In a tiny apartment a man armed with a shoe is chasing
something around the room, desperately trying to kill it.
Shot in black and white, the man’s evident suffering seems
even more intense. The ticking of the clock is oppressive and the ringing phone
is intruding on the scene. He looks like he has been chasing this creature for
a while and he is reaching the end of his sanity. Finally he
manages to catch it and we see that it is a smaller version of him (and it’s
also in the process of chasing an even smaller version of himself), he strikes
and seems happy at finally catching it. But just behind him we see a larger
version of his own face that then kills him. Despite clearly knowing that it is
a smaller version of himself that he’d be killing, he just seems happy to have
finally done it. But then he’s trapped in an infinite loop - he will always be
killing himself over and over. He most likely knows this, and from the stress
we can see earlier, it’s clear he isn’t against ending it for whichever version
he has to.
This is an early film from Christopher Nolan, and it has
quite a student-y vibe. But that doesn’t make it any less interesting or
thought-provoking. If you could end your own suffering but you would incur the
ultimate loss, would you?
7/10
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