Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Mind kampf

Remember, the director has never made a bad movie

You sure you want to open that book?
You sure you want to open that book?

Remember, a genre mashup of four of contemporary cinema’s least desirable storylines, should represent everything we’ve spent the past three decades at the movies trying to forget. And yet...

When was the last time you saw a film about the Holocaust, told in the present tense, that doesn’t include at least one stock footage insert of the death camps? Or a picture ostensibly pitched to seniors that refuses to walk to a panderly, cuddlesome, and/or euthanizing beat? (Where’s Maggie Smith, the Charles Bronson of “geezer porn,” when you need her?) How about a lead character in the early stages of dementia who is never once sentimentalized or forced to solicit an audience’s pity? A biddle like this generally goes a long way, particularly when all three yarns collide in the guise of an action-thriller.

Video:

Remember

All was forgiven the moment the director’s credit hit the screen. Atom Egoyan’s early shorts deserve to be shown in every Film Tech 101 class in the land. Students who fail to learn from them should instead find work in aluminum siding. A master at the art of representing extreme isolationism (Calendar, Adoration), the closest the Academy Award–nominated director (The Sweet Hereafter) and winner of an AVN Award for Best Alternative Adult Film (Exotica) has come to cracking the mainstream was Chloe. (The numbers probably had more to do with Amanda Seyfried’s frequent state of disrobe than anything Egoyan brought to the proceedings.)

Sponsored
Sponsored

Egoyan is one of the few working directors of whom it can be said that he has never made a bad movie. Remember shows no signs of flagging. Christopher Plummer stars as Zev, an Auschwitz survivor in the early stages of dementia who’s recruited by his retirement village neighbor (Martin Landau) to undertake a perilous journey in search of the Nazi responsible for exterminating his family.

Armed with just a handwritten note to act as a daily memory prompt (was I the only one reminded of Groundhog Day?) and Landau’s cell phone number printed on his wrist, Zev’s adventure is subsidized in part by a gun shop owner — happy to sell a firearm to a man clearly not in full possession of his faculties — and a border agent who takes pity on the gun-toting nonagenarian (with an expired passport) and lets him through. If the film hits big, there’s talk of Trump building a wall around it.

Movie

Remember *****

thumbnail

A genre mashup of four of contemporary cinema’s least desirable storylines — the Holocaust, old folks, and dementia. This should represent everything we’ve spent the past three decades at the movies trying to forget. But all is forgiven the moment the director’s credit hits the screen. Atom Egoyan is one of the few working today of whom it can be said has never made a bad movie. Christopher Plummer stars as Zev, an Auschwitz survivor in the early stages of dementia who’s recruited by his retirement village neighbor (Martin Landau) to undertake a perilous journey in search of the Nazi responsible for exterminating his family. There is no actor currently at work capable of embodying the complexity of this character like Plummer. Zev is not to be pitied, nor scorned, nor stopped. The energy Plummer brings to every scene of this film — and there aren’t many without him — is enough to still any costumed vigilante one-third his age. And in many ways, the role offers pleasant payback for all those years he’s spent trying to fog the memory of Captain Von Trapp.

Find showtimes

There is no actor currently at work capable of embodying the complexity of this character like Plummer. Zev is not to be pitied, nor scorned, nor stopped. The energy Plummer brings to every scene of this film — and there aren’t many without him — is enough to still any costumed vigilante one-third his age. And in many ways, the role offers pleasant payback for all those years he’s spent trying to fog the memory of Captain Von Trapp.

The chances of an April release being remembered come awards season are relatively inconsiderable. This is one of those rare mainstream releases that gets everything right, right down to its knockout ending. As of this writing, Remember is scheduled to open exclusively at The Lot. Let’s hope business is such that the film expands before taking up permanent residence on a pay service near you.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Goose may have indie vibes, but they’re still a jam band

Fans turn out in force for show at SDSU
You sure you want to open that book?
You sure you want to open that book?

