Independent Hollywood's Most-Envied Movie

Rating: Null/10 (17 March 2004)

Memento wins the award among independent- and aspiring directors as the film "pitch" they most wished they'd come up with. Memento is a little film that breaks a great deal of ground in the narrative art, and there is not a director around who doesn't envy the simplicity of the concept and the lean facility of its execution. Okay, there are plenty of directors who will dispute this, but aren't they just envious?
Watching Memnto is also one of the most gut-wrenching experiences a viewer can undertake. Imagine you're wearing virtual-reality goggles that only allow you to see a very narrow slice of the world. Like looking through a three-foot-long tube, you can see what's right in front of you but nothing else. Is there anyone else out there? Friend, enemy? The director decides exactly what you're allowed to see in a world that begins with a violent shooting. As a viewer, you will spend the entire experience flinching like you were about to get cold-cocked, because you're not allowed to look over the shoulder of the protaganist. You see only what he sees, and he suffers from short-term memory loss. So you grapple along with him to get control of a violent situation.
As a work of art, the film stands alone. It is not just a great narrative, it is a twisting, looping theme-park thrill ride, the mega-coaster, where most people rave about the experience and a few puke their guts out. This is not a date-flick, unless you're the Marquis de Sade. It is a timeless achievement in the visual art of storytelling, and I don't care what those other guys say, they all wish they'd directed it.