First look at INCEPTION

The following is a substantially unedited email from Filip Piasevoli, a former student, who is not only a film enthusiast, but one, as you will see, is alert to recurrent themes and tropes. Also, he starts with a very amusing and telling anecdote about film (and gaming) fans today:

Yes, it's 3:12 in the morning and I felt the urge to email you after attending the midnight release of Christopher Nolan's Inception. Here is my recap of the night.

I knew the night would be memorable when we managed to sneak Jamba Juice smoothies into the theater on a hot ticket movie, an almost impossible feat. During the coming attractions, a trailer came up with the basic premise of "you never know when you'll bump into someone that will change your life." Alright, maybe a little hackneyed but who knows if a director can add a fresh spin to it. 5 people get into an elevator and one is a shady character. The lights go out, a girl gets "bitten" or something that makes her scream. By this point, everyone in the theater is pretty much wondering what the **** is going on UNTIL the words appear on-screen "directed by M. Night Shyamalan". At once, all 300 people in the theater give an exasperated laugh of "who the hell keeps letting this guy direct the *****iest screenplays ever written?" You couldn't reproduce the genuine disgust amongst all movie goers at the appearance of his name; absolutely one of my favorite movie experiences of all time.

I don't want to ruin the movie for you at all because its so incendiary in the way it causes one to think throughout the movie. You're literally taught to think in a completely different way than you may be accustomed to and then Christopher Nolan expects you to think AND learn along those lines for two and a half hours. I was absolutely enthralled during the movie at the fact that I could keep up with everything that was being thrown into the mix ad it made me enjoy it that much more. At the same time I love the way the movie highlights the key universal features of dreams, for example the falling feeling that wakes you up, or the feeling that you've spent a lot of time in a dream when it's been a relatively short time in the real world.

Please get to the theaters and see this soon and let me know how you feel. Overall, a good, enjoyable movie if you can follow along. I don't think that it will get acceptance from the majority of the audiences because it's so hard to follow along with but I absolutely loved this new, thrilling experience that will remain a landmark movie in my opinion in the same way that Memento redefined the way a tale can be told. Bravo Christopher Nolan, whoever wrote the screenplay (too tired to IMDB it at the moment) [for the record, it is Nolan himself--his first original since Memento, although that was an adaptation technically], and Leo Decap for delivering in a role where no one really knows what happens at the end (just like Shutter Island). That's it for my comments...

Yes, Fil, you can count on my getting to the theater ASAP. I have been anticipating this movie since the last holiday season when they started running the teaser trailers. I strongly admire Nolan's work, I teach Memento in my film course, and I really can hardly wait (I have a family obligation this weekend) to see this film.