Remember, a genre mashup of four of contemporary cinema’s least desirable storylines, should represent everything we’ve spent the past three decades at the movies trying to forget. And yet...

When was the last time you saw a film about the Holocaust, told in the present tense, that doesn’t include at least one stock footage insert of the death camps? Or a picture ostensibly pitched to seniors that refuses to walk to a panderly, cuddlesome, and/or euthanizing beat? (Where’s Maggie Smith, the Charles Bronson of “geezer porn,” when you need her?) How about a lead character in the early stages of dementia who is never once sentimentalized or forced to solicit an audience’s pity? A biddle like this generally goes a long way, particularly when all three yarns collide in the guise of an action-thriller.

Video:

Remember

All was forgiven the moment the director’s credit hit the screen. Atom Egoyan’s early shorts deserve to be shown in every Film Tech 101 class in the land. Students who fail to learn from them should instead find work in aluminum siding. A master at the art of representing extreme isolationism (Calendar, Adoration), the closest the Academy Award–nominated director (The Sweet Hereafter) and winner of an AVN Award for Best Alternative Adult Film (Exotica) has come to cracking the mainstream was Chloe. (The numbers probably had more to do with Amanda Seyfried’s frequent state of disrobe than anything Egoyan brought to the proceedings.)

Sponsored
Sponsored

Egoyan is one of the few working directors of whom it can be said that he has never made a bad movie. Remember shows no signs of flagging. Christopher Plummer stars as Zev, an Auschwitz survivor in the early stages of dementia who’s recruited by his retirement village neighbor (Martin Landau) to undertake a perilous journey in search of the Nazi responsible for exterminating his family.

Armed with just a handwritten note to act as a daily memory prompt (was I the only one reminded of Groundhog Day?) and Landau’s cell phone number printed on his wrist, Zev’s adventure is subsidized in part by a gun shop owner — happy to sell a firearm to a man clearly not in full possession of his faculties — and a border agent who takes pity on the gun-toting nonagenarian (with an expired passport) and lets him through. If the film hits big, there’s talk of Trump building a wall around it.

Movie

Remember *****

thumbnail

A genre mashup of four of contemporary cinema’s least desirable storylines — the Holocaust, old folks, and dementia. This should represent everything we’ve spent the past three decades at the movies trying to forget. But all is forgiven the moment the director’s credit hits the screen. Atom Egoyan is one of the few working today of whom it can be said has never made a bad movie. Christopher Plummer stars as Zev, an Auschwitz survivor in the early stages of dementia who’s recruited by his retirement village neighbor (Martin Landau) to undertake a perilous journey in search of the Nazi responsible for exterminating his family. There is no actor currently at work capable of embodying the complexity of this character like Plummer. Zev is not to be pitied, nor scorned, nor stopped. The energy Plummer brings to every scene of this film — and there aren’t many without him — is enough to still any costumed vigilante one-third his age. And in many ways, the role offers pleasant payback for all those years he’s spent trying to fog the memory of Captain Von Trapp.

Find showtimes

There is no actor currently at work capable of embodying the complexity of this character like Plummer. Zev is not to be pitied, nor scorned, nor stopped. The energy Plummer brings to every scene of this film — and there aren’t many without him — is enough to still any costumed vigilante one-third his age. And in many ways, the role offers pleasant payback for all those years he’s spent trying to fog the memory of Captain Von Trapp.

The chances of an April release being remembered come awards season are relatively inconsiderable. This is one of those rare mainstream releases that gets everything right, right down to its knockout ending. As of this writing, Remember is scheduled to open exclusively at The Lot. Let’s hope business is such that the film expands before taking up permanent residence on a pay service near you.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Jayson Napolitano’s Scarlet Moon releases third Halloween album

Latest effort has the most local vibe
Next Article

The danger of San Diego's hoarders

The $1 million Flash Comics #1
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader