Memory

I have been keeping up with Michel Franco for awhile as I have enjoyed his works on "After Lucia, Chronic, and April's Daughter". While "New Order" and "Sundown" aren't perfect, I expect Franco to offer some interesting concepts and direction in his movies. "Memory" isn't the best movie he has done but it's still captivating with strong performances from Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, atmosphere, and direction throughout.

The narrative explores heavy traumatic themes that are pretty interesting without feeling cheap or exploitive. Although some of the narrative choices and concepts are left to more to be desired and at moments, a bit confusing on certain decisions, the writing and Franco's direction keeps the story on feeling compelling. The camerawork and production is solid. The performances are really good as Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard gave great performances to their characters and emotions. Unfortunately, some of the child performances aren't very good and noticeably poor.

The dialogue is solid as there are some interesting conversation moments, the characters are interesting and the themes, while at times it feels a little heavy-handed, are well-explored without feeling messy or cheap. However, unlike Franco's other works, it doesn't feel as impactful as it could have been and probably Franco's more tamer works unlike his usual style. Which does at times feel a bit detached.

Overall, despite the flaws, I still found the narrative, the performances and concepts to be interesting.