Memento

*"why would i do that?" *"to create a puzzle you could never solve." me•men•to /noun/ an object kept as a reminder or souvenir of a person or event. there's so much to dissect in this, making it my (current) favorite movie of all time. FORESHADOWING. first off, the allusions are so perfectly and subtly crafted. it's not very noticable until pointed out, but teddy's phone number is the same as marla singer's (from fight club), foreshadowing that leonard is an unreliable narrator who justifies his actions. also, teddy reffered to leonard as 'pocahontas' which could have just been a quick remark like the einstein reference, but i think there is a deeper meaning. in pocahontas, she falls in love with someone who is a bad person but she doesn't realize it. in memento, leonard has romantic relations to natalie, who we later learn is using and manipulating him. TELLING A STORY BACKWARDS. christopher nolan is a genius for the set up/pacing of this. if it was told chronologically, it would be boring and we would see through the best part of the movie, the plot twist. imagine if fight club or shutter island or the machinist told us the truth at the start of the movie. sure, it could still work, but it wouldn't have that strong of an effect. nolan described the structure as a 'shoe' i'm pretty sure. it's basically just a U rotated 90 degrees clock-wise. WHO IS SAMMY JANKIS? there are multiple theories about him, he could be non-existent, exactly as leonard said, a fake (as teddy explained), or even just some guy that leonard met in the past whose face he used to hide his own truths. i personally believe somewhere between all of these but any of them could be true. all in all, i could write much more about this film but this is already way too long.