skybridge

philthepill.online · @philthepill.online@bridge.neodb.net

Rated Memento 8/10

Always fun to come back after a while and puzzle over the parts you've forgotten. 25 years after its release, it does feel a little more like watching your college friend's cool film festival submission, especially comparing against what Nolan would prove himself to be capable of. In retrospect, the device of having Leonard spend most of the black-and-white scenes delivering a phone monologue isn't very cinematic at all. (Nor does it hold up under scrutiny - wouldn't he forget who he was talking to and start repeating parts of the long Sammy Jankis story? Shouldn't we have seen that happen to him at least once?) But as an adult, I enjoyed picking up on what Memento says about human motivation. The fact that Leonard goes through periods of *wanting* to forget and stop his quest when he burns his wife's things - the idea that he's gone through this crisis of faith before, but is doomed to repeat it, because he won't be able to retain whatever sense of catharsis giving up might give him.

#movie

Published 2025-10-15 00:00 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere