Reviews

After a fight, Joel Barish discovers that his girlfriend Clementine Kruczynski has had her memories of him erased by the New York City firm Lacuna. Heartbroken, he decides to undergo the same procedure. In preparation, he records a tape for Lacuna, recounting his memories of their volatile relationship.

The Lacuna employees work on Joel's brain as he sleeps in his apartment so that he will wake up with no knowledge of the procedure. One employee, Patrick, leaves to see Clementine; since her procedure, he has been using Joel's and Clementine's memories as a guide for seducing her. While the procedure runs on Joel's brain, technician Stan and secretary Mary party and have sex.

Joel re-experiences his memories of Clementine as they are erased, starting with their last fight. As he reaches earlier, happier memories, he realizes that he does not want to forget her. His mental projection of Clementine suggests Joel hide her in memories that do not involve her. This halts the procedure, but Stan calls the Lacuna boss, Howard, who arrives and restarts it. Joel arrives at his last remaining memory of Clementine: the day they first met, on a beach in Montauk. As the memory crumbles around them, Clementine tells Joel to meet her in Montauk.

In Joel's apartment, while Stan is outside, Mary tells Howard she is in love with him and they kiss. Howard's wife, furious, tells Howard to tell Mary the truth: that Mary and Howard previously had an affair, and that Mary had her memories erased. Disgusted, Mary steals the Lacuna records and mails them to the patients, including Joel and Clementine.

Joel wakes up, his memories of Clementine erased. He goes to Montauk on impulse and meets Clementine again on the train home. They are drawn to each other and go on a date to the frozen Charles River in Boston. Joel drives Clementine home and Patrick realizes they have found each other again. Joel and Clementine receive their Lacuna records and listen to their tapes. They are shocked by the bitter memories they had of each other, but agree to try again. My Rating: 10/10

In 1963, Ford Motor Company Vice President Lee Iacocca proposes to Henry Ford II to purchase the cash-strapped Ferrari as a means to boost their car sales by participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Enzo Ferrari however, uses Ford's offer to secure a more lucrative deal with Fiat that allows him to retain complete ownership of Scuderia Ferrari. In rejecting the proposed deal with Ford, Ferrari also intentionally insults both Ford Motor and Henry Ford II. In response, a furious Ford orders his racing division to build a car to defeat Ferrari at Le Mans. For this task, Iacocca hires Shelby American owner Carroll Shelby, a former driver who won Le Mans in 1959 but was forced to retire due to a heart condition. In turn, Shelby enlists the help of Ken Miles, a hot-tempered British racer and struggling mechanic, and Shelby's best friend.

Shelby and Miles test the Ford GT40 Mk I prototype at Los Angeles International Airport, working out all of its design flaws until it is race-ready. Thinking that Miles is not their ideal driver, Ford opts to send Phil Hill and Bruce McLaren to the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans instead. As predicted by Miles, none of the Fords finish the race. While Ford sees this as a humiliating defeat, Shelby explains to him that the GT40 instilled fear in Enzo Ferrari, as it reached 218 mph (350.8 km/h), on the Mulsanne Straight before it broke down. Shelby and Miles continue development on the GT40 Mk II, but Miles is nearly killed when the car has brake fade during testing. In 1966, Ford Senior Vice President Leo Beebe takes over the racing division, with the intent to continue the program without Miles, but Shelby gives Ford a ride in the car and wagers his own company to convince Ford to agree that if Miles wins the 24 Hours of Daytona, he will be allowed to race at Le Mans.

Shelby American enters Daytona, but Beebe has a second Ford entered with NASCAR team Holman-Moody supporting it. While the Holman-Moody team has quicker pit stops, Shelby has Miles push his car to the 7,000 RPM tachometer redline and he wins the race.

At the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, Miles struggles with a faulty door during the first lap, but after team engineer Phil Remington fixes it with a mallet, Miles begins to set lap records while catching up to the Ferraris. While racing with Ferrari driver Lorenzo Bandini - piloting Ferrari's new prototype 330 P3 - Miles experiences brake failure and has his brake system replaced during his pit stop. Enzo Ferrari protests the move, but Shelby convinces race officials that the replacement is legal. Miles and Bandini once again duel on the Mulsanne Straight until Bandini blows his engine, eliminating the Ferrari from the race. With three Ford teams in the top positions, Beebe orders Shelby to have Miles slow down for the other two Fords to catch up with him and provide the press with a three-car photo finish. Miles is initially against this decision, continuing to set new lap records near the end of the race, but decides to let Ford have their way on the final lap. Ultimately, McLaren is declared the winner on a technicality, but Miles is grateful to Shelby for giving him the opportunity to race at Le Mans.

Two months after Le Mans, while testing the J-car at Riverside International Raceway, Miles once again experiences brake failure and is killed in the resulting crash. Six months later, Shelby pays Miles' widow Mollie and son Peter a visit and gives Peter a wrench that Miles threw at him before winning an SCCA race at Willow Springs in 1963.

Ford continued its winning streak at Le Mans in 1967, 1968, and 1969. Miles was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2001. My Rating: 8/10

The theater company owned by Charlie Barber, a successful theater director in New York City, is producing a play that stars his wife, Nicole, a former teen film actress. The couple is experiencing marital troubles and sees a mediator, who suggests that they each write down what they like about one another, but Nicole is too embarrassed to read hers aloud and they decide to forgo the counseling.

When Nicole is offered a starring role in a television pilot in Los Angeles, she decides to leave the company and temporarily live with her mother in West Hollywood, taking her son Henry. Charlie decides to stay in New York, as the play is moving to Broadway. Despite the couple agreeing to split amicably and forgo lawyers, Nicole hires Nora Fanshaw, a family lawyer, and rants about how she gradually felt neglected by him and how he rejects her ideas and desires. Nicole suggests that Charlie slept with the stage manager of the theater company. Charlie visits his family, revealing that he has won a MacArthur Fellowship grant, but Nicole declares divorce. Charlie meets with Jay Marotta, a brash and expensive lawyer who urges Charlie to fight dirty, but Charlie returns to New York without hiring him. He receives a call from Nora, who urges him to get a lawyer soon or risk losing custody of Henry. Charlie returns to Los Angeles and hires Bert Spitz, an empathetic and retired family lawyer who favors a civil and conciliatory approach.

On Bert's counsel, Charlie rents an apartment in Los Angeles to be closer to his family and strengthen his custody case. Charlie wishes to avoid court, so Bert arranges a meeting with Nora and Nicole. Nora argues that Charlie refused to respect Nicole's wishes to move back to Los Angeles and that Henry would prefer to stay with his mother rather than fly back and forth between coasts. Bert privately advises Charlie to drop his New York residency altogether, but a frustrated Charlie refuses and fires him.

Using the first payout of his fellowship grant, Charlie rehires Jay. The case moves to court, where Nora and Jay argue aggressively on behalf of their clients, leading to a series of character assassinations; Nora highlights Charlie's past infidelity and emotional distance, while Jay exaggerates Nicole's drinking habits and threatens criminal action for hacking into Charlie's emails. Meanwhile, Charlie and Nicole remain friendly out of court and share time with Henry, who is increasingly annoyed with the back-and-forth.

Disillusioned with the legal process, the couple decides to meet in private. However, a friendly discussion in Charlie's apartment turns emotional and vicious; Nicole claims that Charlie has now fully merged with his own selfishness, and Charlie wishes death upon her. He then breaks down in tears and apologizes; Nicole comforts him. An appointed expert evaluator monitors a night in with Charlie and Henry, during which Charlie accidentally cuts himself. Soon after, the couple agrees to relax their demands and reach an equal agreement to finalize the divorce, although Nora negotiates slightly better terms for Nicole, against her wishes.

A year later, Charlie's play has a successful Broadway run, while Nicole has a new boyfriend and is nominated for an Emmy Award for directing an episode of her show. Charlie informs Nicole that he has taken a residency at UCLA and will be living in Los Angeles full-time to be closer to Henry. Later, he discovers Henry reading Nicole's list of things she loves about Charlie she wrote down during counseling. Henry asks Charlie to read it aloud to him, and Charlie does so, becoming emotional as Nicole watches from afar. After a Halloween party that evening, Nicole offers to let Charlie take Henry home even though it is her night. Charlie walks out to his car carrying a sleeping Henry, and they part ways once more. My Rating: 8/10

Soon-to-retire Detective Lieutenant William Somerset is partnered with short-tempered but idealistic Detective David Mills, who has recently moved to an unnamed large city with his wife Tracy. After forming a friendship with Somerset, Tracy confides to him that she is pregnant and has yet to tell Mills, as she is unhappy with the city and feels it is no place to raise a child. Somerset sympathizes, having had a similar situation with his ex-girlfriend many years earlier, and advises her to tell Mills only if she plans to keep the child.

Somerset and Mills investigate a set of murders inspired by the seven deadly sins: a morbidly obese man forced to eat until his stomach burst, representing gluttony, and a criminal defense attorney killed after being forced to cut a pound of flesh from himself, representing greed. Clues at the murder scenes lead them to a suspect's apartment, where they find a third victim, a drug dealer and child molester, strapped to a bed, emaciated and barely alive, representing sloth. The third victim is in critical condition and unable to respond to Somerset and Mills' questioning. Daily photographs of the victim, taken over a year, show the crimes were planned far in advance.

The detectives use library records to identify a John Doe and track him to his apartment. Doe flees and Mills gives chase, during which Mills falls from a fire escape and injures his arm. Mills searches a truck before being struck in the head with a tire iron. While Mills is incapacitated, Doe walks up and holds him at gunpoint for a moment before escaping. The apartment contains hundreds of notebooks revealing Doe's psychopathy, as well as a clue to another murder. The detectives arrive too late to stop a man forced by Doe at gunpoint to kill a prostitute by raping her with a custom-made, bladed strap-on, representing lust. The following day, they attend the scene of a fifth victim, a model whose face has been mutilated by Doe; she was given the option to call for help and live disfigured, or commit suicide by taking pills, representing pride.

As Somerset and Mills return to the police station, Doe turns himself in, covered in the blood of an unidentified victim. Doe offers to take the detectives to the final two victims and confess to the murders, but only under specific terms, or he will plead insanity. Somerset is wary, but Mills agrees.

Doe's directions lead the detectives to a remote deserted location, and within minutes, a delivery van approaches. Mills holds Doe at gunpoint while Somerset intercepts the driver, who says he was instructed to bring a box to them. Doe begins to taunt Mills, telling him how envious he was of his life with Tracy. Somerset opens the box and, in a sudden panic, warns Mills to stay back. Doe states that his sin was envy, and Tracy died as a result, implying that the box contains her decapitated head. Goading Mills, he reveals Tracy begged for her life and that of her baby, expressing surprise and delight when he realises Mills was unaware she was pregnant. Despite Somerset's warnings, Mills fatally shoots Doe, representing wrath, and completing Doe's plan. Somerset and the police captain watch as the devastated Mills is taken away, and Somerset offers Mills help. When the captain asks where he'll be, Somerset replies, "Around." My Rating: 9/10

Hitmen Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega arrive at an apartment to retrieve a briefcase for their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace, from a business partner, Brett. After Vincent checks the contents of the briefcase, Jules shoots one of Brett's associates, then declaims a passage from the Bible before he and Vincent kill Brett for trying to double-cross Marsellus. They take the briefcase to Marsellus, but they have to wait while he bribes champion boxer Butch Coolidge to take a dive in his upcoming match.

The next day, Vincent purchases heroin from his drug dealer, Lance. He shoots up and then drives to meet Marsellus's wife Mia, whom he had agreed to escort while Marsellus was out of town. They eat at a 1950s-themed restaurant and participate in a twist contest, then return home with the trophy. While Vincent is in the bathroom, Mia finds his heroin, mistakes it for cocaine, snorts it, and overdoses. Vincent rushes her to Lance's house, where they revive her with an adrenaline shot to her heart.

Butch betrays Marsellus and wins the bout, accidentally killing his opponent. At the motel where he and his girlfriend Fabienne are lying low and preparing to flee, Butch discovers she has forgotten to pack his father's gold watch, a beloved heirloom, and flies into a rage. Returning to his apartment to retrieve the watch, he notices a MAC-10 on the kitchen counter and hears the toilet flush. Vincent exits the bathroom and is killed by Butch, who departs and leaves the gun behind.

As Butch waits at a traffic light in his car, Marsellus happens to spot him. Butch crashes his car into Marsellus, leaving both of the men injured and dazed. After coming to, Marcellus takes a gun out, shoots at Butch, and chases him into a pawnshop. Butch gains the upper hand and points the gun at Marsellus, but the owner, Maynard, captures them both at gunpoint and binds and gags them both in the basement. Zed, a security guard, joins Maynard. Together, they take Marsellus to another room to rape him, leaving "the gimp", a silent figure in a bondage suit, to watch Butch. Butch breaks loose and knocks the gimp unconscious. Instead of fleeing, he decides to save Marsellus and arms himself with a katana from the pawnshop. He kills Maynard and frees Marsellus, who uses Maynard's shotgun to shoot Zed in the crotch. Marsellus informs Butch that they are even, as long as he tells no one about the rape and departs Los Angeles forever. Butch picks up Fabienne on Zed's chopper, and they drive away.

Earlier, after Vincent and Jules have killed Brett in his apartment, another man bursts out of the bathroom and shoots at them wildly, but misses with every bullet; after briefly checking themselves for wounds, Jules and Vincent shoot him dead. While driving away from the scene through the San Fernando Valley with Brett's associate Marvin, Jules professes that their survival was a miracle, which Vincent disputes. Vincent accidentally shoots Marvin in the head, covering themselves and the car interior in blood in broad daylight. They hide the car at the home of Jules' friend Jimmie, who demands they deal with the problem before his wife comes home. Marsellus sends his cleaner, Winston Wolfe, who directs Jules and Vincent to clean the car, hide the body in the trunk, dispose of their bloody clothes, and take the car to a junkyard.

At a diner, Jules tells Vincent that he plans to retire from his life of crime, convinced that their "miraculous" survival at the apartment was a sign of divine intervention. While Vincent is in the bathroom, a couple dubbed "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny" hold up the restaurant and demand Jules' briefcase. Distracting him with its contents, Jules overpowers Pumpkin and holds him at gunpoint; Honey Bunny becomes hysterical and trains her gun on him and Vincent returns with his gun aimed at her, but Jules defuses the situation. He recites the biblical passage, expresses ambivalence about his life of crime, and allows the robbers to take his cash and leave. Jules and Vincent leave the diner with the briefcase in hand. My Rating: 10/10