As movie fans await Christopher Nolan’s next movie, The Odyssey, they can take pleasure in being able to watch two of the Oscar-winning director’s movies on Netflix. As of January 1, Netflix has added Nolan’s Inception and Interstellar to its streaming library, making a tough choice over which one to watch, but I've made my pick.
Released in 2010, Inception starred Leonardo DiCaprio as a thief who is able to enter into people’s dreams to steal their secrets, who is then tasked with pulling off a difficult mission known as inception. The movie also stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard and Michael Caine. Inception has an 87% “Certified Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes and received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, winning four.
Interstellar, meanwhile, was released in 2014 and starred Matthew McConaughey as an astronaut tasked with trying to find a new home for the human race as the Earth is dying. Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Bill Irwin, Wes Bentley, David Gyasi, Mackenzie Foy, Timothée Chalamet, Casey Affleck and John Lithgow also star. Interstellar is “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 72% and was nominated for five Oscars, winning one.
After that tale of the tape, which Nolan movie on Netflix am I going with? Inception is my pick, but not just because its Rotten Tomatoes and awards success was better than Interstellar.
Inception remains one of my favorite moviegoing experiences of all time. I remember watching in a packed theater the incredible action sequences that Nolan crafted in the dream worlds. But funnily enough what I remember most is how myself and the audience laughed the first couple of times Nolan cut back to the van falling off the bridge in the intense third act. It seemed an odd choice as this van slowly fell, barely making any progress. However, once the water came into view, knowing that would begin the kick sequence and raise the stakes for everyone, no one was laughing, we were gripping the edges of our seats. That is just one of the many incredibly entertaining moments of Inception that have made it such a great rewatch, and why I’m looking forward to watching it again.
To be fair, I actually haven’t seen Interstellar since its release in movie theaters (and I missed the re-release that happened in late 2024), but I do remember liking it more than the critical reception at the time. Nolan created was at that point probably the closest thing to 2001: A Space Odyssey I had seen on the big screen. I, like many, wasn’t as thrilled with Nolan’s third act, but it didn’t ruin the movie for me and I’ll be curious if it plays better on a second viewing.
If it’s not clear, for me this is more about which Nolan movie am I going to watch first, because I will happily watch Inception and Interstellar again on Netflix. And as long as you are a Netflix subscriber to the streaming service you can too.
