FILMMAKER MOVIE REACTION!! Memento (2000) FIRST TIME REACTION!! 

"I can't remember to forget you." Want to vote on what I should watch next? Click here! www.patreon.com/jamesvscinema Potentially getting the Q&A up for tomorrow! Enjoy the day!

"I'm chasing this guy.... No, he's chasing me"

"Now.. Where was I?" Absolutely a depressing ending.

favorite thing about this movie: reverse chronology is not just a way to confuse and intrigue the viewer but this is only way put the viewer in the place of the protagonist - this way they both doesn't know what happen right before the events shown on the screen

Chris Nolan's best film, I reckon. It's much more personal than his big budget stuff, I wish he'd do films like this again.

Flawlessly genuine story telling skill in this film.

I’m impressed that for one of his earliest films, he managed to tackle something this complex, this could’ve easily turned into such a confusing mess but he did great leading the audience through his story

By putting the narrative in reverse chronological order, the audience feels like the protagonist: we cannot remember what happened in the recent past because we haven't seen it yet.

Memento is actually Christopher Nolan's last film. He released the movie before it was shot. If you look carefully, you can see John David Washington in the background of some shots.

"There is something about this guy I don't like." Well, he did sell out his crew in The Matrix ;)

“There is something about this guy I do not like!” That is that actor, Joe Pantoliano’s, specialty. He usually plays low-lifes and untrustworthy characters.

In case you're wondering how to make sense of the different narratives, the black and white segments are in chronological order and take place in the beginning, while the color segments are told in reverse order, and start at the end. The two timelines converge at what is the middle point of the story. Hope that helps.

Memento, The Prestige, and Inception are a trilogy in a thematic sense. All incredible stories about the perception of reality.

Literally my favorite movie. An actual masterpiece.

This is a movie where the more you remember of the details in the early scenes, the bigger the payoff as you get the full picture at the end. And I love that there's something ironic in this, about how your enjoyment of this movie about a man who can't remember, is determined by your own ability to remember things

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer crime comedy, it is amazing.

I remember walking out of the theater after seeing this movie and having a 2 hour conversation about it in the cold at midnight with my buddies.

"Memento" is one of my absolute favorite movies because of its structure. One step forward, two steps back. Repeat as necessary. What stunned me when watching it was the fact that the story was being PRESENTED backwards, but our perception of new revelations comes as the movie progresses. Makes me wonder if there's an edit of the film that plays with the normal progression of time. I doubt it would be enjoyable, but it would be fascinating to see how a "normal" structure would affect the storytelling.

Nolan’s stated before that Memento was the “building block” for Tenet with reverse visuals. The opening scene of this was something he was always wanted to utilize literally in a film. Here it’s done as a metaphor and in Tenet, the characters have to deal with it in a literal sense.

The trippy thing is that his condition is a legit real medical condition. It's called anterograde amnesia - the inability to form new memories. Yeah, the color scenes are "the present" going backwards, and the B&W scenes are "the past" going forward, insane! I understand if you wanna watch a film sometimes by yourself before filming your reaction. But, for what it's worth, it's moments like your reaction in THIS film that keeps me a happy subscriber. I hope you continue to let us watch your "first time" reactions as often as you can stomach. In a weird way, it's a service to us because it's like vicariously watching them for the first time again through your eyes.

This is Christopher Nolan's best film for sure.

I never forgot Sammy Jenkins... 20 years of remembering him, saddest story ever.

One of my favourite movies. I love how the plot twists due to the arbitrariness of his memory and how people use him and how he uses himself. The reverse order really puts you in his shoes, and it's enjoyable to rewatch and try to reorder the pieces in your head.

I got the DVD of this when it first came out. Brother asked me to lend him one of my movies "a good one" so I gave him this and he went to watch it at a friend's house. He came back the next morning and told me they'd watched it 4 times back-to-back to piece the story together because it blew their minds. He then yelled a bit at me when I told him there was a secret option on the DVD to be able to watch the whole movie in chronological order..... XD

One of the best movies of all time. Absolute masterpiece.

The scenes are organised backwards so we have no idea what happened before the scene. It is a series of cold opens, which is basically how Lenny experiences life, not being able to remember how he got to the place he is in. Amazingly clever way to put us in the protagonist's shoes.

