READERS' CHOICE #43: ONG-BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR (2003)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Nope, first time

BEST SEQUENCE

Our hero, Ting, gets chased through Bangkok alleys by a gang of hoodlums, and the ways in which he evades capture just get more and more impressive

BEST LINE

"Now hand over Ong-Bak! Motherfucker!"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

85%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"While Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior may be no great shakes as a movie, critics are hailing the emergence of a new star in Tony Jaa, whose athletic performance is drawing comparisons with Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li"

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it."

THOUGHTS

• There's a purity of focus to this movie that I can appreciate, even while it means that it doesn't entirely resonate with me as a movie-watching experience. The plot is entirely inconsequential - a good fighter must retrieve something that is important to him, and he does so by fighting. The movie exists to string together scenes of Tony Jaa being remarkably skilled and athletic, and in this regard, it succeeds. He's pretty incredible to watch, especially knowing it's all really him
• But this movie is not going to stick with me, and I don't believe I'll ever get the urge to watch it again all the way through. I've seen the sights. I've appreciated the stunts. If I ever want to appreciate the stunts again, I'll probably just find some clips on Youtube (and to be fair, that wasn't actually an option when this movie was released in 2003)
• And with that said, basically this review is going to devolve into a list of cool things that happened! Which is also an accurate summary of the movie
• So, firstly, my pick for best sequence consists of our hero, Ting, and the movie's comic relief character, George, being chased by a gang of toughs. Ting fully hurdles over people, tables, sharp gardening implements, and frigging cars. Ting also jumps through a small circle of barbed wire and cartwheels between two narrow panes of glass, and I realize that me typing this out probably isn't doing much for you, so just go watch it. George, on the other hand, splits his pants. George's part of this chase scene, however, does contain my other favourite line of the movie, and the only line that made me laugh out loud. George gets cornered by the toughs who are pursuing him, he backs up against a butcher's cart, and grabs a big old knife. The toughs look defeated; George has won! Suddenly an elderly vendor walks by, declaring, "Knives for sale! Knives for sale!" Cut to George now being pursued by knife-wielding toughs
• I liked the sequence in which Ting has to fight three different guys in quick succession in an underground fighting club. Each fight is pretty cool, and I really liked the third fighter's strategy of just breaking a bunch of shit on Ting: a bottle; a chair; a table; a vase; a neon sign; and finally, yes, a refrigerator. I'm not joking
• There was a big tuk-tuk chase scene. There were some cool stunts, but let's be honest, The Fast and the Furious it wasn't
• Ting kicks a guy while his legs are on fire (Ting's legs, not the guy's)
• Some pretty gnarly broken limbs in the climactic fight scene, and the saw attack is pretty visceral
• And that's Ong-Bak! Good night, everybody!

Up next: With absolute certainty, I can say that this will be Adam Sandler's only appearance on this list. It's Little Nicky! (Just kidding, it's Uncut Gems; I've seen it before and it's great!)

READERS' CHOICE #44: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

6.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once before, but not when it came out. My first viewing was in 2021

BEST SEQUENCE

The aliens' first coordinated attack on the world's major cities, including the destruction of the Empire State Building and the White House

BEST LINE

"Welcome to Earth"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

67%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The plot is thin and so is character development, but as a thrilling, spectacle-filled summer movie, Independence Day delivers."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive."

