See if you can track down all that info; it is all right there
You get the idea.
If you need straight facts about a film, this is the place to go.
I scroll a little further down and see user reviews.
I am wary of these. Most of these are written by amateurs and therefore, are not very quotable.
I need professional reviewers and scholars.
So, I scroll all the way down to where it says, Explore More About Memento.
I find the link that reads, External Reviews.
That is the list I want.
Professional Reviews
Previously, you have been exploring the difference between a casual viewer, a fan, a critic, and an academic. You want to bring that discussion to bear right here.
You should also remember it is best to choose a professional review (written by someone who does this for a living) as opposed to a review someone just posted up on the internet somewhere.
2 Thumbs Up from Roger Ebert carry more weight than the thumbs of your neighbor down the street.
Of course, this does not mean any professional reviewer is automatically correct.
Just as you may have learned in IB Theory of Knowledge, any expression of preference will carry some degree of subjectivity, more so perhaps in the arts than in other academic disciplines.
You could, and should, consider what a reviewer writes in light of common truth tests.
The Reviewer
Does the reviewer's opinion correspond with what I think and feel about the film?
Do their comments correspond with the film I watched, or do they seem to be reacting to something else or have a personal axe to grind?
Does their interpretation cohere with their other reviews or is this one an anomaly for some reason?
Does their review have pragmatic value?
Can I make use of the review meaningfully to enhance my viewing of this and future films, or is what they write largely irrelevant to the aesthetic experience of watching films?
A critical thinker should always be questioning
The list of reviews that pops up from IMDb gives me a wealth of choices
I can read reviews from around the world. I decide I am going to read every single one and you should, too.
Okay, I was just seeing if you were paying attention.
What I generally do is open every link and scan it really quickly. If it is a short one, I do not even bother.
This will simply be a seven-stars-out-of-10 type of review and will not have anything substantive in it.
If it is a longer one, I read the first few paragraphs. If it seems like the author is making some interesting points, I will stick around and read the rest.
Using those criteria, I decide to read the reviews by Roger Ebert, James Berardinelli, and Rita Kempley.
I also make sure to jot down the web address, or URL, of both reviews, so I can cite them later based on their actual locations on the web, not simply as a link from IMDb.
Ebert's Review
Go ahead and read both reviews if you like
You should at least click on the link, just so you get a sense of moving from the list on IMDb to an external link and back again.
That is the idea behind IMDb being your research hub.
From the Ebert review, two ideas strike me as potentially worth exploring.
Ebert notes there is another movie, Pinter's Betrayal (1983) that has a reverse time sequence but used for other effects.
That could be a possible path to explore.
Ebert also concludes that Memento lacks a typical thriller payoff, which is also interesting.
Maybe I can find other thrillers that do the same.
Berardinelli's Review
He is a pro who does not write for a newspaper
You will notice Berardinelli is an internet reviewer, a blogger, which seems to break the earlier rule, but look at how many reviews he has written, how extensive they are, and how astute his observations are.I note his comment about how the audience has to accustom itself to the reverse structure and how the director assists the process by including several forward-moving 'buffer scenes'.
I also note he links to The Sixth Sense (1999) in terms of how an audience has to 'rewind' the entire film mentally, once they arrive at the ending, in order to make sense of it all.
Both are intriguing possibilities. I note them down and move on.
Kempley's Review
Comparison with Akira Kurosawa
Kempley makes the comparison to Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) in terms of shifting realities and the self-serving nature of memory.
Now, that is a useful idea.
I have a great link to a film from another country.
I am sure to highlight this note, so that I can attribute the idea properly to Kempley when the time comes. I am on a roll.
I could repeat this process indefinitely with other reviews, of course, but this is enough to illustrate the method.
Now, I know I have to take the next step and examine film scholarship, longer articles written by film academics.
Film Journals
I have reached the end of where the IMDB can be helpful, but I appreciate how far it has taken me.
It does not, however, offer me any useful links to film journals, so I have to search elsewhere.
Here is where it would be appropriate to call up a search engine and search for 'film journals'.
Established Film Magazines and Journals
Search for 'film journal'
I see right away that I get some great links to the online versions of established film magazines and journals.
These are peer-reviewed (one academic verifying the validity of claims made by another) and edited (another layer of oversight), which helps to ensure the accuracy of the information and the value of the opinions presented.
I scroll down to the one for 'Senses of Cinema', not necessarily because it is the best one, but because its 'Links' button is one of the most extensive.
This site now becomes my new hub.
Patience and Perseverance
New search terms and research
Searching academic journals is often a tedious affair, so I know I will have to be patient and go down plenty of blind alleys before I find something worthwhile.
I often find I have to apply more specific search terms in order to locate relevant articles.
Many journals do not have a search function at all, so I have to look at back issues by hand.
Interesting Connections
The goal is to browse for possibilities
On the Senses of Cinema site, a quick search with the keyword Memento leads me to a book review of a scholarly dissertation, written by Allan Cameron, about modular narratives.
I know I will not be able to read the whole book, but I read the analysis of the book to see if interesting connections emerge.
I see the author draws a parallel to Tom Tykwer's film, Run Lola Run (1998) which also has a fractured, loss-of-memory-of-the-previous-incident structure, and that is all I need.
I think I may have another link besides Rashomon now.
I read the rest of the article and, the juices are flowing.
Journals from around the World
As long as you can read the language, or have a good translation
I click on the Links button on the Senses of Cinema site and scroll down to the section labeled Magazine / Journal.
Look at all the choices!
There is Cahiers du Cinema (remember that one?).
I note there are many journals from around the world, and I try to keep in mind that it would be a good idea to research sources from other countries, as long as I can read the language.
You can also go to the website for the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), which provides another very comprehensive list of international film journal databases.
Reflection on Analysis
Finding parallels and similarities
When I search for Nolan's film on the site for The Film Journal, an interesting article comes up, on Gaspar Noé's Irreversible (2003) which also has a reverse-order sequence.
The article also mentions Jane Campion's Australian tele-feature Two Friends (1986).
I read the article, jotting down key ideas, and make a note to myself to watch Memento again, in light of the analysis of Noé's film from this article.
As usual, I log the site's URL and the author's name, so I could, in the future, cite him properly.
Compare and Contrast
Delve into the unfamiliar
The mention of Campion's film arouses my interest, so I decide to research a bit, since this is an unfamiliar film to me.
After a bit of hunting, I discover something interesting.
Campion's film, Two Friends, uses the the exact same storytelling device Memento does, in that it starts at the end, then jumps back a month in time, and plays forward for a bit, until it makes the next jump backwards.
The major difference is Nolan's film uses the device to withhold key information from the audience, which one might expect in a psychological thriller, but Campion's film does so in order to evoke a feeling of nostalgia for a simpler time when a friendship between two girls was not so estranged as it is in the present day.
I make a note to myself to watch this film in the near future, as it could provide a striking contrast in my documentary script.
This can go on for quite a bit of time, with the limits only being my patience and endurance.
It is a bit of a treasure hunt, no doubt about that, but it is very rewarding when I unearth those few precious gems.
These are, furthermore, vital in terms of lending credibility, validity, and weight to my own analysis.
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