3. Memento (2000)
Memento is an incredibly easy sell of an idea. The narrative device telling the story of an amnesiac through short vignettes shown in reverse order is brilliantly simple to grasp but difficult to fully crack, giving you a view of how Leonard sees the world. Unlike Stan Smith in the pilot of American Dad, you definitely can only get more out of it with repeat viewings. The first time you see it, the film forces you to be confused; theres so much manipulation and the film is so open ended that you cant quite be certain what youve seen. With each rewatch, the chronological, black and white, scenes that punctuate the reverse order action become increasingly important, telling us more about Leonards mentality, as well as putting increasing weight on Sammy Jankis. Natalies actions, using Leonard to deal with her problems, motivated by his killing of Jimmy, are the big shock of first viewing, but upon rewatching its Teddy who becomes even more mysterious. Even after seeing the film countless times, it's hard to grasp what exactly is motivating Teddy; the ending presents us with a logical explanation, but the fact he has been calling Leonard anonymously plants doubt. Nolan is still reluctant to truly divulge his interpretation of events, making Memento a film that, while it can be cracked, is still a headscratcher. Theres an optional edit available on certain versions of the DVD that presents the story in chronological order. It initially sounds cool, but is poorly edited and if anything makes events more confusing as it distances you from Leonard after the first, orignally chronological anyway, half. Theres little that can be gleaned from this that you wont get from multiple viewings of the original cut.