If you’re feeling more Nolan, you gotta check out one of his more overlooked films: The Prestige. It’s got a couple awesome twists and Nolan’s trademark non-linear storytelling, great performances from the likes of Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, and David Bowie(!!!), and some incredible cinematography. I have a feeling you’d love it.

Best Nolan film for me. A true masterpiece filmmaking, needs no big budget, made from almost nothing.

Shutter Island from Martin Scorsese is kinda similar (very good movie)

I saw this when it first was released in theatres... it sticks in my memory (not an intended pun) because I was with my ex and a couple we used to hang around with. After the movie was done, I was stunned to silence at how intricate and amazing the storytelling was... and the other three with me did nothing but complain how it made no sense and was a waste of money. It's cinematic gold. I hate stupid people....

The scenes are arranged in this way so that the viewer feels the same as the protagonist: starting without knowing what has happened before. Masterpiece.

One of my favorite movies of all time, and definitely my favorite Nolan film. It doesn’t get enough praise, this is a masterpiece!

If this hasn't been recommended already: Primer (2004). It's another "time movie"

Christopher Nolan's first theatrical film was actually "Following", a black and white picture about a man who stalks people for inspiration for his films. I haven't seen it, but maybe you could react to it. Also, I love the amount of high concept films you are doing. The moment I saw you had a reaction on Collateral I knew this going somewhere good.

It's neat how they basically told us the story in reverse, yet at the same time they were able to keep the plot moving forward.

The greatest thing about seeing this movie for the first time is, because of how it's shot/edited, it gives the viewer that same perspective of not knowing what just previously happened, exactly (kinda) like the protagonist's condition in the movie.

So far you're batting a thousand for putting my favorite scenes in the edits..."So I'm chasing this guy...nope...hes chasing me..." :D

What’s so amazing about this movie is the fact that I tend to call what’s about to happen next, but it doesn’t feel like they are spoon feeding me, I might be like; “ohhh, then he drives here and gets into this situation, ok!” And I feel rewarded for those kind of scenes because it legitimately feels like piecing a puzzle together. Not that “oh it’s going to be this cliche or a leading action that everyone calls.” It really knows how to keep you hooked. No that I think of it, every scene is in media rerum (Latin for “in the middle of things”).

I wrote a presentation on this one for a film class once...Christopher and Johnathan Nolan are two immaculately talented people. Their ability to twist the chronology of a narrative is astounding.

The entire storyline with Natalie still blows my mind

The way he told this story is amazing, he literally puts us in the shoes of Leonard, we feel the same way as him when there is a novel scene with seemingly unconnected parts and we have to look for clues just like Leonard to piece out what happened

Still for me streets ahead of anything Christopher Nolan has done since.

No joke. The "DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE" moment at 18:34? The first time I watched this movie, that scene brought up some bad memories of my own. A shiver went down my spine and I had to pause for a while to calm down. To me, its such a subdued and realistic (as it can be) moment. No massive music stings, no cut to the person on the other end, no crazy reaction from the main character. That sudden loss of trust and feeling of betrayal, followed by crazy curiosity. That's what makes it such and effective reveal.

"I know what his relationship to Natalie is." Everyone: 😃🍿

As great as this film is on its first watch, I have found much more on repeat viewings. There's a lot to unpack that you just can't comprehend on one watch. It's so good that I've never regretted watching it again.

My favorite Christopher Nolan film, and in my top 3 films of all time!

Guy Pierce did a great flick called Ravenous with a bunch of familiar character actors that I think gets overlooked that is definitely worth your time.

I'm not as big of a Nolan fan as I was when I was first getting into movies, but this movie will forever be a classic. To me, it's easily his best film.

Dana says- I first watched, or should I say studied, this for a film class while I was in college. It's such a masterful piece of work from front to back (and back to front). Imagine being the lucky studio exec being pitched this script. It's still one of a handful of movies, I highly recommend to anyone who's going into film or television production.

This movie is irreproducable. A priceless rare freak of genius filmmaking and storytelling.

“Bill Burr with hair”😂

I saw this film 19 years ago... it blew my mind...it's an awesome movie!

This is how you know humans are the most self destructing being ever. Greatest film ever.

This might be the first time I’ve ever asked a reactor to immediately post a second reaction. You HAVE to watch this a second time, especially since I know for a fact there’s things you missed lol. Insane movie.

EDITING OF THIS FILM IS STILL THE BEST EVEN AFTER SO MANY YEARS PASSED

When I saw this movies in 2000, it cemented my admiration of Christopher Nolan, incredibly imaginative movie.

