2001-05-21 - 10:01 p.m.
Go see Memento if you haven�t already. Trust me.
Seeing it Friday night made me realize exactly why I hate most mainstream movies these days. As did this particularly boneheaded review of it, which should win some sort of Missing the Point award: "It treats us like amnesia victims, like nerds who had better take terrific notes." Yeah, thinking sure is hard, isn�t it?
If I�d lost my short-term memory like the main character in the film--forgetting everything after about 10 minutes or so--you can be damn sure that I�d be taking Polaroids of everything and having all manner of crib notes tattooed on my body, too. And I�d probably embark on some kind of semi-sacred quest even if I didn�t have a wife�s death to avenge like Leonard does in the film. What else would there be to do besides sit in your room and watch Warner Brothers cartoons all day because they�re the only thing you can follow from beginning to end?
(On second thought, that doesn�t sound all that bad.)
So yes, of course the film treats you like an amnesia victim--because the main character is one and it aims to put you into the same headspace. Going in, I was afraid the film�s chief narrative device--presenting the story in 10-minute chunks arranged in reverse order--was going to be just some stupid gimmick, but as it turns out it�s really the only way to tell the story the way Leonard experiences it. You end up watching the film the way he lives his life: If you don�t stay focused, you�re fucked.
Which goes right back to why I have no use for the shit that Hollywood dumps out of its multizillion-dollar bunghole year in and year out. How many movies are out there right now that the audience actually has to watch? They�re like TV--they�re something to have on in the background while you do or think about something else. Except that TV is free and you can fold your laundry or surf the Web while watching it, where movies cost you nine bucks and you can�t really do anything but feel up your date or fall asleep.
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Take Pearl Harbor. As I mentioned a few days ago, this movie hasn�t even come out yet and already I hate it--I�ve gotten a good head start on picking out snarky nicknames for it, like Titanic Harbor, or Honolulu 90210. The problem is, I�ve got such a big hate-on for it now that I�ll probably end up seeing it just to get it out of my system.
There�s been quite a burst of WWII mania in the last couple of years, and it creeps me out. The whole thing has this icky Baby Boomer subtext of, "Well, we blew it in Vietnam, so let's bask in the GIs' reflected glory instead." (I swear, is there anything good other generations have done that the Boomers haven't tried to co-opt for themselves?) I�d be even more suspicious, I think, if I were actually old enough to have fought in The Big One--I�d feel as if my kids were shamelessly sucking up to me while at the same time trying to hurry me into the grave. And to see one of my generation�s historical touchstones reduced down to Ben Affleck preening onscreen--that�d be just enough to finish me off.
Hey, I just thought of another nickname! Chasing Private Amy.
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