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    ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’: Still Hard to Forget

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    Michel Gondry’s surreal love story stunned audiences in 2004, and some of its sentiments are all the more relevant in the social media age.They say the only cure for heartbreak is time, although a lobotomy might be more effective. It’s a thorny conceit that Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) tested out for our pleasure in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” by erasing memories of her ex-boyfriend, Joel Barish (Jim Carrey). Michel Gondry’s surreal love story stunned audiences in 2004 and remains hard to forget 20 years later.Like all painful breakups, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” has lingered in the consciousness long after the love story’s expiration date. The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman — who was fresh off the critical double-hitters “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation” — wrote Clementine and Joel’s love affair as a claustrophobic, unspooling maze that earned the movie an Oscar for best screenplay. Kirsten Dunst and Mark Ruffalo were knocking on stardom’s door when they gave delightful supporting performances as haphazard assistants of the memory-erasing company Lacuna Inc. The movie was one of a handful of romantic comedies from its decade (including “Lost in Translation” and “(500) Days of Summer”) that redefined what it meant to be both misunderstood and in love; in this cinematic landscape, love interests didn’t end up happily ever after. What they gave instead was the idea that maybe a love lost isn’t necessarily a net loss.As Clementine, an erratic and compulsive bookstore clerk, Winslet gives a career-redefining performance. Today, her idiosyncratic character lives on TikTok and Tumblr as a patron saint of women who are paradoxically lovable and terrifying. (“I apply my personality as a paste,” she says of her hair dye, aptly titled Blue Ruin.) Her legacy stands in the pantheon of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, a fast-talking screwball woman who protests, “Too many guys see me as a concept.” Most of all, she loves her own despair — if the film had come out today, it would be easy to imagine her posting about Prozac, stomach aches and Ottessa Moshfegh novels.And as Joel, Carrey remains an avatar for frustratingly plain and tightly wound men. After Joel discovers that Clementine has zapped him and their relationship thanks to Lacuna Inc., he decides to do the same. (In a contemporary parallel, I have blocked someone on Instagram to regain a sense of control, only to discover the psychic torture persists.) Together, they tumble through Joel’s tangled and chimeric subconscious in quotidian montages of early bliss and innocent flirtations.Along the way, Joel realizes he’d rather have all of Clementine, heartbreak included, than none of her. He desperately tries to salvage the memories as they’re deleted, trapping himself in a maze of his own psyche. The film spins out of control, traversing realities and timelines, until we are left with a teary-eyed Clementine and Joel, who acknowledge the futility of their relationship. “I’ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me,” asserts Clementine. “OK,” Joel says with a smirk and then agrees to try again, despite knowing the inevitable disaster of their attraction.A. O. Scott looks back at Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s film about loss, memory and love.Ellen Kuras/Focus FeaturesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      25 Biggest Oscar Snubs of All Time

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      Every year since the Academy Awards were invented, somebody has been overlooked, ignored, passed over, disregarded or brushed off. You know what they say about beauty and beholders.But perceived Oscar omissions — snubs, as we have come to call them — have grown into a frenzied annual conversation, with people left off the nomination list, or nominated but denied a statuette, sometimes receiving as much attention, or more, as those who win.These are the 25 true snubs and unjust losses that Times film critics, columnists, writers and editors still can’t get over. Read more →‘Do the Right Thing’ for Best Picture (1990)Actual winner: “Driving Miss Daisy”Spike Lee and Danny Aiello in the Brooklyn-set drama.Universal PicturesSome people hated this movie. Others, more ominously, feared it, or claimed to. News articles and reviews imagined riots sprouting in its wake (they never came), seeing in the character of Mookie — who, in a fit of righteous fury, smashes a pizzeria window in the film’s famous climax — confirmation of Lee’s insidious intent. Did academy voters have similar misgivings? Lee, who was shut out of the directing category, did receive a nomination for his screenplay, suggesting at least one branch of the organization had his back. (Danny Aiello was also nominated for supporting actor.) But it’s hard to look at the eventual best picture winner, “Driving Miss Daisy” — a film in which Morgan Freeman plays Hoke Colburn, the patient chauffeur of a bigoted, elderly white woman — and not see a statement of preference. In 1990, it was the Hoke Colburns of the world, not the Mookies, who were welcome on the academy’s biggest stage. REGGIE UGWU, pop culture reporterWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ Review: Keep Up! Bada-Brrring!

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      Jim Carrey’s reprised role as a villainous weirdo helps this fast-paced, family-friendly video-game-movie sequel maintain a refreshing silliness.Introduced by Sega at the start of the 1990s, the zippy blue hairball Sonic the Hedgehog is now officially over the hill and picking up speed onscreen. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” is a fast-paced romp that’s silly, filled with quips and unabashedly for children — which is refreshing, coming at a time when so many other children’s franchises have succumbed to Sturm und Drang.This full-tilt sequel by the returning director Jeff Fowler and the screenwriters Pat Casey, Josh Miller and John Whittington finds Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) struggling to relax with his adopted parents, Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter). Their small town is invaded by two animated extraterrestrials: Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), a flying fox who wants to make friends, and Knuckles (Idris Elba), a dog-like bruiser who wants to make mincemeat of anyone who gets between him and an all-powerful whiz-bang of a weapon called the Master Emerald.Things proceed as one might expect, but the road is littered with bits of lunacy that keep the audience on its toes. While the gags can be a hair too reliant on pop culture references — Limp Bizkit and Pantera? — the script has a rare affection for even small characters like Maddie’s quarrelsome sister (Natasha Rothwell), who gets to strut away with the most memorable fight scene.Still, there’s only so far sass can get you, and, as in the last movie, things would sputter to a halt without Jim Carrey’s performance as the fiendish Dr. Robotnik. Carrey may have created the best PG-movie villain in decades: a perfectly calibrated comedy machine whose preening, glowering and frustrated sputtering somehow still seem spur of the moment. Recently, Carrey suggested that he might retire from acting. If these films really do turn out to be Carrey’s goodbye, he is leaving Hollywood with a farewell gift: His built-for-the-big-screen exuberance might just hook this generation of kids on the joy of going to movie theaters.Sonic the Hedgehog 2Rated PG. Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes. In theaters. More

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      in Television

      ‘Saturday Night Live’ Finds a New Joe Biden After Jim Carrey Exits

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Saturday Night Live’ Finds a New Joe Biden After Jim Carrey ExitsAlex Moffat became the latest “S.N.L.” cast member to portray Biden, following Carrey’s announcement that he was stepping down from the role.The role of Joe Biden was taken over on “S.N.L.” this week by Alex Moffat, left, pictured with Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris and Beck Bennett as Mike Pence.Credit…NBC Universal, via YouTubePublished More