I always loved this movie and such an underrated film. It's never talked about that much but it is an absolute masterpiece. Guy Pierce plays it perfectly and the film has you gripped from start to finish. Thanks for your input into this film because I never totally understood it until you just explained it. I've watch this film a number of times and it never gets boring.

The easy way to understand the timeline is black and white is in chronological order and then followed by the color sequences which you have to put in order but the best starting point is the beginning, which is the end scene. Nolan is such a genius with writing this film.

When i first saw this film, it blew my mind how Nolan was able to tell this story in such a unique way... It still remains as Nolan's most ambitious film to date imo. plus. Fun Fact: Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano starred together in the Matrix 1 year prior to this film

Yes I. Love. This. Film. Imo still Nolan's best film can talk and gush about this one infinitely

Thank you for doing this one! To this day, Memento remains my favorite Nolan film! Everything about it -- most notably writing, directing, editing, music, acting -- is incredible to me.

I LOVED This one, nut I am here to wait for BLUE VELVET by David Lynch....

Tenet upsets me for a multitude of reasons, but it made me appreciate Inception a hell of a lot more. Also, this is totally his best film. It's great.

Yesss, this is one of my top 5. I almost got a Remember Sammy Jankis tattoo because i love this movie so much

The DVD came out with two disk, one was the movie, one was the right chronological order. This was an insane story, an amazing work, a film that it remains one of the best of that era. What a piece of art!

I loved this, and saw it 2-3 times in the theater when it came out! Did you recognize his wife with him when he already HAD tattoos in the end?! How does that work out? Love how this movie always keeps you thinking! And yes, after seeing Guy Pearce’s performance in this, I never missed another movie he was in. Superb.

As an editor I place this film high on my list of absolute must-sees. Christopher Nolan's brother Jonathan wrote the script. It's close to flawless.

I feel like just knowing the unique dynamic of this movie going in (how the color scenes play out vs how the linear BnW scenes play out) helps with the enjoyment of it 10x more, and also doesn’t really spoil anything

I saw this film 4 times in the theater and I loved it each time! It is so great! I believe this is his second movie. His first is a low-budget film called Following. But in that film you can see a lot of the techniques his uses and perfects in Memento. Also, that little catch you got of Sammy changing to Lenny while sitting in the chair. First time I saw it! So many good things in this move!

The film has two separate time streams: black and white, which progresses forward in a normal, linear way; and color, of which each five-minute block of time jumps backwards, disorienting the viewer. The first is meant to portray Leonard's undamaged, rational mind, the part that remembers everything up to the attack, and the second portrays his experience after the attack - the fragmented blocks of time, and the disconnected sense of not being able to see the significance of things. People appear that clearly act as if they've been part of the story for a while, yet we can't place them because we have no memory of how they fit in. It's masterful story telling. If you can find the short story it's based on, do read it, because it's just as good. (It was written by Nolan's brother Jonathan.)

There’s so much I love about this movie and one of my favorites is during Natalie’s betrayal scene you really feel bad for Lenny cause he’s being used by someone we thought cared for him. Then you watch some more and realize Lenny is a serial killer that had just murdered her boyfriend and made a drug dealer come after her. She did what she had to do to survive and then is still was able to connect with her man’s killer and genuinely wants to help him find his wife’s killer. Great movie

The special edition DVD of this movie has a section in the menus where you select what seems like a background image, it then takes you to a screen with multiple images and if you click the images in the proper order the movie will then play in chronological order. I wish they would do that kind of stuff again, where there's hidden special features and mini games in the menus.

I just wanna give a shout out to Johnathon Nolan. Christopher Nolar is a directorial beast but his brother Johnathon writes all his best scripts including this one. Hell of a vision to be able to write a script like this. Also one of the reasons the HBO Westworld series has incredible mind bending writing.

As far as I'm concerned this is Nolan's best work to date. Seen it 4 or 5 times already and still doesn't get boring. Guy Pearce is fantastic in it but Joe Pantoliano would also deserve much more praise for it than he normally gets. Glad you finally got to see it :)

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Having the movie play out in reverse chronology was a brilliant way to have the audience also experience the main character's memory loss. There's no other movie like this. I adore it.

Back in high school I remember watching this movie when it first came out because I was in a ‘indie film club’ we basically watched a ton of docus, films that no one heard of and foreign films. But this one really stuck with me all this time.