THOUGHTS

• Jesus Christ, this is one silly-ass movie
• OK, put down your knives. I know I'm going to get a lot of flak for this one
• For people of a certain age (the "gee, I wish my back didn't hurt all the time" age), I have no issue with the idea that this would have been a seminal movie-going experience, or even just a seminal movie-watching experience. When the movie was released in 1996 I was 9, and more to the point, I was also a snivelling wimp who was too scared to watch it. If I had seen this movie in the theatre when it came out, while watching it again today I'm sure nostalgia would be doing a lot of the heavy lifting
• Instead, last summer on July 15th (missed opportunity, I know), I settled down on my orthopedic pillow and watched Independence Day for the first time, and it was extremely adequate. Upon rewatch, I feel the same
• You know me, I love my practical special effects, and that's a huge point in this movie's favour compared to today's blockbusters. As singled out above, I can't deny the impact of seeing world-famous landmarks completely obliterated. The explosions are big and real, the scenes of pandemonium are clearly real people and not just CGI crowds, and the aliens, which look pretty goofy, at least look goofy in a physical, tangible way
• One part that wasn't goofy, though, was the Area 51 dissection scene and ensuing attack. Legitimately creepy
• I did also love all the shots of spaceships hovering over cities. Amazing sense of scale
• Aerial combat in movies generally doesn't really do much for me. A bunch of shots of pilots in the cockpit cracking wise. I've never seen Top Gun, would that be considered the pinnacle of the form?
• And speaking of cracking wise, a lot of very '90s wisecracks in this movie, and basically none of them landed. "Welcome to Earth" is a pretty good line, though
• A big, sprawling cast of characters. Lots of charisma from Will Smith, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum (is this Goldblum at his sexiest? Or would we go with Jurassic Park?). Despite his hero moment at the end, though, I really didn't need Randy Quaid in this movie. RIP, characters played by Harvey Fierstein and Harry Connick, Jr. (who, oddly enough, got the "and Harry Connick, Jr." treatment in the credits. What a time that was to be alive)
• I will say, this is miles better than The Day the Earth Stood Still, which actually made a cameo appearance in this movie. Randy Quaid's kids were watching it on TV very early on
• According to Wikipedia, the Will Smith role was originally offered to Ethan Hawke, but he turned it down because "he thought the script was terrible". You and me both, Ethan, you and me both
• To everyone who voted for this movie, I thank you. To everyone who loves this movie, your opinion is also valid. To everyone who thinks I was being too hard on it, I leave you with two words: computer virus. If you need me, Ethan and I will be reassuring each other and awaiting your hate mail

Up next: Ong-Bak, the martial arts film from 2003, and the first of the readers' choice movies which is completely new to me!

READERS' CHOICE #45: NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once

BEST SEQUENCE

The climax is really intense with some dark action, big plot moments, and a gripping car chase. But I'm going with the scene in which Lou (Jake Gyllenhaal) enters a house where a triple homicide just occurred minutes ago, shortly after the perpetrators escaped. As he films extremely graphic footage of the bodies to sell to Nina (Rene Russo), a local news director, we feel like co-conspirators with Lou, despite the moral repugnance of his actions. This also leads directly into another one of my favourite scenes in which Nina airs Lou's footage on live TV and we watch her in the control booth directing her newscasters, making them emphasize the disturbing nature of what she's putting on screen, and milking the sensationalism for all it's worth.

BEST LINE

Lou has lots of great lines, and I loved the dark comedy whenever he'd spout his corporate speak or inspirational aphorisms. My favourite comes when he's trying to coerce his assistant, Rick (Riz Ahmed), into doing something extremely dangerous, and Rick knows it.

Rick: "I don't believe anything you say, man, this is fucked!"

Lou (admonishing him): "Do you know I've never once sworn in front of an employer?"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

95%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Restless, visually sleek, and powered by a lithe star performance from Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler offers dark, thought-provoking thrills."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"When Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story."

