In short: 88 (2015)

Gwen (Katharine Isabelle), suddenly finds herself in one of those archetypical US diners in the middle of nowhere. She has no idea how she got there, and doesn’t seem to be too sure who she is either. Parts of that will come back in a series of disjointed, out of order flashbacks to two different points in time when she seems to have been two very different persons – the rather mild-mannered version remembering this again, and a pretty damn murderous woman on a killing spree calling herself “Flamingo”.

Apparently, much of the violence has to do with taking vengeance on her former boss, psychotic drug lord Cyrus (Christopher Lloyd) for the death of the love of her life Aster (Kyle Schmid). Things get messy and violent in every one of the film’s timelines.

There is obviously quite a bit of Memento in the DNA of April Mullen’s film, but where Nolan’s film was very strictly structured, 88 is often confusing and disjointed. That’s not bad filmmaking, I believe, but rather a conscious decision by Mullen and screenwriter Tim Doiron (who also plays a supporting role on screen) to let the film mirror the shattered psyche of its protagonist, leaving the viewer often just as confused by the way things in her world and in her personality hang together as she is for most of the film. Mullen’s visual style adds to this feeling, giving everything a woozy and unreal quality that works well for what she’s doing here, at least for my taste, and also helps keep up a certain pulpy energy.

Isabelle is pretty great, too, providing a visual and personal anchor to proceedings, at once playing three – Gwen I and Gwen II are not perfectly consistent with one another – very different characters yet signalling clearly who is who while also showing a coherent emotional core.