By Jack Coyle
Associated Press
From left: Daniel Wu, Lisa Joy (director) and Thandiwe Newton at the premiere of Reminiscence at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California on August 7. (Picture provided by IW Group)
Just as climate change is scarring the land and warming the ocean, it is also flooding our movies.
Of course, for many years, the earth’s endangered future has always existed in the DNA of disaster movies such as “After Tomorrow.” But recently, as the ice sheet has melted, climate has played a more important role in the proliferation of movies. The hot Australian thrillers “The Dry” (good movie by the way) and “The Tomorrow War” have been released this summer, a war movie that travels through time and space, unlocking the threat of the end of the world by thawing the permafrost.
In Lisa Joy’s “Memories”, the Asian-American directorial debut was released in theaters and HBO Max on August 20. The first thing we saw was water.
The background of this movie is Miami, which is mostly submerged in the near future, with canals passing through tall buildings in some parts. In other areas supported by the sea wall, there are permanent puddles. In order to avoid the heat during the day, the city has also become a nocturnal activity. Or, at least, even more so.
What would it be like to live in such a world? This is reasonable, and it may even be a duty to consider it. Joey, who wrote and directed this movie, wisely concluded that we might spend a lot of time remembering better days. In “Memoirs”, she created a dark, futuristic noir film with all the characteristics of a tough guy narrator, a slim femme fatale, blinds, and the most relevant is the irreversible sense of control over our lives in the past. -And our planet.
This makes “memories” both frightening and comforting. Who knew that environmental disasters would be so fashionable? The sea may be eroding, but at least you can still have a glass of spirits in the shabby nightclub and contemplate the past as concisely as private eyes in the early days.
In “Reminiscence”, everyone is obsessed with nostalgia, which created Nick Bannister’s memory knitting machine. People lying in a shallow water tank and being transported to any time in the past are more like a poison. nest.
“Nothing is more addictive than in the past,” Bannister (Hugh Jackman) said.
With soothing guidance, he guides customers to find precious memories-trysts with broken-hearted relationships, hide-and-seek with beloved dogs-these memories are illuminated by translucent ropes on a circular stage. (Howard Cummings’ production design is great from start to finish.)
This is a fallen world, full of lawlessness, corruption and boredom. Bannister was a veteran of the war when the water level rose. But Jackman’s range ranges from musicals (“the greatest performers”) to suburban scandals (“bad education”), with almost no trauma from anyone who has experienced war. Jackman is a more reassuring existence. He will not fall into black because of Harrison Ford’s boredom or Humphrey Bogart’s disillusionment. But then again, “memory” is gradually developing in the direction of a melodrama, rather than implied by its dark premise.
“Memories” aptly start with an old-fashioned encounter: a charming lady is looking for her key. Just after closing time, May (Rebecca Ferguson) walked in in a handsome red dress. There was a direct chemical reaction between her and Bannister, and his colleague Watts (a typical and very good Sandy Way Newton) looked at this suspiciously. She is a singer in a nightclub, in a dark, neon flashing offshore area. Their first night ended with Bannister taking her home in the dim daylight.
As you might imagine, “memory” begins to play with reality and memory, blurring the boundaries between the two. When May disappeared, Bannister began to talk about their time together, looking for clues-some of them began to appear in other cases, including a case involving the New Orleans drug lord (Daniel Wu). To a significant degree-plus a mysterious, disfigured villain (Clive Curtis)-Joey’s films are full of reliable genres. This story has never been as influential as sea level rise.
“Remembrance” is Joey’s feature film debut, but as the creator of the HBO series “Western World”, she has proven her great ability to shape a vivid and intelligent science fiction world without contemporary anxiety. “Memories” may become too sentimental, mumbling to the “past”. Just like its role, it is indulged in the things before, relying too much on black metaphors. But its clever and thought-provoking concept is not easy to get rid of. The image of a half-submerged Miami is too realistic. As Bannister dangles in shallow waters and dives deeper, “memories” will make you uneasy.
