’Memento’

A fascinating, cerebral thriller as an ex-insurance investigator looks to find who murdered his wife. But his search is compounded by a rare and untreatable form of memory loss.

The last thing Leonard (Guy Pearce) remembers is the death of his wife. But he now lives in a snapshot of repeats, aided by a Polaroid camera and notes jotted on the image or tattooed onto his body. The confusion of time is part of the quest – one part moves forward, the second part moves the narrative backwards. Where did the car and fancy suit come from? Just who is Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) – friend or foe? And waitress Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss). What is her role in his narrative?

Captivating, occasionally confusing and expansive in its ambition within a confined chronology. Only director Christopher Nolan’s second film, it’s a quiet, low-budget character piece that avoids much of the bluster and bombast of his later films.

Nominated for 2 Oscars in 2002 – original script, editing

Rating: 76%

Director: Christopher Nolan (Inception, Oppenheimer)

Writer: Christopher Nolan (Inception, Oppenheimer), Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight, TV’s Westworld)

Main cast: Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, Holding the Man), Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix, TV’s Wisting), Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix, Bad Boys For Life)

‘Interstellar’

It’s bold, majestic and looks beautiful, an epic on a grand scale. Yet…

Too long (169 mins) with false endings galore, felt bombarded with too clever ‘fifth dimension’ theorising and speculation. Result is we go on a journey through the (admittedly extraordinary) imagination of the writer/director that is, at times, a little too much to take (no spoilers, so will not say more). It’s still a ‘good’ film although expectations from Christopher Nolan make Interstellar somewhat disappointing (Inception it’s not). McConaughey is terrific, though.

Nominated for 5 Oscars in 2015 including score (Hans Zimmer) and production design, won 1 for visual effects.

Rating: 64%

Director: Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception)

Writer: Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception), Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight, The Prestige)

Main cast: Matthew McConaughey (Mud, Dallas Buyers Club), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Lawless), Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James, Out of the Furnace)