Memento (2000)

Quick, without scrolling up: how did this review start? That little panic is Memento. Leonard Shelby can’t make new memories, so he runs a revenge mission off Polaroids and tattoos, and Christopher Nolan tells it backwards so you’re exactly as lost as he is. It sounds like a gimmick. It isn’t. Each new scene ends right where the last one began, and every one flips what you thought you knew. Guy Pearce is great as a man who’s completely sure of himself and completely wrong about how much he knows. Joe Pantoliano plays the friendliest guy you shouldn’t trust. The weak spot is the black-and-white phone call scenes, which slow things down and do a lot of explaining. Made on a reported budget of $5 to $9 million, it still out-thinks most of the blockbusters Nolan made later. A 9.2 because the trick serves the story instead of the other way around. $83 says you write yourself a note tonight and have no idea what it means by morning.

What works: The backwards structure actually serves the story, and Guy Pearce makes Leonard both pitiful and a little scary.

What doesn’t: The black-and-white phone scenes drag and lean on exposition, and you need full attention or the whole thing falls apart.

Who it’s for: People who love a puzzle and are happy to rewatch a movie the second it ends.