Time has been kind to Christopher Nolan.
The bending cities, rotating hallways, ticking clocks and practical explosions he captures on film have made him one of the most popular and vital directors working today. His newest venture, “The Odyssey,” arrives in theaters with Matt Damon stepping into the armor of Homer’s wandering king, and it offers a chance to examine the quieter through-line of Nolan’s career: his ability to draw unforgettable performances from actors.
For all his technical ambition and reputation for precision, Nolan has become one of the most reliable actors’ directors of his generation. His films produced two acting Oscar winners in a single night, with Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. triumphing for the best picture winner “Oppenheimer.” Years earlier, Heath Ledger delivered one of the most celebrated posthumous performances in modern film history in “The Dark Knight.”
But Nolan has also elevated movie stars and transformed character actors who never landed major accolades. You can still hear the cries from Nolan fans who felt performances such as Stephen Tobolowsky’s devastating Sammy in “Memento” (2000) were snubbed entirely, or that Aaron Eckhart deserved a nod alongside his co-star Ledger for his portrayal of Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face, in “The Dark Knight.”
Nonetheless, the director repeatedly gravitates toward actors who can hold a viewer’s attention with a single glance, performers capable of suggesting an internal catastrophe while a literal one unfolds in the background.
Below, Variety ranks the 13 best performances in Christopher Nolan’s films.
Honorable mentions: Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”); Leonardo DiCaprio (“Inception”); Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Inception”); Carrie-Anne Moss (“Memento”); Robert Pattinson (“The Odyssey”); Robert Pattinson (“Tenet”); Jeremy Theobald (“Following”)
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John Leguizamo (‘The Odyssey’)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Despite an illustrious career spanning his acclaimed solo TV special “Freak” and memorable film roles in classics like “Carlito’s Way” (1993) and “Romeo + Juliet” (1996), Academy recognition has eluded Latino veteran multi-hyphenate John Leguizamo.
Beautifully compelling, his work as Eumaeus, Odysseus’ faithful and blind swineherd in “The Odyssey,” is a perfect balance of heart, peppered throughout the intricate parts of a movie so dense with violence and disturbing imagery. Even the way you hear the cry in his voice as he unknowingly speaks to Odysseus as he is battered and bruised, lying in his bed, is one of the defining moments of the sprawling 3-hour epic.
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Al Pacino (‘Insomnia’)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection This is a quieter Pacino performance, stripped of his usual theatrical intensity, as he portrays Detective Will Dormer, a Los Angeles investigator chasing a killer through Alaska’s endless daylight. Pacino plays a man whose exhaustion is on full display, and whose guilt, sleeplessness and compromised choices slowly consume him.
In addition, his co-star Robin Williams delivers a chilling counterpoint as the killer, but the film belongs to Pacino’s unraveling.
It was Nolan’s first major studio feature and an early indication that he could operate within Hollywood’s machinery without losing the human damage at the center of his stories.
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Robert Downey Jr. (‘Oppenheimer’)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection After years as one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, Nolan directed Robert Downey Jr. to one of his most disciplined performances.
As Lewis Strauss, the government official whose wounded pride fuels a campaign against the father of the atomic bomb in “Oppenheimer,” Downey avoids obvious, simplistic villainy. Instead, he builds Strauss slowly, with charm, intelligence and resentment as it unspools over the dynamic biopic.
It’s the role that brought Downey to the stage as the winner for best supporting actor and marked a moment of a remarkable second act for a star that has risen like a phoenix, into the suit of “Iron Man” and in the clothes of Charlie Chaplin, and still can surprise us all.
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Christian Bale (‘Batman Begins’)
Image Credit: Everett Collection For many fans, Christian Bale is (their) Batman.
The British actor had already established himself as one of his generation’s most fearless performers, but taking over the cape and cowl after Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney was no small task. Bale made the role his own, grounding Bruce Wayne with depth and transforming him into a believable symbol of fear and justice.
While many consider “The Dark Knight” (2008) the crown jewel of Nolan’s trilogy, Bale’s finest performance as the character comes in “Batman Begins” (2005). Watching Bruce Wayne evolve from a traumatized heir into Gotham’s protector gives Bale the most complete emotional arc of the three films.
The trilogy also cemented Bale’s status as one of Hollywood’s premier leading men. He won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for “The Fighter” (2010) and has earned three additional Oscar nominations since.
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Mark Rylance (‘Dunkirk’)
Image Credit: Warner Bros. In a movie with little dialogue and fragmented perspectives, Academy Award winner Mark Rylance (“Bridge of Spies”) makes his quiet heroism feel gargantuan in Nolan’s 2017 best picture nominee “Dunkirk.”
As Mr. Dawson, a civilian who ventures toward the chaos of the war-torn Dunkirk, it’s Rylance’s nuance, courage and strength communicated through his eyes that is most effective, with his thoughtful glances and perfectly timed pauses. The added layer of personal grief that is hidden beneath the surface, and only revealed through fleeting moments, is where the beloved thespian shows his expert skills.
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Matthew McConaughey (‘Interstellar’)
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures Do you remember where you were the first time you watched Cooper watch decades of messages from his children?
