The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Simultaneously the darkest, silliest, most brutal and dumb film of the series. It’s a total fucking mess, but a rather enjoyable one, which I will take over the highly controlled boredom of Batman Begins. C+

Inception (2010)

The second viewing really makes the clunky exposition even clunkier, but it really does a lot of astonishing things that far outweigh those annoyances. A-

Big Fish (2003)

Whenever Ewan is onscreen, it’s an utter delight and some of the best art direction (Tim Burton’s favorite kind of direction) Burton has ever done. But it’s really clear that Tim Burton didn’t really have anything worth saying about the Father/Son relationship the movie is supposedly built upon. B-