In the "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series we ask participants (all are welcome) to post a single shot that they think is the chosen movie's best and tell us why. "Best" is open to interpretation of course and often highly personal... and subject to change, just like memories. Memories are the environment and subject of this week's film, Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). The film celebrates its 10th anniversary on March 19th and feels as essential as ever.
Though we usually list the Hit Me With Your Best Shot collective choices in chronological order, memories aren't linear. Instead we're sharing the best shots in rough reverse chronological order of when we received them. Read them all for the opportunity to see the movie with new eyes: someone else's.
Meet us in Montauk... 33 images after the jump
BEST SHOT(s)
click on the photos to open the corresponding articles
This time when Clementine goes all the color leaves with her...
- TB, Cinema Pop
I never fully see these shots because I am sobbing while these shots are on-screen.
- Jason, My New Plaid Pants
The turning point in the film...
- Abstew, The Film's The Thing
You're experiencing it, you think you can control it, but it's perpetually slippery...
- Nathaniel R, The Film Experience
Sculpted, twisted and pretzel-curved out of such relatable pain.
-James, Musings and Stuff
A library's worth of books wiped clean, just liked Joel's erased mind...
- Andy Hall, Three Pounds Lost
Too often innocuous moments in his adult life make him feel like a child...
- Andrew Kendall, Encore's World
Please let me keep this memory...
-Luiserghio
The way the film visually represents the literal obliteration of a relationship, ripped from memory or experience? That’s what a macro representation of what rejection feels like...
-Duncan Houst - Film Misery
Even after all these years, the film still packed an emotional wallop.
- Ryan T - Sorta That Guy
He wasn't imagining things, of course, but now that's all Mary can do...
- Nick Prigge, Cinema Romantico
Because I was dreadfully afraid that it would not have the same impact on me on another viewing. Because I was dreadfully afraid that it WOULD have the same impact on me on another viewing...
-Dancin' Dan on Film
I can't see anything I don't like about you."
-Intifada
For the optimist... / For the pessimist...
- Cinemunch
No shot describes the film’s breathtaking fantastical elements better...
- Best Shot in the Dark
I remember the suffocating feeling I had when I first saw this sequence, the way it makes you try and force your eyes to see things that can't be seen...
-James Colon, A Blogwork Orange
When I dream, my world looks just as messy and scary as Joel’s memories...
- Coco Hits NY
Out of context you're not sure if its young Joel or older Joel...
- Ben's Talking Pictures
Normally, relationships would dissolve with a formal acknowledgement...
- Shane Slater, Film Actually
Frequently, and paradoxically, the mark of a great film, or a personal favorite, is how much of it I don't remember, not how much I do...
-Amir Soltani, Amiresque
If it was meant to be...
- Martin Fernando
Moody, perceptive, impulsive, compassionate, vividly alive and whole...
- Margaret, We Recyle Movies
The longer we look at the "ugly" doll's face, the closer it gets to becoming "pretty," mimicking Joel's recollection of his romance...
- RJ, (Home) Film Schooled
It's important to stay aware with this film that most of the time we're seeing Kate Winslet, she's not actually playing a person, but an echo in his mind...
- Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Clementine never comes into focus. She's a blur, a person who has taken an interest in Joel but can't be identified...
-Jason Henson, Entertainment Junkie
One achievement that always gets me is just how emotionally earnest it manages to be through all of its complex and innovative feats of execution...
-Robert Hamer, Awards Circuit
Because it captures the warmth and sadness and isolation of their love affair...
- David Upton, Victim of the Time
Dreamy yet melancholic...
-Jan, Stranger than Most
In this moment, a perfect call back to that image at the station, but this time, it is Joel who is making the move...
-Lam Nguyen, Lam Chop Chop
The image that my mind immediately brings up when I think of the film, however, is when Joel opens his eyes and realises that he and Clementine are in bed on the snowy beach...
-Mario Arratia
Much of the film works like a fun house of memories...
-Manuel Betancourt
A richer and deeper experience upon every repeat viewing. I still think Joel and Clementine are totally incompatible though...
-Derreck Johnson, I Want to Believe
'I’m just a f-cked up girl looking for her own piece of mind. Don’t assign me yours.' They both look down, the weight of expectations baring down on them...
-Brian Zitzelman, The Examiner
NEXT TUESDAY'S FILM: LA CONFIDENTIAL (1997). Pick your shot and join us.
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