Fantastic for teaching

Rating: 10/10 (1 February 2011)

We watched this movie in our 10th grade class as part of our "meta-fictional, self reflective art" theme. The students were extremely enthusiastic (several had seen it once before and discovered many new details in the second viewing), and came up with many interesting and thought provoking questions. I highly recommend the film as part of a literature / philosophy curriculum - it provides marvelous ideas, metaphors for reality and the subconscious. It can be used along with "Synecdoche, New York" and "State & Main" to analyze the process of art making - specifically film-making - and how creators and audiences engage in a mutual constructive and destructive relationship. We also tied it in to Shakespeare's use of play - within - a-play and self reflective commentary in Hamlet and other plays. "Inception" is in itself an inception - for self reflection and philosophy in the classroom.