THOUGHTS

• I love Gyllenhaal's performance as Lou, and you know what? In a way, a very weird way, I find this absolutely deplorable character kind of likeable. But likeable in the least obvious way possible. In his very first scene he's larcenous and violent, and that's just where the movie begins; one can only imagine what crimes he'd already committed before that point. And his actions throughout the movie just keep getting increasingly indefensible, but despite this, it doesn't really feel like he ever makes a conscious choice to drop his morals. I get the sense that, at every point in the movie, Lou was entirely capable and willing to do any of the terrible things we witness. We see no crisis of conscience from him. We just see a man who takes advantage of a series of opportunities to get rid of an obstacle or improve his situation. He's a pragmatic fellow who just wants to succeed in his chosen line of work
• And what a horrible line of work it is
• It feels like the movie itself also has reluctant admiration for Lou in the same way I do. Earlier on, during some of the scenes when he's doing whatever it takes to get the perfect footage, the music is triumphant and upbeat
• Another very small character moment I like is when Lou is ironing his shirts and watching The Court Jester, an old Danny Kaye comedy from 1955 which I remember watching as a kid, and this monstrous guy is having a grand old time, laughing at this cheesy old comedy. I don't even really know what it's intended to mean, there's something performative about his laughter even though he's alone in the room, but it stuck with me
• The nighttime cinematography is gorgeous at points, eerie at others. I liked the way Lou was often shown with light reflecting off of his huge, unblinking eyes. I also noticed that when he was skulking around where he shouldn't be he would hold his video camera like a gun (although hey, I'm no expert, maybe that's just how you hold a camera; still looks like a gun!)
• Aside from Gyllenhaal, all the other performances are great across the board, and it's a really excellent movie. Highly recommended!

Up next: Aside from this sentence right now, I promise that recent events will not be mentioned in the next review - it's Independence Day!

READERS' CHOICE #46: THE DESCENT (2005)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

9.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, the first time was about 5 years ago

BEST SEQUENCE

If you haven't seen The Descent yet and you think you'd like to, stop reading and watch it. My favourite moment of this movie is an extremely startling jump scare, one of my favourite in all of horror movies, and I think it would be most effective for someone who has no prior knowledge. I'll talk about it in more detail further down.

BEST LINE

"Listen, the worst thing that could have happened to you has already happened, OK? And you're still here. This is just a poxy cave and there's nothing left to be afraid of, I promise." - One character trying to calm another one down after a tunnel collapses, very unaware of how wrong she actually is. Nice usage of "poxy," though

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

86%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Deft direction and strong performances from its all-female cast guide The Descent, a riveting, claustrophobic horror film."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators."

THOUGHTS

• I love the way this movie shifts gears. It starts as a very grounded women vs. nature story. The thrills are definitely there while they're trying to navigate their way out of an unknown cave system, the danger feels incredibly real, and claustrophobes need not apply. I haven't seen Deliverance in a long time, but The Descent strongly reminded me of that (and I'll revisit Deliverance eventually, it's very high up on the AFI list). And then, when it feels like that concept was ably explored, we basically jump directly into an entirely different genre of movie, equally thrilling but in a totally different way. It kind of feels like two different movies for the price of one. Some might be bothered by the inconsistency, but I think it works beautifully
• Side note, if you ever want to see the most jarring gear shift movie I can think of, watch Audition. It's also one of those movies that works best if you have no idea what's coming, so I shall say no more except that I wish it had gotten voted into my list
• And now I'll speak in plainer terms. If you've seen The Descent you might know exactly what I'm picking for my favourite scene. It's the first time the women are attacked by a crawler (the movie's name for the monsters). Seen through their own camcorder footage with night vision, it pans around the group of women, and suddenly THERE IT IS RIGHT BEHIND THEM!
• I often eat and drink while watching movies, and when I'm watching scary movies I have a ridiculous concern that I might get so startled I'll just, like, THROW my plate or my glass. I don't think it's happened yet. But the first time I watched this five years ago, that moment was probably the closest I've come to just hurling my dinner across the room
• This was my second time watching it, and I remember liking it a lot the first time, but man alive, I did not remember how gory and violent it gets once the crawlers enter the picture! Things get pretty brutal!
• I've never broken a bone, but if I ever do, I pray it won't be of the "bone poking through the skin" variety. Whenever that happens in a movie I cringe so hard
• The movie also starts with one of the most visceral, terrifying car crashes I've seen on film
• Extremely effective choices were made with the lighting, keeping us looking into the shadows and adding to the nightmarish and surreal feeling of the film. There were some very disorienting camera angles used as well
• Finally, this movie was released with an extended ending in the UK, cut from the US release because it was too depressing, and yeah, it's pretty bleak. I prefer it as the proper ending for the movie, though

Up next: Jake Gyllenhaal creeps it up in Nightcrawler

READERS' CHOICE #47: THE STRANGERS (2008)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

9

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes

BEST SEQUENCE

The scene shown in the poster - before Liv Tyler is even aware that a home invasion has begun, she stands by herself in an empty room and we see a masked figure step out behind her, observe her for a moment, and then conceal himself again without taking any immediate action

BEST LINE

"Hi. Is Tamara here?"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

48%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The Strangers has a handful of genuinely scary moments, but they're not enough to elevate the end results above standard slasher fare."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A young couple staying in an isolated vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants."

