★★★★★ (but only if you watch it twice)
From the first frame, Nolan pulls the rug out. A Polaroid developing in reverse. A bullet sucked back into a gun. A man named Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) staring at a photograph, his face blank as a fresh notebook. Then the color scenes roll backward, each one ending where the next begins. Black-and-white scenes roll forward. Somewhere in the middle, they meet.
By the credits, you won’t remember every detail in order. That’s the point. You’ll remember the feeling: the vertigo of not knowing who to trust, even yourself.