Mind over movies
Charlie Kaufman is my favorite screenwriter. He mixes big questions with absurdity and humor better than anyone else plying his trade. This post at Mind Hacks led me to a couple of fun articles on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one at k5 and another at Slate. It was my favorite movie of the year. Lacuna has a good site, too.
Although I work in neurobiology, I did not take a scientific approach to the movie. I do not study memory anyway. The two articles point out how the movie emphasizes association over linear temporal encoding. Joel’s leaps from one memory to the next following thin threads match my own experiences. While the big helmet was just a funny prop, Kaufman captured the terrain of memory well. I should get a copy and watch it again.
