Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 🧊 + a review of George Clooney's latest
Happy Thursday! I honestly don’t know what to put here today so here’s a video of a lazy rotund seal instead. I promise I’m doing fine.
🍿 Today’s movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind remains the century’s greatest
Today’s movie is Michel Gondry’s sci-fi drama romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which frequently appears on lists for the greatest movies of the 21st-century—and for good reason. It stars Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Tom Wilkinson. Here’s what it’s about:
Joal (Carrey) is reeling from a breakup with his girlfriend Clementine (Winslet), which is made even worse when he discovers that she underwent a procedure that erases him completely from her memory. He decides to do the same, but in the process he realizes that his feelings for her are still there—but is it too late to fix his mistake? [Trailer]
Why you should watch it: I’m so glad that I decided to rewatch this recently. Even though it feels like a movie I—and many others—know so well, it felt completely different this time around. I was a kid when it first came out. And now, with some heartbreak under my belt, it hits me like a ton of bricks... or a house crumbling into the ocean. Yet, it’s endlessly entertaining with his quirky world-building, memorable characters, and patented Kaufman surrealism.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind understands the anatomy of a relationship, from beginning to end with incredible precision. It invokes that feeling when you remember a good memory with an ex. Either you can work through the pain so you can own those memories again or you can avoid it and lose those memories altogether. It reminds you that every experience is an experience worth having, even if it hurts at the time—it’s an even more poignent feeling now.
🎞 New release review: The Midnight Sky is less than inter-stellar
Here’s a snippet from my review of George Clooney’s new film The Midnight Sky. Read the full review here.
George Clooney’s directorial filmography is really as mixed as they come with highs (Good Night, and Good Luck) and lows (The Monuments Men) and then the low lows (Suburbicon). And so it’s fitting that his latest film The Midnight Sky—streaming on Netflix on December 23rd—lands very much in the middle. It feels as if it should be a sprawling sci-fi epic. It isn’t. It feels as if it should be a meditation on loneliness and regret. It isn’t. What it is is a perfectly serviceable two hour mishmash of the science fiction films that came before—mainly Interstellar and Gravity—that were noticeably more successful…
The Midnight Sky shot for the… well, sky, but missed in almost every one of its ambitions. A more focused-film and tighter screenplay might have helped this movie take off. Instead, it’s left grounded.
Have a lovely weekend. Stay warm. Stay safe. And don’t get mad, get everything.
See you Monday —
Karl