If you were lucky to see it in a movie theater, you could have found yourself fighting for breath and not to sob loudly because Matthew McConaughey, who was coming off his Oscar-winning role in “Dallas Buyers Club” the year prior, is the emotional centerpiece of Nolan’s space drama “Interstellar.”
Grounded in Nolan’s cosmic ambitions, McConaughey steers the audience through galaxies, wormholes, and floating bookshelves, building something unforgettable rooted in the themes of regret and the unique bond between fathers and daughters.
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Christian Bale (‘The Prestige’)
Image Credit: ©Touchstone Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Bale is perhaps one of Nolan’s greatest chameleons, and “The Prestige” is one of his most intricate assignments.
As Alfred Borden, a magician locked in a devastating rivalry with Hugh Jackman’s Robert Angier, Bale showcases an obsession that is disguised as merely dedication. To explain more of his essential choices only risks diminishing the film’s carefully constructed deception (especially for those who haven’t had the pleasure of watching the film yet). However, it’s fair to say that Bale’s performance is itself an illusion and he creates a man whose entire identity is built around concealment.
It may be the quietest transformation of Bale’s Nolan collaborations.
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Marion Cotillard (‘Inception’)
Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”) has been a “North Star” for me when it comes to how Nolan should write and cast his leading ladies.
As Mal, the deceased wife who haunts Leonardo DiCaprio’s dream thief, Cotillard turns his memory into a weapon. As she seduces and terrifies, she also delivers heartbreak, manifesting it into grief that threatens to collapse the entire mind.
She transforms Nolan’s most cerebral blockbuster into something unexpectedly intimate, and by my accounts, was worthy of an Oscar bid that year (that also came with standout turns in “Public Enemies” and “Nine”).
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Matt Damon (‘The Odyssey’)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection In “The Odyssey,” Nolan reunites with Matt Damon, his “Interstellar” and “Oppenheimer” supporting player, giving him the most mythical challenge of his career and paying off in dividends.
As Odysseus, Damon is tasked with carrying the sprawling epic about a warrior king on his quest to return home. The role requires physical endurance, in addition to emotional erosion. Damon achieves just that.
The question of whether Odysseus belongs higher on this list will unfold with the passage of time. However, it is already evident that Nolan has placed his trust in Damon as the anchor of his latest endeavor, and he will likely be remembered for years to come.
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Cillian Murphy (‘Oppenheimer’)
Image Credit: Universal Pictures For years, Murphy has existed as Nolan’s secret weapon. Constantly being a performer whose intensity could be felt even when he occupied only the edges of a frame.
But with the 2024 biopic blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” Nolan put him front and center, with the Irish star delivering one of the defining performances of the decade as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.
In multiple scenes, Nolan chooses to fixate on Murphy’s face, up close and personal — showcasing the ambition, arrogance and curiosity that turn the scientist’s stillness into fully realized drama. Murphy won the Oscar for best actor, becoming the first Irishman to win the category, and completing one of the most rewarding actor-director collaborations of Nolan’s career.
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Samantha Morton (‘The Odyssey’)
Image Credit: Universal Pictures Samantha Morton is that girl.
The English two-time Oscar-nominated actress for “Sweet and Lowdown” (1999) and “In America” (2003) delivers perhaps the single best performance of her career with only about 10 minutes of screen time in Nolan’s mythological epic “The Odyssey.”
Stealing the movie as Circe, the witch of the island of Aeaea, who appears midway through the film, is a captivating presence, harnessing the power and focus of the film’s mythological aura. Cinephiles and critics have often criticized Nolan’s portrayal of female characters (often, rightfully so). However, he nails the evolution and almost dancelike quality in which Morton casts her spell on Odysseus’ soldiers, and then again, with their return.
It potentially could be an Oscar-winning portrayal.
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Guy Pearce (‘Memento’)
Before Nolan became a blockbuster institution, many cinephiles learned about the auteur and his capabilities as someone willing to take enormous creative risks, as shown by his audacious 2000 film “Memento,” headlined by the riveting Guy Pearce.
While Nolan and his co-writer and brother Jonathan received Oscar bids for original screenplay (along with one of the most deserved film editing noms of the decade for Dody Dorn), Pearce was passed over by every major awards group that year. A criminal overlook.
As Leonard Shelby, who is unable to form new memories, Pearce transforms a character that could have been a high-concept gimmick in lesser hands, and instead creates a devastating portrait of grief. He also gives the viewer a nearly impossible task — how do we trust a man who cannot trust himself?
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Heath Ledger (‘The Dark Knight’)
Chaos in human form, as well as brilliance.
This positioning may be anticlimactic for some, especially if you read Variety‘s 62 best superhero movie performances from 2023, which Heath Ledger topped. Nonetheless, it’s warranted again here.
Ledger’s lip-smacking anarchist and arch-nemesis of the Caped Crusader captivated audiences in Nolan’s 2008 superhero sequel “The Dark Knight.” Unfortunately, his untimely death came before the film’s release, leaving him unable to see the magnitude his presence had and the acclaim he would receive. He won the Oscar for best supporting actor, becoming only the second performer to receive a posthumous honor from the Academy.
Many comic book villains have been chasing this type of performance ever since, and none have been able to match it.
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