THOUGHTS

• Well, Rotten Tomatoes, we're going to have to agree to disagree
• It may not be surprising to learn that I enjoy reading movie reviews, considering I've started writing my own. Usually I do so after the fact, once I've formed my own opinion, and I feel like I tend to line up with most movie critics. If I'm in a self-congratulatory mood I just take this as proof that I have good taste as opposed to someone whose opinion is overly influenced by others (although that thought has crossed my mind too), but then there are times when our verdicts differ. It's happened a few times already in this blog; I mostly chalk that up to older movies which were revered and influential at the time but just didn't hold up (The Day the Earth Stood Still, I'm coming at you once more)
• The Strangers, on the the other hand, a lot of critics didn't like, especially when it first came out (it's gained a bit of a cult following since). As we see from the Rotten Tomatoes consensus above, it was seen as a middling slasher with little to set it apart. But you know what? I've seen a lot of what I would consider slashers, including multiple movies in the Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream series, and I think The Strangers is scarier than almost all of them (the original Halloween and Nightmare are both pretty fantastic). In fact, I don't even think The Strangers is a slasher, if for no other reason than the focus is on increasing the tension as opposed to increasing the body count
• A lot of jump scares. I said my piece on jump scares in my review of REC, and I still find them effective in this movie as well. The fact that this movie had a trio of killers instead of just one made the jump scares even more fair in a way that other movies can't pull off. The villain doesn't need to defy logic to pop up in a surprising place because there are three of them all over the house, stalking the protagonists in tandem
• In ranking this movie and REC so highly I somewhat worry that I'm not leaving much room for the more restrained, artful movies we have coming up like, for example, The Babadook or Let the Right One In, but I can't deny the visceral reaction I had
• I almost gave The Strangers a higher score, even toying with the idea of giving it 10/10, but there are aspects of it that just don't work as well as I wanted and make the movie drag a little (but not enough for me to consider it a bad movie). The protagonists accidentally kill their friend, and there's not much actually done with that, and there's an extended sequence in which Liv Tyler tries to get to a radio transmitter in a barn which, at that point, just felt like padding
• The ending is chilling, in part because it happens with sunlight streaming through the window. So often in horror movies it feels like dawn will bring safety (sometimes in a practical way, like if we're dealing with vampires). If the heroes can just survive until the sun rises, surely they'll be safe. No such luck here, and the final scene exposes the harsh reality of the events of this movie. There was no hidden meaning, no twist ending, no ulterior motive. This was just pure, inhuman sadism and cruelty, as evidenced by what I almost chose as the best line:
• "Why are you doing this to us?" "Because you were home"
• Despite my earlier assertion that this isn't a slasher, we definitely see some slasher influence, especially in the male killer who has the hulking physicality of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. Incidentally, according to the movie's credits the male killer is called Man in Mask, which we can all agree is a bad name. From now on I'm going to call him Mr. Sack, a name I chose before Googling it and finding this delightful Charlie Brown action figure:

• If that's not an origin story I don't know what is

Up next: Spelunking gets spelooky in The Descent which, continuing the trend, contains one of my favourite jump scares of all time

MARK REVIEWS THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME

 

