Memento isn't an easy film, but it gives viewers plenty to ponder. And Pearce's startling performance is unforgettable.

| Original Score: A | Apr 30, 2024

Memento places you in the mind of the protagonist in a fascinating way—by running it in reverse, you only know as much as the protagonist remembers—and that constantly makes you question what you’ve been told and what you see next.

| Oct 17, 2023

…one of the most demanding movies ever made…one of cinema’s most ornate puzzle-boxes…

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 29, 2023

Very complex detective thriller. Guy Pearce (leads) a terrific cast alongside Carrie Anne Moss. If you want to see the beginnings of how Nolan became such a big director, this is one to watch.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 11, 2023

Memento ends as brilliantly as it begins, merging the two disparate timelines into one, and leaving us with a disquieting insight into human nature – that even fundamentally good people can gaslight themselves.

| Jul 25, 2023

Nolan’s sophomore feature remains one of his most scintillating works, a noir for the ages draped in the pain of memories half-remembered and a future fully dependent on the past.

| Jul 20, 2023

Christopher Nolan's sophomore feature, Memento, may confuse audiences with its non-linear narrative but it's every bit as thrilling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 14, 2023

Directed by Christopher Nolan based on a short story by his brother, Jonathan Nolan, this is an intellectual exercise that's unlike anything you've seen lately.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 26, 2021

A nifty puzzle worth assembling. The film that put Nolan on the map. A psychological film noir breakthrough. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 2, 2021

Although the plot itself isn't terribly complex, the editing is so labyrinthine that multiple viewings are almost certainly necessary.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Nov 6, 2020

The brain-teasing mystery put Christopher Nolan on the map as a filmmaking force...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 18, 2020

Pearce is positively astounding.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 16, 2020

Nolan's winding timelines and practical stunts are marvels to behold, but they seldom compare to the slow push-in on Leonard's face, as brief but powerful bursts of memory envelop the screen.

| Aug 27, 2020

Think of all the ways that a linear film structure stabilizes us - the cause and effect chain of events. But Memento is about a character completely destabilized, so Nolan destabilizes us accordingly in a way maybe no other movie has.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 10, 2020

Memento takes us on a mental trip of recovery, revenge, and remembering.

| Apr 3, 2020

Memento would only be half as fun with only one gimmick or the other. Instead, the backward storytelling and the frozen man make for a wonderful pair, combining into something far more redemptive than it sounds.

| Mar 16, 2020

Memento isn't just a film with a twist ending; its scatterbrained storytelling literally keeps you guessing with every scene.

| Jun 20, 2019

Christopher Nolan's cinematic breakthrough...

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 6, 2019

If the prospect of having to do some of the work yourself doesn't alarm you, then Nolan's first American film is well worth catching, a thriller which is for once authentically Borgesian, to use an overworked qualifier.

| Nov 27, 2017

I can't remember when a movie has seemed so clever, strangely affecting and slyly funny at the very same time.

| Mar 26, 2014