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Memento

year 2000decade 00sdirector Christopher Nolangenre Mysterygenre Thriller

113 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Guy Pearce Leonard Shelby
Joe Pantoliano John Edward "Teddy" Gammell
Jorja Fox Catherine Shelby
Stephen Tobolowsky Sammy Jankis
Harriet Sansom Harris Mrs. Jankis
Larry Holden Jimmy Grantz

Memento | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanproducer Craig Horlbeck format Categories out of sequence
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Roger Ebert's review

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:17Read transcript
  • The review segment reports three out of four stars.
  • It is not considered his kind of movie since he loves strength of character and plot, though he probably appreciated its Hitchcockian formal inventiveness.
  • After watching twice, he concluded greater understanding helped on the plot level but did not enrich the viewing experience; confusion is the state we are intended to be in.
  • A counterpoint holds that being disoriented and confused the whole time is the best part of the movie and exactly what the filmmaker wants.

Who Won the Movie?

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:40Read transcript
  • The categories are run completely out of sequence, so Who Won the Movie comes first.
  • Nolan wins going away: he came out of nowhere after The Following and for $5 million made a movie that looks better than 99% of films of the time, with Soderbergh championing it.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Christopher Nolan

Casting What-Ifs

Brad Pitt; Thomas Jane; Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" over the end credits

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:59Read transcript
  • Brad Pitt was initially slated to play Leonard; after he passed, the line was that a movie star was not wanted anyway, and Aaron Eckhart and Thomas Jane were considered.
  • Guy Pearce is joked to be a lab-cloned hybrid of Brad Pitt and Thomas Jane.
  • Thomas Jane would have been really good; his brief run with 61* and Deep Blue Sea is fondly recalled before off-field issues.
  • Eckhart in the role is hard to see.
  • A controversial take: this would have been an amazing Brad Pitt movie, catching him after Seven, an uncertain stretch and Fight Club, and before Ocean's 11; this and Moneyball would have been favorite Pitt movies, and the other participant agrees.
  • Radiohead's Paranoid Android was going to play over the closing credits and Nolan was fired up about it, but it was too expensive for a low-budget movie.
  • A digital-release director's cut whose only change adds Paranoid Android over the end credits is floated.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Never matching the first viewing; Guy Pearce's career stock

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:39Read transcript
  • The movie will never match the experience of seeing it the first time, like a first in-person playoff game; the build-up, the theater, and the final-ten-minutes realization that there is no second killer cannot be replicated.
  • Films like Fight Club and The Sixth Sense offer a new way to watch once the ending is known.
  • Whether Teddy's end-of-film account is the real story is questioned; one reading says yes, while a fun theory puts Leonard in the mental institution with Sammy as an invention, hinted by a quick shot of him in the chair.
  • Most characters (Bert, Natalie, Teddy) tell Leonard the truth at various points because there are no consequences to lying to him.
  • Anyone holding Guy Pearce rookie cards after Memento took a hit; his Mayor of Easttown character does not add up and needs to be heavier, scarred or balding.
  • The episode posts on Monday, when more of that show will have aired, so the character may still surprise.
  • The other view is that the film remains timeless with nothing aged badly, agreeing only that the first-viewing feeling is hard to replicate; picking the movie up in the middle feels like vertigo, as noted before recording.

Recasting Couch

Nicky Katt; Michael Imperioli; Madsen or Sizemore

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:34:50Read transcript
  • The drug dealer who is hit over the head and stripped should have been a more famous actor of the era: Nikki Kat, who looks and acts like him and was available.
  • Michael Imperiali is offered, still gettable as Spider from Goodfellas and on The Sopranos; Madsen or Seismore are also named, though possibly already in the wilderness.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Yes, in half-hour episodes; Burt spin-off

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:03Read transcript
  • The idea is exciting; episodes would need to be half an hour, since hour-long backwards episodes would frustrate viewers, and it could go backwards but not jump back and forth.
  • The series could ride the short-term memory, with Leonard as a killer for hire for different people each episode; skipping around would be too confusing for TV.
  • A spin-off told from the perspective of Bert, the guy working at the motel, is suggested.

