and immediate travel to the mountain jungles brought a smile to my face as I know what it is like to travel dozens of hours and then be surprised to find that rest is not next on the schedule.

Her tracker character in the film, Sembagare, was very well introduced and acted.  He was a needed constant in the story.

Seeing how Sigourney learned how basically on her own to interact and study the gorillas was the highlight of the movie.  Her descent into craziness in the last act of the movie was an unexpected and unwelcome turn of events.  Some of her craziest acts (burning of houses, pretending to hang a man) I learned were fictitious, and I think a poor decision on the director’’s part to include.  The viewer loses a bit of sympathy for Dian because of this which is further compounded by a rather abrupt ending.

This is not a feel-good movie, despite the fact that Dian’s efforts led directly to the preservation of gorillas.

I think Christopher Nolan with INCEPTION has cemented himself as director of the decade having kicked it off with MEMENTO.  Like he did with 2008’s THE DARK KNIGHT, he has made every other movie this summer seem like hack amateur derivative waste of film.  INCEPTION is the kind of movie that makes you leave the theater discussing, debating, and most of trying to figure out what in fact did I just see?  And do I understand any of it?

I know I recently declared TOY STORY 3 a “flawless masterpiece.”  Then a few weeks later you see a movie like INCEPTION that just grabs your mind and removes you from your own reality and puts you in a new, exciting, fascinating one and you are left to conclude only that not all movies can be judged by the same criteria.

You will burn calories watching INCEPTION.  The movie builds somewhat slowly.  I think no doubt the opening quarter of the movie is its weakest, but once the viewer learns what exactly the meaning of the title of the film is, Nolan does not hold back the pace at all, but rather goes at maximum storytelling, action, mind bending speed.  Reality in INCEPTION, and place in consciousness, needs to be kept track of on a scorecard.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb in perhaps a not too distant future where people can connect to each other in induced dreaming.  The point is that information can be extracted easier from a person’s dreams than when she/he is awake.  Yet it is not like taking candy from a baby.  This is where the sandbox for INCEPTION starts to get defined and I found it fascinating just what the rules are and how one should operate in these dream invasions.

Only Cobb has any backstory at all, but the other actors are all good enough to make you care about them even after only brief introductions.

I saw this film in IMAX and Hans Zimmer’s score shook my seat on many occasions.  It complimented and heightened the action perfectly.  I heard someone say Nolan was the Hitchcock of his generation, who is of course my favorite director of all time, so I, myself, would not make such a comparison lightly.  However, I would have to agree.  Nolan knows how to tell a complex, enthralling, and original tale.

INCEPTION is the kind of movie that will no doubt reward multiple views.  Try and make at least one of those times in IMAX.