Reel Science Film Series: Memento
The Reel Science Film Series returns for its second edition with a new slate of cult science-fiction movies every Friday of May. The series is a collaboration between San Diego Natural History Museum (The Nat), Digital Gym Cinema, and the Film Geeks San Diego. Introduction and contextualized and corrective commentary will be provided by UC San Diego neuroscientist Bradley Voytek. In Christopher Nolan’s enigmatic and iconic crime thriller, a man is determined to find justice after the loss of a loved one, even though he is incapable of fully remembering the crime. Leonard (Guy Pearce) is a man who is struggling to put his life back together after the brutal rape and murder of his wife. But Leonard’s problems are different from those of most people in his situation; he was beaten severely by the same man who killed his wife. The most significant manifestation of Leonard’s injuries is that his short-term memory has been destroyed; he is incapable of retaining any new information, and must resort to copious note-taking and Polaroid photographs in order to keep track of what happens to him over the course of a day. With the help of some unlikely individuals, he sets out to find his wife’s murderer.