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:58Read transcript
  • The producer is asked for a ruling on whether Joey Pants automatically wins when he is in the movie; the question of an automatic win has never really been decided.
  • Joey Pants should win automatically, with a runner-up who would inherit a vacated title like a college bowl champion.
  • Joey Pants wins.
  • Stephen Tabalowski is floated but has already won the award for Groundhog Day, and is seen as his Groundhog Day character.
  • Mark Boone Jr., who plays Bert the hotel guy, or Callum James Rennie, who plays Dodd, are suggested instead.
  • Mark Boone Jr.'s credits (Batman Begins, 30 Days of Night, Sons of Anarchy) are cited and the choice is allowed.

Apex Mountain

Guy Pearce; Carrie-Anne Moss; Jorja Fox; the Discount Inn; anterograde amnesia; tan suits

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:02Read transcript
  • Guy Pearce: yes.
  • Carrie-Anne Moss, coming out of The Matrix, is at her Apex here since it did not lead to much more.
  • Georgia Fox is at Apex: it has never been better for her as she moves from ER to CSI.
  • CSI's revival prompts a tangent about Peterson living nearby, the L.A. code of not approaching him, his being the backup choice for a Goodfellas role, and a vow to do To Live and Die in L.A.
  • Christopher Nolan and Steven Toblowski are not at Apex; the discount inn motel is, since it was never more prominent.
  • Joey Pants is not at Apex here; his Matrix-Memento run is nice, but his Apex comes soon after with The Sopranos.
  • This is the Apex for anterograde amnesia; other amnesia candidates include Kelly Taylor on 90210, Overboard, Lost, Liam Neeson in Unknown and soap operas.
  • A wish to get amnesia to relive all the Boston sports titles closes the amnesia bit.
  • Tan suits are added as one more Apex; Pearce keeps his crisp despite living in it.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Was there a second attacker?; How did Leonard's wife die?; Joe Pantoliano as Eddie Moscone; Memento in the phone-video era; Is Leonard in a mental institution?; Did it borrow from Mr. Short-Term Memory?; Why no sequels?

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:42:45Read transcript
  • Was there a second attacker? One view says no, meaning Leonard is Sammy Jankis.
  • How his wife died is debated: an attack causes his memory loss, and his memory of grabbing her thigh leads him to insist she did not take insulin.
  • Nolan has said people refuse to believe Teddy because he is so oily, yet Teddy elsewhere tells elaborate stories that prove false; the conclusion leans toward Leonard being Sammy Jankis after an attack on his wife.
  • Should Joey Pants have just played Eddie Moscone here? Yes.
  • In the era of phone video Leonard could vlog every interaction, which might be the Netflix series, though he would keep forgetting to charge his iPhone.
  • The shot where Sammy in the mental institution is replaced by Leonard in the chair leaves open whether Leonard is institutionalized.
  • Did the film take from Tom Hanks's Mr. Short-Term Memory sketch on SNL, perhaps discussed on the Nolan brothers' road trip?
  • Why no ten sequels like Saw? A Memento 2 should have happened, such as a Super Bowl plot or one set inside the Patriots during Spygate.

What’s Aged the Best?

Promotional website; anterograde amnesia depiction; middle-age forgetting; narration device; pull-door gag and double room rental; Carrie-Anne Moss's bar; close-up anamorphic cinematography; Tujunga and Valley locations

