Written and directed by Westworld <\/em>co-creator Lisa Joy, Reminiscence<\/em> is a neo-noir wrapped in an alluring sci-fi setting. Its metropolis is a drowning Miami, where global warming is flooding the streets, pushing the rich to higher ground and the poor into sinking slums called the \u201cSunken Coast.\u201d Veterans from ravenous wars drown their trauma in booze, hard drugs, or a submersion tank where their treasured memories can resurface all shiny and new. One such vet is Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), who provides guided meditation to make the crossing to these memories a smooth journey. He\u2019s aided by his war buddy Watts (Westworld\u2019s <\/em>Thandiwe Newton), who doles out tough love between swigs of her flask. Together, they give comfort to the broken, but are barely breaking even. Then, she walks in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Every noir worth its world-weary voiceover has a femme fatale who is as dazzling as she is dangerous. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation<\/em> stunner Rebecca Ferguson fills this role as sublimely as she does the glittering, glamorous gowns by costume designer Jennifer Starzyk. From the moment nightclub chanteuse Mae locks eyes with the hardened Nick, you know he has a soft spot for her. Like so many lovestruck dicks of noir, that soft spot for a damsel in distress will bring him plenty of trouble, including collisions with crooked cops, an eccentric kingpin, and a mystery he can\u2019t resist. All that begins when Mae vanishes, leaving Nick to scour memories for clues. He\u2019s not a traditional detective, but a man obsessed with what he\u2019s lost works all the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The blending of neo-noir conventions with this neon-lit sci-fi dystopia gives Reminiscence<\/em> a familiar yet fresh feel, as if we are stepping into the machine of movie memories. A color palette saturated with gold, vermillion, and teals bolster this feeling, being a bit too bright against the grime of this city to feel real. Could any color be so radiant in this world? Could any dame be so perfect as Mae? Like a poisonous creature, these violently vibrant colors are a warning: Turn back, don\u2019t look back! Lucky for us, Nick turns a blind eye to these low-cut red flags, because his adventure is thrilling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jackman leans into Logan<\/em> territory here, playing a grizzled man who is stitched together by trauma and smug confidence that he\u2019s got the world figured out\u2026until he doesn\u2019t. As he did in the (loathsome) The Greatest Showman<\/em>, the dashing leading man shares an electric chemistry with Ferguson, which makes even a PG-13 sex scene surprisingly steamy. Meanwhile, she must play the mystery, a woman who might be an angel or a devil. With enigmatic expressions and a penetrating gaze, Ferguson gives shades of Gone Girl<\/em> amid doe-eyed dreaminess. Newton is her foil, offering a countenance that flashes with cynicism, irritation, and\u2014when called for\u2014tenderness. Westworld<\/em>\u2019s Angela Sarafyan and Cliff Curtis also pop in, bringing fragility and hostility respectively. But the intoxicating scene-stealer of this crackling cast is Daniel Wu as NOLA drug dealer Saint Joe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His appearance is brief, yet Wu exudes \u201890s-era Gary Oldman energy. He makes a meal of every line\u2014be it a threat or an exclamation (\u201cMy tank!\u201d). While a buttoned-down Jackman brings a stiff machismo into their showdown, Wu is fluid and wild. His movements are complimented by a flowing silk robe, worn open over jeans, his bared chest a brash dare. Even as he\u2019s under attack, Saint Joe\u2019s devil-may-care attitude erupts into exhilaration. It\u2019s contagious. While Jackman grounds the film, Ferguson gives it mystique, and Wu knocks Reminiscence<\/em> up to twisted fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, Reminiscence <\/em>falls prey to some of the Nolan brothers\u2019 favorite indulgences, even though Westworld <\/em>co-creator Jonathan Nolan is only a producer. Some might allege that the premise of a man-on-a-mission to save his girl while at war with his memories is snatching from Memento<\/em>. The similarities are largely superficial. However, Joy does employ a popular\u2014and oft criticized\u2014element of Christopher Nolan\u2019s crime thrillers in her final act. While she earns its use through sharp storytelling, it\u2019s sure to spark some snarking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More damaging is Joy\u2019s aggressive exposition dump in act one, delivered with a voiceover from Jackman that screams \u201cstudio notes.\u201d Instead of just showing this world and how the Reminiscence machine works, Nick\u2019s narration explains the visual language, as if the audience couldn\u2019t be trusted to do so on their own. Perhaps producers feared that the day-and-date HBO Max release would mean audiences wouldn\u2019t be as patient as those who turned out for Tenet<\/em>, a movie that refused to release its premise for much of its marketing campaign (or even make much sense in full). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe that\u2019s fair. Joy doesn\u2019t have the name recognition or ferocious fandom of Nolan. So this risk might have been too big a swing for her feature debut. Still, this makes for a sluggish begin. Thankfully, once Reminiscence<\/em> gets rolling, it\u2019s a slick and satisfying ride that barrels to an ending that is suitably beautiful and bleak.\u00a0\u00a0 Lisa Joy\u2019s debut feature is an ingenious and ambitious mashup of sci-fi and neo-noir, with stellar performances to help sell its occasionally dodgy storytelling. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":584,"featured_media":17018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[1098],"class_list":["post-17016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-movie-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/584"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22207,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17016\/revisions\/22207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Reminiscence2-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/crookedc-01.svg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\nA-<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"