Justgirlythings

Lenny is a self-made man. Lenny reinvents himself by the minutes. Lenny lives in the moment. Lenny makes decisions and moves forward. Lenny participates in the worldwide movement of taking polaroid photos wherever he goes.

And yet how is it that Nolan could make all these tumblr-worthy, #justgirlythings qualities seem so dark-humorous, violent and claustrophobic (e.g the almost epilepsy-inducing flashbacks of a suffocating woman) ? How is it that the struggle of the main character as he copes with his psychological condition and the obvious emotional distress satirically different from, say, that of Joel from Eternal Sunshine of A Spotless Mind? Both men are made vulnerable by an incident related to their significant other. Both went through deliberate, self-manipulative courses of actions to safe-guard their emotional well-beings. Their choices are different, yes, but that alone isn’t enough to constitute the drastic tonal differences between each plot. To address the difference in artistic and creative signatures isn’t exactly any better either, unless we can figure out the reasons behind this particular case of differentiation, this representative of hundreds of other endeavours attempting to expose filmic audience of hundreds of biased and subjective considerations of mental health problems. Admittedly, a part of me thinks it’s useless to devote fully to investigate these films from this vantage point, cause let’s face it, how are the films any different from the countless commercials that ruin your Hulu experience by telling you to ask your doctor about pills and drugs to help combat your mental health? God damn it binging Blackadder doesn’t mean I’m a suicidal psychopath we cool?

In any event, to finish off this rather cynical rant, the only difference I see is they have bigger budgets and directors who happen to be better hypnotists than most. So rage against the machine with me cause we’re not letting that kickass DNA-splicing storytelling mechanics that obviously refers to Lenny’s cognitive condition blind us from the fact that it isn’t just Lenny that is self-manipulating himself. Sorry Conor I had to.

The other part of me, though, is still on the fence. It has been awhile since I last saw this film. So I need to be more observant this time (and also need to rewatch Jim Carrey again) before I could make any more arguments and back them up.