I love how Nolan does what he can to have the viewer experience this as closely as possible to the main character. Just like him, we do not know what just happened before the scene we are in...giving us no context. Granted, the audience has seen the 'future' but without context, our perception of this future changes with each scene we see from the 'past'. Great film and reaction!

OMG FINALLY someone reacts to my favorite movie of all time! It’s grossly underrated.

Memento is my favorite movie and - imho - Nolan's best work to date. I must have seen it more than a dozen times and it's actually the incredibly tight and logical script that makes the movie so great (aswell as its adaptation by Nolan, of course). This movie actually gets better the more you watch it since all of the little details actually matter, make perfect sense, and are huge hints in hindsight - which means you always have something new to pick up. The movie was actually made because Nolan's brother pitched the script to him during a long coast-to-coast roadtrip and they talked about every little details for days on end during it. That is probably also why all the little details fit so perfectly - because both brothers obsessed over them for days without break.

"Never answer the phone"...... Chills

I haven’t seen this movie in 10 or 15 years. It is such a masterpiece with the ultimate unreliable narrator. When I saw this for the first time, it blew my mind. Absolutely chilling film. Thanks for the reaction which really took me back.

Fun fact about the shade and color of blue in the movie, there's a type of flower with the same color, which is called Myosotis (Mouse's ear) or scorpion grass, but it also has a more common name, the "Forget me not". The Forget me not represents love and remembrance, and was traditionally worn by couples to symbolize their long-distance love, especially by those that served in war. It is also the official symbol of the Alzheimer's Society and of memory loss.

"Incendies" by Denis Villeneuve, when you'll have the time after everything you've already planned to watch. ;)

alot of your recent uploads are so nostalgic to me since my grandma would always put these on (momento, usual suspects, seven, ect.) thank you for giving me a piece of nostalgia i have longed and hope you have a merry holidays chris!

One the best movies most people never heard of. I got lucky when my Netflix AI made a suggestion to watch it (Back when Netflix was sending out CDs instead of an online company as now).

Wooooow, what a movie to react to!!! 😍 This is one of my favourites and people have rarely heard of it. Excited to watch this reaction!!

20 years later Guy Pierce gets to mess with someone's memory.

Kudos, man. I especially like how you admitted not knowing what was going on initially. You did not say it w/frustration nor impatience but rather w/faith that it would come together for you soon. And, man, when it did, your excitement was great fun to watch! Great reaction! Your taste in film is outstanding. 😎

I watched this in FILM 101, my freshmen year of college. It’s a wild movie. Watching it play out in reverse is insane. Crazy that the beginning of the movie is the ending. Hopefully you saw a ton of the small edits while you edited this. There are tons of things throughout that point at what’s really going on. Some of Nolan’s best work. Definitely his most underrated film.

Idk if you've seen it but you should check out Insomnia underrated Nolan flick and has incredibly underrated and phenomenal Robin Williams performance

The real tragedy of this film is that you can only truly experience it once. It's an incredible thing.

A brilliant and brilliantly executed movie.

When I saw this movie almost 20 years ago. Its impact still haunts me to this day. Christopher Nolan is Brilliant!! Thats when I knew "The Dark Knight" would be awesome. "I can't remember to forget you." - was Such a deep line! but my favorite line is: "How can I heal, If I cant feel.. time?" side note: Sammy Jankis = Ned Ryerson (Groundhog Day)

Cool to see a reaction on this. One of my very favorites. Was the movie to make me truly realize how film can be used an art form. Legit floored 17 year old me(28 now) lol. Watched Memento and then went on to a bunch of other classics.

So glad you're watching this, its one of the most underrated films of all time!

I'm so glad you watched this, it's one of my all time favourites!

Probably still one of the most impressively constructed and put together film I've ever seen. It's so tight, and the narrative structure is brilliant, along with some great acting. One of my favorite movies ever.

I've always wondered why Nolan's works always really scratch an itch unlike other creators and now I realize it's the TIME aspect! (Funny enough "Time" is my fave score ever too lol). This movie is my favorite movie ever! If someone asks my favorite movie I say Memento without a doubt!

My god, I'd completely forgotten about the Matrix double actors in this movie!!

I'm jealous anybody who watches this movie or the dark city for the first time earns my jealousy because they're so beautiful and so well done I just don't understand why they're not more popular. Thank you.