Memories of Tomorrow

Running Time:  90 minutes

Writer/Director:  Amit Tripuraneni

Featuring Richard Thompson, Rachel Gilchrist, Ray Trickitt

Availability Information:  http://www.unkreative.com/  

A man who has lost his memory lives on the shore with his lady love; but dark forces, in the form of spies with secret agendas, are closing in on all sides in the wake of a major political assassination.  Amit Tripuraneni’s Memories of Tomorrow is a muscular espionage tale with an emotionally tender core, bracketed by a pair of stellar performances. 

Richard Thompson is a knockout in the lead, his rugged features offering a range of emotional states from the gentler, somewhat naïve character in the present to the more world-weary and cynical version of himself in the past.  And he is complemented by the luminous Rachel Gilchrist, who goes from heartbroken to steely resolve in a believable and soul-rending arc.  Gilchrist’s character tries to protect Thompson’s from the encroaching outside world, and is eventually galvanized into action when she realizes that the world won’t stay at bay. 

The production values are flawless at any level, from the visually dazzling opening scene set in a sand dune in the rain to a furiously-shot shootout that sparks the explosive denouement.  Seamless shooting, editing, score, and production design complement top-notch acting.  It is a fifteen thousand dollar movie that looks like 1.5 million. 

I got so caught up in the performances and its polished sheen that I didn’t realize until it was over that at its center Memories of Tomorrow is a fairly standard spy outing with an interesting backstory, in the end more Graham Greene than Ian Fleming, sort of a James Bond tale with an emotional wallop.  The maturity of the relationships in the feature is what makes Memories of Tomorrow a cut above.  To compare this feature to other top microcinema efforts, I would say Memories of Tomorrow is a more linear Red Cockroaches, with the visual style of The Passage without the macho posturing. 

Recently, Millimeter Magazine proclaimed New York (by way of Cuba) filmmaker Miguel Coyula the first breakout star of microcinema; old news to readers of this site, where Coyula’s Red Cockroaches was championed early on.  So allow me be the first to anoint New Zealand (by way of India) filmmaker Amit Tripuraneni as the next rising star to come out of the no-budget trenches with this powerful, resonant work, the equal or better to much Hollywood fare.  I definitely look forward to more work from this outstanding director and encourage microcinema auteurs to seeks out this feature to see where the bar has been set. 

Five stars.