• There will be spoilers!
• Well, with very little fanfare, and not much forethought, I've decided that this shall be my last Marvel review. I still like these movies, and I'm going to continue seeing each new one as they're released (in the theatre as much as possible), but the act of writing about Marvel movies has started to feel less satisfying for me, especially after the end of the Infinity Saga, and I'll talk more about that at the end of this review. At this point it feels like there are only so many ways I can say "I had fun, there was some good action and there were some funny moments." And now, with that out of the way, let's get into the review
• I had fun, there was some good action and there were some funny moments. Good night, everybody!
• Just kidding (kinda). I know everyone's loving this movie, and I feel like I might be damning it with faint praise, but I was expecting to like it more
• OK, last warning, spoilers below
• First, the good stuff 
• It's a genuinely delightful concept for a movie, effectively evoking our nostalgia while still telling a new story
• It's been a while since I've seen the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man, but I don't remember Willem Dafoe being as much fun in that one as he was in this. He cackled, capered and cavorted like an absolute maniac, and I feel like we got to see more of that deranged face in this movie than we did in Spider-Man, when the Green Goblin was wearing his mask/helmet most of the time
• Speaking of whom, "You know, I'm something of a scientist myself." Love it!
• Just like in his own movie, I loved the Doctor Strange special effects and fight logistics. When he's fighting Peter and uses portals to make Peter web his own foot? Brilliant!
• I loved watching the three Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) meet and interact. I have a lot of affection for Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, and I remember his movies fondly, even the third one. And I haven't even seen either of the Andrew Garfield movies, but he's a charismatic guy and I still liked getting to meet his version of Peter Parker. When Peter Maguire and Peter Garfield joined the scene, that gave the movie a jolt I was looking for. Which brings us to...
• I kinda feel like the movie before that point was a little flabby, a little poorly paced, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that not all Spider-Man villains are created equal. Like I mentioned, I thought Willem Dafoe was great fun as the Green Goblin, so it was appropriate that he was the main bad guy, but the rest elicited varying shades of indifference. In Spider-Man 2, Doctor Octopus was indeed one of the best bad guys in all of superhero cinema, but his powers were neutralized almost immediately in this movie, and furthermore he was cured of his villainy, turning him into a good guy! Sure, maybe it's a good arc for the character, but doesn't the fun of seeing these villains return hinge on the expectation that they'll act like villains? And like I mentioned, I hadn't seen either of the Amazing Spider-Man movies, so especially without any sort of backstory to draw from, Lizard and Electro were duds, although Jamie Foxx was still fun to watch but that's more just because he's charismatic ol' Jamie Foxx. And finally, I don't know if it was just how the character was used or if Thomas Haden Church's voice acting really wasn't cutting it, but Sandman was a big old nothing
• And then, I know this is a little nitpicky, but what was the movie's internal logic for which villains would be drawn into this universe and from what point in their lives? It was established that Green Goblin, Doc Ock and Electro were pulled from their universes immediately before dying. But...Sandman and Lizard don't die in their movies (I looked up the synopsis for The Amazing Spider-Man). Am I interrogating this too harshly? Maybe, but if the whole idea was for Peter to cure the villains in order to prevent their deaths, that loses a lot of poignancy when it comes to the villains who, as far as we know, don't die at the hands of Spider-Man
• Anyway, I certainly understand the impulse to include a villain from each separate movie, just like I understand the draw of including all three Spider-Man actors. And if you have to pull villains from (what I understand to be) mediocre movies, there's a fair bet you'll end up with mediocre villains, especially in comparison to some of the others. Maybe it would have been better if we skipped a couple of them? A team-up between Green Goblin, Doc Ock and Electro would have packed more of a punch, I'd say, without needing to cede attention to the also-rans
• Ultimately, though, I think this was a brilliant concept, and I thought parts of the whole really stuck the landing. If you loved this movie entirely, I'm not going to question that reaction. For me, though, I'd say it was just on the verge of greatness and still needed a bit of tweaking to get there
• And finally, Mark's Movie Reviews shall shed a small tear and say farewell to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2019 when I decided to do a full watch of the MCU, the idea of simultaneously starting a review series made a lot of sense. It was a movie franchise with a huge backlog of movies I hadn't seen, the movies were all linked to each other in varying levels of significance, and when I decided to start that project there was an endpoint (an Endgame, if you will). Watching the Infinity Saga really was a fun experience, getting to know the characters over the course of multiple movies and many hours, and I thought Endgame was a supremely effective capper to that story. But then, to the surprise of no one, after Endgame wrapped things up in a bow and we came to terms with never seeing some of these fantastic characters in movies ever again, the movies kept coming out. And I wasn't upset about it! I was still excited to see more from some of these characters, meet some new ones, and see what Marvel had planned for us after the somewhat self-contained nature of the Infinity Saga had concluded. But at this point as I type this, without any big Avengers-style team-ups to look forward to, without really knowing where Phase Four is heading, and with no clear indication that we'll know where it's heading anytime soon, I'm finding it hard to gather the same excitement for the individual movies as they're released. I do still like these movies, I plan on watching them as they come out, and I'm prepared to eat my words depending on what Marvel might still have in store for us in the future. But for now I shall say thanks for the good times, Marvel Cinematic Universe, thanks to anyone out there who has enjoyed reading my reviews, and remember, part of the journey is the end

