On Freedom Writers and Memento

After watching Freedom Writers, I figured that my future wife would be like Hilary Swank. Ok, not her, but the character she played (Erin Gruwell) Powerful woman who influenced a class of people who are racists... And she did 3 jobs to fund her teaching job. Who would do such a thing for her students? Gruwell is witty, determined, has a mind of her own, and goes an extra mile to make things work. That is what made her a great teacher. Normal teachers will simply sit down and give up hope on her students. Only thing she lacked though, is a loving and understanding husband. In the movie, because she was overly concerned with her students and her job (or so her husband thought), it ended up in a divorce. Come on, who will not love such a wife? I don't mind being her husband. All in all, it was a good movie.

Except only Qiaoli thinks it is boring.

*After the show*
Me: How? Are you inspired to be a teacher now? *fists clenched in resolution*
QL: Har? You so easily inspired meh?
Me: ......

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Memento has just made me admire the directorial skills of Christopher Nolan more. Out of the 5 shows he made, I have seen 3, and all three are great movies, the other two being Batman Begins and The Prestige. This shows that a director does not need to be old and experienced like the Scorseses or the Eastwoods or the Spielbergs. Another young director I like is Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns). Memento was told in non-chronological order. It starts with the ending, and one must stay hard to follow the sequence (or non-sequence) of the movie, and make the movie chronological in his own mind. This allows for the twist in the ending. Memento has a great twist, and I think Nolan is playing on confusion, which works very very well. One moment we are suspecting that Natalie is bad, the other moment we are suspecting that Teddy is the one. All throughout the movie the viewer is forced to keep asking questions and keep suspecting, and there was even once in the movie that I exclaimed 'This is so clever!'. One of the best contemporary movies I have watched.