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:23Read transcript
  • Jonathan Nolan designed one of the first movie websites, a Blair Witch-style set of clues; web marketing in 1999-2001 was fun, and without social media you gave in to the project.
  • Its depiction of anterograde amnesia was called one of the most realistic by medical experts.
  • Watching 20 years later in middle age, when things are no longer at your fingertips, you feel the character differently; forgetting a Grantland item they did for four years leads to a joke that the brain is a nightclub with limited capacity.
  • The narration is a great framing device, and he was allowed to improvise much of it.
  • Subtle touches reinforce his condition and exploitation: he slams into a pull door at the motel and the clerk rents him two rooms; his moments of panic are effective.
  • Carrie-Anne Moss working at the bar prompts a tangent about owning a bar, with the Den of Thieves bar as the lowest acceptable and an airport bar as the worst case.
  • Nolan shot in CinemaScope with anamorphic lenses, avoiding wide and establishing shots and moving the camera closer to Pearce in conversations to put you inside Leonard's head.
  • The shooting locations outside L.A., around Victory Boulevard near Burbank and Pasadena, capture the grimy Valley, which Barry also captures.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Development and financing; studio passes; Newmarket self-distribution; Weinstein buy attempt; chronological DVD; Nolan voicing 'you freak'

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:54:34Read transcript
  • The brothers' idea took a couple of years to develop; Newmarket gave it a $4.5 million budget and screened it for studio heads in March 2000, who liked it but thought it too confusing.
  • After Soderbergh's championing, Newmarket distributed it themselves, reached 500 theaters, made $25 million domestic and sold international rights.
  • Harvey Weinstein, who had passed, tried and failed to buy it.
  • The limited-edition DVD lets you watch the movie chronologically.
  • Nolan felt Joey Pants did not nail 'you freak' and recorded the words himself.

Most Rewatchable Scene

Opening killing of Teddy; black-and-white-to-color transition with Jimmy's killing and Teddy's reveal

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:01Read transcript
  • At first it seemed to have no scenes, but rewatching produced nominees; the film is two intertwined sequences, black-and-white and color.
  • Lenny killing Teddy at the top and the first six minutes are nominated, fun to watch knowing where it goes.
  • The first Carrie-Anne Moss diner scene is good and plays differently once you know what she did.
  • Finding the guy in his closet and the shootout where he does not know what is happening are liked.
  • Carrie-Anne Moss flipping out on him, hiding the pens and provoking him, is called not the most rewatchable but a great scene that shows his limitations and inverts how that character is traditionally played in detective stories.
  • Dogs are a real-life Memento: they cannot tell five minutes from 17 days away, so they can be messed with.
  • The dog remark is clarified as hypothetical: not saying it was done, only that it could be in the wrong hands. — Bill Simmons
  • Carrie-Anne Moss using his condition against him for a day is brutal to watch.
  • The last 20 minutes, including the diabetes reveal and Teddy saying you lie to yourself to be happy, are very rewatchable.
  • Leonard's transition from black and white to color, with the killing of Jimmy and Teddy's reveal, is probably the most rewatchable scene.

Picking Nits

Teddy not simply killing Leonard

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:02:04Read transcript
  • One participant is not smart enough to pick nits; the other has one.
  • Teddy should just kill Lenny since he is now in danger; since the plot revolves around the cash in the Jaguar trunk, he could have killed him and taken the keys, though then there would be no movie.