READERS' CHOICE #48: MEMENTO (2000)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, but it's been a long time, maybe not since shortly after it was released

BEST SEQUENCE

The scene in which we realize that Natalie isn't quite the sympathetic collaborator to Leonard that we thought she was

BEST LINE

After Leonard finds a man, Dodd, in the closet, tied up and bloody

Leonard: "Who did this to you?" Dodd: "...what?"

Leonard: "Who did this to you?" Dodd: "You did"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

93%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Christopher Nolan skillfully guides the audience through Memento's fractured narrative, seeping his film in existential dread"

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer."

THOUGHTS

• Christopher Nolan's first big hit, it really does have quite a clever little hook: since the main character, Leonard, has short-term memory loss and can't create any new memories, the story is told backwards. Therefore, at the beginning of each scene, we experience the same state of confusion as Leonard. We know what will be happening after each sequence of events, but we never know what happened previously to lead Leonard to each current predicament. The actual plot of the movie isn't terribly complicated, but this is a good thing. It allows us to stay engaged without getting distracted or frustrated by losing track of the details
• Incidentally, this was kind of my issue with Tenet. I found it confusing to the point of distraction, and it wasn't really entertaining enough to make me care all that much about figuring it out
• Incidentally incidentally, Inception is probably my favourite Nolan movie, but Memento is also really good!
• There have been versions of Memento edited to put the scenes in chronological order, including an official chronological cut on one of the DVD releases. I haven't seen the chronological version, but it's been said that it takes away some of the intrigue and exposes the plot as actually relatively straightforward. A lot of the appeal to this movie for me, though, comes from watching people interact with Leonard and manipulate him to their advantage, which would still remain intact regardless of whether you watch the story going backwards or forwards. I feel like it would just change the structure of the movie as intended by Nolan, and you'd be experiencing the big reveals at different times and in different ways
• For a movie that's told backwards, it's pretty cool that it's still plotted in such a way as to keep a massive reveal from the audience until the very end of the movie, despite it being the chronological beginning of the movie's plot
• Guy Pearce, as Leonard, does some nicely underplayed work here. He's a man who's focused on a mission, but you also kind of get the sense that he's resigned himself to just being along for the ride which is now his life. His voiceovers, especially, can be darkly comedic in a reserved, character-based way
• And I really like Carrie-Anne Moss as Natalie and Joe Pantoliano as Teddy in the supporting roles. It's very clever how the bruising on Natalie's face is used as a visual shorthand to make us automatically sympathetic to her up until we learn where she actually got those bruises. And Joe Pantoliano is such a weaselly guy that it's super easy to mistrust him, even at times when we learn that he's telling the truth (or at least a version of the truth)
• The movie has an effectively grimy look. Seedy motels, dive bars, even Leonard's handwriting, of which we see a lot, is very visually unappealing. It all just makes you feel kind of gross to be watching
• Oh, and I found the tale of Sammy Jankis to be quite moving
• Despite definitely having seen this movie in the past, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had been long enough that I forgot a lot of the details and a lot of the twists. If you haven't seen it for a while, give it another watch, and hopefully this will be the case for you too! (And hopefully this review wasn't too spoiler-y)

Up next: The Strangers from 2008