The Prestige (2006/Nolan) One of the better films of the year thus far, although the remaining two months look daunting. Jackman and Bale are excellent, once you get over their somewhat awkward accents, and the surprise appearance from David Bowie was fantastic. Perhaps too convoluted at times, although I'm sure this turns into a sense beautiful complexity upon further rewatches. The problem with the story here was that although I didn't always understand how they got there, I always seemed to know where things were going to end up. What I'm trying to say while the twists themselves weren't shocking revelations, it was still fun to watch the Nolans work their way there.
Omar's right about the period detail here, in a notably different approach than that taken by The Illusionist's Neil Burger. Where Burger seemingly opted to acknowledge the fact that he was making a period piece film, playing around with different cinematographic lighting schemes and whatnot, Nolan seemed to go for dead-on realism. At this point, I'm not completely sure which I preferred.
I was surprised to find that I've actually seen all of Nolan's films from Following onwards. While I find his body of work thus far somewhat uneven, from the potential 4-star film, Memento, to the seemingly vastly overrated Batman Begins, I'm personally impressed with his films, the ideas he brings to the table, his cinematic techniques, and just in general, his potential to become a truly legendary directing talent of this generation or perhaps the next. I'm sure mostly all here will be going to see this film, but I'll give another recommendation for it anyway.
