Twenty Years on, Memento is Worth Watching
The review:
Twenty years later, Christopher Nolan’s Memento is just as good as it was in theaters.* Aside from the puzzle-piece nature of the film, Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano are the reason this film is still so good.** It was also made just in the nick of time as devices were on the horizon that would have eliminated the need for the tattoos and the Polaroids.
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: free via Kanopy the library’s streaming service
Where watched: at home
Consider also watching:
- The Sixth Sense
- The Usual Suspects
- Fight Club
- Primal Fear
Further sentences:
*I remembered the backward format and the spitting-in-the-drink scene and not much else. I think this has to do with so much of my brain being taken up with trying to piece together the story.
**Whereas Following had so-so acting, Nolan gets three people who are perfect for their roles.
Questions:
- What do you think the story with Teddy was?
- Would you ever watch this film in chronological order?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
The book that Leonard’s wife is reading, which begins, “Two years have gone by since I finished the long story.”, is Claudius the God by Robert Graves.
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There are four different commentary tracks!!! Two of them say different things about Teddy’s trustworthiness!
“And then comes the 1h33m mark on the director’s commentary. Basically, there are four different commentaries that play over the last 20 minutes of the movie. The first one is accessed if you skip ahead to within these last 20 minutes with the commentary on or if you turn the commentary on after the 1h33m mark has been passed. The remaining commentaries are accessed playing the commentary track from the start. Once the 1h33m mark hits, we jump randomly to one of three commentaries, each slightly different from one another – the big differences come as Lenny is dragging Jimmy down the stairs – but with different indications about Teddy’s character forcing, as Nolan always so masterfully does, the viewer to come up with their own conclusion.”
That’s a bonus you don’t get if you stream the movie! Have you listened to these tracks yourself?