Nolan took everyone by surprise when this unique crime novel hit the festival circuit.

But by the time the film was released in theaters, Nolan was already considered a future star. The film has a great performance from Guy Pearce as a man searching for his wife’s killer while suffering from short-term memory loss, but the highlight is the story told in reverse order.

The complexity of achieving it showed that Nolan was a filmmaker that few had seen. And more than 20 years after its debut, you can still discover things within the story that you never caught before.

There really is no better compliment you can give a film or its filmmaker than that.