The Abyss Gazes Also

So I saw Memento yesterday. Christopher Nolan currently has a perfect track record for me: Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige.

Now I have to see Insomnia I guess.

Memento is.. surreal. It's a movie about a man with Drew Barrymore's condition in 50 First Dates, i.e. he has no short term memory. The scenes are shown in reverse order, so the climax of the film actually happens right up front. The thing is that although this is shown, there is no context. We don't understand why the character did what he did or who he did it to. So then it moves backwards, until we find out why.

It's not precisely the same as United 93, which is another film in which we already know the ending when we begin (hint: the plane crashes. Not really a spoiler. It's like telling someone at the start of Titanic that the ship sinks)

So the movie is a useful glimpse into the workings of a mind with no short term memory. A memorable scene opens with the main character running in a car park.
Narration: So... what am I doing?
He sees a man running.
Okay, I'm chasing this guy.
The man sees him, fires a gun.
Nope, he's chasing me.

It has a large number of actors in it who I really enjoy. It has Carrie Anne Moss, fresh from the Matrix, and displaying much more acting ability here than in the entire trilogy. Most people love to diss Keanu Reeves, but they haven't seen him in proper roles, like Scanner Darkly or Constantine, and I suspect the lack of acting in the Matrix by the protagonists was intentional. Some parts it worked, some parts it didn't, but the movies are still fun anyway.

It also has Joe Pantaliano, who was Cypher from the Matrix. He's great in this one, much more subtle and less over the top serial villain.

And rounding it out is Keith Callum Rennie, who admittedly has only a tiny role in this film and doesn't say much. His most memorable line is 'You did?', but he gets to talk a lot more on Battlestar Galactica, where he is killed, many, many times by Starbuck et al and speaks cryptically about what hovers between life and death. Leoben Conoy, we love ya.

Speaking of Galactica, new episodes begin airing April 4th. APRIL FOURTH. That's like no time away. Fuck you America's Next Top Model, fuck you Who Wants To Be A Superhero, it's Battlestar fucking Galactica, and it is going to rock your tiny little world.


Is there truly any other show (besides Firefly and possibly Six Feet Under) that manages to be as uniformly excellent as Galactica? I'm open to suggestions!