jazzyfizzle

Memoria is one of those films, where you'll find yourself asking questions and discussing the meanings with your friends weeks after viewing. The pacing slowly rumbles, and sometimes abruptly rumbles you out of your seat, then finally boils over in its third act. Enjoy the ride.

Hands-down best book-to-film adaptation ever. Hyperboles aside - I read the book two years ago, and I was excited but tepid when I heard it was being adapted into a film. Overall, the film gave me chills. Negga and Thompson floored me with their performances. I loved every second of it. I loved Hall's choice to film it in black and white with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Truly marvelous filmmaking and storytelling.

I loved Lady Gaga's performance in this film. Despite the flashy sets, iconic costumes, and the captivating Lady Gaga - I just could not get over the strange and over-the-top Italian accents. It was downright distracting, looking at you Leto.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film's quippy zingers, memorable dialogue, and fantastic showstopping cast. I thought it was going be another run-of-the-mill biopic, but was pleasantly proven wrong. It gave me a new appreciation for the I Love Lucy show and Lucille Ball.

Hoffman and Haim were fantastic break-out stars, and the cinematography was beautiful. I was quite fine with the disjointed meandering plot, what I cannot get over is the fact that I watched a romance develop between a 25 year old woman and a 15 year old boy. I thought I was going to finally see Alana come-of-age and realize she was spending all of her time with 15 year olds and she needed to grow up, but instead she runs into the arms of Gary as if having the epiphany that he was the "one" all along. Cringe doesn't even begin to describe my feelings at the end of the film. Also, the weird racist joke scene with the restaurant owner and his Japanese wives was bizarre, it did nothing to further the plot or develop any characters. It was completely unnecessary to the film.