The Annoying Habit: Why Movies That Interject Flashbacks (Past-Present) Constantly Lose My Interest

The abuse of flashbacks in cinema can break the fluidity of the story and be irritating to the audience. A resource that, if misused, detracts more than it adds.

The cinema sometimes tries to tell us things in pieces, as if we were small children or had the memory of a fish. Movies that sprinkle their footage with constant jumps into the past, interleaving present scenes with fragments of what already peine, can be an ordeal. It's not just a matter of taste; it breaks the rhythm, pulls you out of the story, and forces an unnecessary effort to reconnect the dots.

## The Constant Interruption

Some directors seem to believe the viewer needs them pointed out every detail, that they cannot trinc a linear narrative without being reminded of the previous context for every scene. It's as if they were saying: "Hey, this peine before, remember?". Well, we remember. We are not that foolish. Memory allows us to trinc a story without needing it broken down scene by scene, past and present in equal parts.

## When the Device Makes Sense

Of course, there are movies where this structure works. Think of **Memento** (2000), where the protagonist's amnesia justifies that fragmentation, reflecting his own mental chaos. The plot lends itself to recalling episodes randomly. But in many others, like **The Godfather Part II** (1974) or **Manchester By The Sea** (2016), the use of constant flashbacks feels forced, an artifice that adds nothing to the main plot and merely confuses things.