More from the conversation

The cold open is a Memento trailer quoting a critic (ASR 'Richard Roper') calling it one of the best films of the year and worth seeing again; it is film audio, not host discussion.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:08Read transcript
The movie joke is that both hosts covered themselves in tattoos; the release year is hard to pin down between 2000 and 2001, and a 20th anniversary probably passed in recent months.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:46Read transcript
Memento had big cultural influence in the early 2000s alongside Fight Club and Boogie Nights, then lost its luster because it is not that rewatchable; it was picked because the plot is still hard to explain.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:16Read transcript
Laid out in order, the plot is not complicated: Leonard is manipulated, drawn into a drug deal, used by a dirty cop and by a femme fatale with her boyfriend Dodd; the ambiguity is whether he did what Sammy Jankis did. It is a classic detective story (The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown) told backwards.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:57Read transcript
The structure is a one-of-one that cannot be ripped off without looking like a Nolan copy.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:48Read transcript
Wikipedia's Memento page has a graph of how the two plots intertwine; early message boards of nerds decoding the film were a preferred version of the internet.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:01Read transcript
Ten people would give ten readings of the film; Chuck (ASR 'Listerman') wrote a Memento chapter about the diner scene in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:45Read transcript
Rewatching reveals new things each time, making it a borderline masterpiece; Nolan's career is the real story, and this is technically his second film but his first with a budget, compared with Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:45Read transcript
Nolan arrived fully formed, like Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson before their breakout films; he had made a 70-minute black-and-white film, The Following, in 1998, then made Memento for about $4.5 million in 25 days.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:52Read transcript
The idea came on a drive with his brother; two years later Nolan made the big-budget Insomnia in Alaska with Pacino and Robin Williams, as if skipping a step.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:08Read transcript
Memento hit at the tail end of an era, alongside Blair Witch, when a movie with a gimmick could be seen without spoilers.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:53Read transcript
The film debuted at Venice in 2000 and kept getting passed on by distributors despite buzz; Soderbergh championed it in interviews; Newmarket distributed it to about 500 theaters and it became a word-of-mouth phenomenon.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:11Read transcript
It is not a fun hang like Dazed and Confused, but revelations across many viewings (the tattoo-parlor ending) are fun; it is less a twist than something that dawns on you, and fans protected it by telling friends nothing.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:20Read transcript
Nolan's filmography makes more sense as a collection than anyone's; even Dunkirk plays with chronology. Recurring motifs include a character named Cobb in The Following and Inception and the backwards bullet recalled in Tenet; he is obsessed with time, memory, dreams, and fixing unfixable problems.
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:49Read transcript
The best filmmakers since the mid-90s are Fincher, Nolan and PTA; Quentin is considered a previous generation, and Soderbergh 2.0 after Out of Sight is floated as the fourth.
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:09Read transcript
These directors likely measure themselves against each other; a half-assed internet research item says Teddy's number is the same number as Marla Singer's in Fight Club.
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:56Read transcript
Nolan is the most significant blockbuster director since Spielberg, but his characters lack warmth; his films feature well-dressed guys avenging their wives' deaths. The Dark Knight is his peak and in the running for best 21st-century movie.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:32Read transcript
The Dark Knight is called his best start-to-finish movie; Nolan was not nominated for Best Director that year, and the nominees are listed, with Altman seen as a career-achievement pick.
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:49Read transcript
Guy Pearce seemed set for stardom after L.A. Confidential and Memento but is now the fourth most important character in Mare of Easttown; he works a lot and is great every five to seven years, and may have been market-corrected by Christian Bale within Nolan's type.
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:30Read transcript
Carrie-Anne Moss's 1999-2000 run (The Matrix, Memento, Red Planet, Chocolat) is compared with a slugger's sudden home-run surge; she was not Oscar-nominated, and the Best Supporting Actress field is listed as one she could have cracked.
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:11Read transcript
Memento earned Oscar nominations for screenplay and editing, and on a $4.5 million budget made $40 million.
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:54Read transcript
A chronological cut once circulated on YouTube; one participant refuses re-edited versions as a betrayal of the director. The order of Leonard's meetings with Natalie is discussed, with the diner scene after she has set him up.
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:36Read transcript
The Dodd chase, where Leonard does not know if he is chasing or being chased, is a metaphor for watching the film; scenes start mid-action and the camera moves closer to Pearce to keep viewers disoriented.
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:19Read transcript
The feeling of spotting a future great director has faded as filmmakers are drafted into superhero films; Nolan had one of the last organic progressions, with Coogler (Fruitvale, Creed, Black Panther) the most recent example, and Baumbach, Fincher and PTA earlier.
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:11Read transcript
The MGM-Amazon deal signals an IP era; original voices drift to TV, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge works on Bond and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Nolan's Batman is a generation's idea of Batman.
Approx. transcript time · 00:24:16Read transcript
The out-of-sequence format is judged to have worked; they messed with the format to keep it fresh for themselves.
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:27Read transcript
Asked whether they pulled it off, the reply is a tight hour.
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:41Read transcript
Next week is the 40-year anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark, called the first great modern action movie.
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:58Read transcript