Christopher Nolan
Memento

If every movie were like this, idiots would no longer be the majority in the world; if every movie were like this, every man would constantly be challenged by cinema to improve himself, to strive to understand, to grasp all the intricacies that hold even the most trivial things together.

This "Memento" is not a film, it's a logic exercise, it's a very subtle game that conceals and reveals the truth, that makes you believe it's leading you towards it and then mocks you, that challenges your logic and mocks your intelligence… it's brilliant, in every single detail. Based on a story by his brother Jonathan (I imagine him always with a three-day beard, wild eyes, and never still), this film by Christopher Nolan is incredible, especially when you consider it's only the second movie in this director's career. Films like this are normally made after winning at least twelve Oscars (although dear Nolan probably won't win Oscars, let's say after winning some Sundance). After this will come a charming thriller titled "Insomnia" (Al Pacino and Robin Williams, not just anyone), a "Batman Begins" filled with actresses with doe eyes, and "The Prestige", a masterpiece like few other films lately. An infiltrator, this Nolan, someone who knows how to make films despite his young age, but I'm talking about intelligent cinema for open-minded people, without popcorn in their hands, people capable of diving into a story and dissecting it, someone obsessed with stories, our Nolan, because a good screenplay is a good screenplay, a good story is a good film.

Leonard Shelby, a righteous and diligent man, works in insurance; his job is to determine who is making claims without a valid reason, and this ability to recognize liars will be useful to him. Following an "incident" that also causes the death of his wife, Leonard falls ill with an absurd disease: he can't remember things, his brain is like a computer that gets formatted every three minutes. In fact, at regular time intervals, Leonard's memory "resets," he forgets everything he has experienced and is forced to start over from scratch; the only information permanently residing in his head is his name and his distrust of others, everything else, the things he sees in a day, the people he meets, the information he discovers... everything gets erased after a very short time. I won't tell you the plot because it would require a dissertation. Just know that every time you watch it again (because you will watch it multiple times, oh yes!), you'll understand something you hadn't before, and a new doubt will arise that you didn't have before. Meanwhile, the Nolans laugh while you rack your brains.

Woe to anyone who watches this film with little attention or while thinking of something else, by the third scene, you'll already have doubts about your mental capacities. If you don't understand anything, it means you haven't seen enough films in your life; wait a couple of years and then come back here, no hard feelings, you can't watch Jodorowsky with baby teeth; there's no arrogance in this statement, nor is there any intellectual self-indulgence, watch it and you’ll understand… I read on a website that anyone who says 'Memento' is not a good film needs to entirely reconsider their cinematic knowledge, because Memento is cinema, in the highest sense of the term; every trick and device used in cinema to deceive the viewer is in this film, the result is a continuous surprise, in every scene, a continuous thinking, an uninterrupted connecting of episodes with others, scenes with others, in an attempt to establish how things stand. You will probably never know how things really stand; there are still a couple of doubts that I'm racking my brain over, and I’ve watched it at least a thousand times.

I won't even tell you that Memento is a good film, Memento is a superior film, it’s something more, different from everything you've seen, Memento is a challenge, remember not to forget it.