Ranking: Christopher Nolan

Bottom line: Movies just don't get more unapologetically compelling than this. The story follows a widower suffering from short-term memory loss (Guy Pearce) who uses tattoos and notes to track down the man he thinks killed his wife.

The story sounds simple enough, but it is written and conveyed in a such a complex manner, it begs you to watch it over and over. Pearce gives an extraordinary performance and two post-"Matrix" actors Joe Pantoliano and Carrie-Anne Moss are strong in their supporting roles.

This is a real mind-bending, noir-type thriller that is, literally, told backwards. When you think you've got a feel for what's going on, this thing will kick your ass back into submission, and then it will relentlessly pound you with every twist and still leave you begging for its dizzying ending.

You cannot help but think about this movie for days.

The superhero movie that forced us to look at it as more than a superhero movie, "The Dark Knight" stands in a class by itself.

The story, the action and the cinematography is all there. Christopher Nolan has given us arguably his best movie to date and possibly one that ranks as one of the all-time great movies.

Then there's the acting. Heath Ledger's re-imagining of the Joker not only surpasses Jack Nicholson's by leaps and bounds, it ranks as probably the most convincing and frightening performance since Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector.

There will be the skeptics who complain about Christian Bale's Batman voice and the length of the film, but, honestly, imagine yourself a citizen of Gotham, where the most recognizable person in the entire city is Bruce Wayne. Don't you think he'd have to conceal his voice pretty damn well if he were secretly masquerading as a masked hero? And as far as the length goes, the film could not have ended until the citizens of Gotham unknowingly spoke out against the anarchistic Joker.

Put your minds at ease and savor this movie as one hell of a ride. Christopher Nolan continues to amaze.

While Nolan departed from the thriller genre with "Batman Begins" in 2005, he returned in 2006 to give us "The Prestige," a mind-bending look into the stop-at-nothing competition between two rival magicians.

The film that gave us our first taste of what was to come with "The Dark Knight." Nolan's dark portrayal of a superhero was as refreshing and satisfying as it was groundbreaking. Studios began to scramble to make masked hero movies darker after the success of Nolan's Batman franchise.

Think for a moment about any director who made his/her Hollywood debut with one of the greatest films of all time. Not many directors come to mind right there. Now imagine these directors improving in their second turn. I don't think anyone comes to mind.

So asking Christopher Nolan to one-up "Memento" would be like asking Michaelangelo to duplicate the Sistine Chapel if it were his first painting.

That said, Nolan does do well with his second film, a remake of the 1997 Norwegian thriller. And while "Insomnia" is much more conventional than the non-linear and groundbreaking "Memento," all the pieces are in place for a solid film: Good storytelling, good acting (provided by the great cast of Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank), terrific suspense and great character arc.

The casting of Robin Williams here in the role of the villain is brilliant, in my mind. In Williams' character, Walter Finch, we must see a soft side to the killer, and Williams, in his more serious moments, portrays one of the softest personas on the screen.

While I thought there was something lacking in Pacino's performance, it was still solid, and the editing made his performance more believable, which is a testament to Nolan and his crew.

While this can't be compared to "Memento," it is a well-crafted thriller with twists and turns that keep you glued to your seat, basically what we can come to expect our of a Christopher Nolan film.