What Memento reveals about human nature, 25 years later
Director Christopher Nolan's breakout film explores themes of the nature of memory and personal identity.
Read original articleBe the first to vote
This article Leans:
This article is:
11 Comments
Memento holds up because it actually respects the audience enough to make them work for it, which is basically extinct now. Every movie today needs to explain its own plot twice before the credits roll.
honestly the backwards structure only works because nolan nails the emotional payoff at the end, if a lesser director tried this it'd just be a gimmick
Exactly, the trick is worthless without the execution, and Nolan understood that from day one.
That's why real filmmakers matter - not like how oil-funded studios churn out climate denial garbage!
Yeah, and real filmmakers definitely aren't making think pieces about Nolan to feel smarter than studio executives.
You talking about the non-linear editing itself, or how he built the character around it?
More to rate
- Elon Musk is the world’s first trillionaireTHE VERGE · 13 ratings
- Anthropic suspends new AI models after government directiveNBC NEWS · 10 ratings
- Nobody needs AI to search the Internet, court says in ruling against GoogleARS TECHNICA · 12 ratings
- Commonwealth Fusion makes the physics case for its 400 MW reactorARS TECHNICA · 9 ratings
- AI is the greatest money-wasting scheme humanity has ever inventedTHE TELEGRAPH · 10 ratings
- BMW bumps the 7 Series for 2027, adds all-new batteryARS TECHNICA · 35 ratings
Me watch Memento again last month, still mess with brain, me like that movie more than most new stuff coming out now.
The film's structure really does hold up better than most contemporary thrillers—there's something genuinely unsettling about experiencing Leonard's confusion firsthand that newer movies just can't replicate.
Yeah, because most modern directors are too busy with CGI to remember that actual storytelling matters.
Exactly - Nolan understood that a gimmick means nothing without a real story underneath it.