Robert Rubsam at Commonweal:
We see a pile of cloth in a barely lit room. We look, and we look some more, and might make out an ever-so-slight movement under the cloth, as if the object were breathing. Then wham: a walloping sound bursts the silence, the covers fall back, and Tilda Swinton rises into frame.
I have seen Memoria four times now, but every time I see it again I forget this basic order of events. Such is the beguiling magic of filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new film: I find myself so absorbed by the nearly dark frame, illuminated by the little streetlight showing through the curtains, that the noise hits me like a blow every time, and I shake in my seat, momentarily as disoriented as our protagonist. That feeling will persist for the rest of the film.
more here.