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Mindf**k movies.
- Thread starter eclair
- Start date
Fight Club. So glad I watched it before I read it.
beer good
Well-Known Member
Going by the above movies as definition, how about...
eXistenZ
Spider
2001
Solaris
Donnie Darko (and anything else by the same director, except this one's actually good)
The Machinist
Jacob's Ladder
Brazil (literally)
See also this.
Though it's a tricky definition. A lot of the movies people seem to list as "mindfucks" are really pretty uncomplicated, just told in a way that makes them seem complicated. Personally I think people like Lynch and Cronenberg try to make a point with their mindfuckery, where other directors (I'm looking at you, Richard Kelly) only use them for effect or to insert a twist ending (I'm looking at you, The Prestige). I've seen some that list any movie that involves time travel, or even any movie that's not completely plotdriven, and that's just lazy. If you're gonna **** my mind, do it properly.
eXistenZ
Spider
2001
Solaris
Donnie Darko (and anything else by the same director, except this one's actually good)
The Machinist
Jacob's Ladder
Brazil (literally)
See also this.
Though it's a tricky definition. A lot of the movies people seem to list as "mindfucks" are really pretty uncomplicated, just told in a way that makes them seem complicated. Personally I think people like Lynch and Cronenberg try to make a point with their mindfuckery, where other directors (I'm looking at you, Richard Kelly) only use them for effect or to insert a twist ending (I'm looking at you, The Prestige). I've seen some that list any movie that involves time travel, or even any movie that's not completely plotdriven, and that's just lazy. If you're gonna **** my mind, do it properly.
eclair
Member
^ I'm still confused about Jacob's Ladder, in a good way. Solaris, the remake? Not seen it, if it's a patch on the original may have to give it a go.
Generally, yeah, definition of mindfuck does seem to be quite subjective.
There are some really interesting films on that site you linked to, reminded me to watch El Topo. Jodorowsky can usually be relied on for a little fuckery.
I'll throw in Rashomon as a contender. Maybe Primer too, but I never watched that to the end.
Generally, yeah, definition of mindfuck does seem to be quite subjective.
There are some really interesting films on that site you linked to, reminded me to watch El Topo. Jodorowsky can usually be relied on for a little fuckery.
I'll throw in Rashomon as a contender. Maybe Primer too, but I never watched that to the end.
beer good
Well-Known Member
Well, I meant the original, but the remake is actually surprisingly good - it's a completely different movie, or as completely different as two movies with the same basic plot can be, but taken on its own terms it's definitely worth watching.
Tai_Mai_Shu
New Member
David Lynch's movie the one with Naomi Watts.
eclair
Member
^Mulholland Drive.
Will,
LMAO. ''I told you I was here.''
I've always been sceptical of remakes, but am beginning to accept that they are not always without merit.
Will,
LMAO. ''I told you I was here.''
beer good said:
I've always been sceptical of remakes, but am beginning to accept that they are not always without merit.
Not seen or read it, yet I know the twist. Makes one wonder what people have actually seen/read firsthand, and how much we have simply absorbed from secondary and even tertiary sources.sparkchaser said:
beer good
Well-Known Member
One of my all-time favourites. I think I've just about worked out what happens in it. INLAND EMPIRE is going to need a few more watches, though. I don't think there's any way to reduce that one to a simple plot.
It probably helps that Soderbergh doesn't really treat it as a remake of the Tarkovsky movie but as a new adaptation of the Lem novel - and his reading of the novel is very different from Tarkovsky's. It's been a few years since I watched either movie though, I should probably rewatch both and take notes.
beer good
Well-Known Member
Basically, (spoiler for Mulholland Dr.)
the story is this: two struggling actresses in Hollywood, one blonde and one brunette, fall in love - the blonde more so than the brunette. When the brunette decides to dump her and instead get involved with a successful male director, and her career takes off as a result, the blonde is devastated and furious and hires a contract killer to assassinate her ex. When she wakes up the next day and receives news that the job is done, she's wracked by guilt and kills herself.
Except most of what happens in the film is her dream on that last night. (The film actually starts with a shot of someone falling asleep, face first into a pillow.) In which she's the innocent wide-eyed ingenue who takes old Hollywood by storm, where her lover doesn't remember what's happened but is instinctively drawn to her, where the director is humiliated and emasculated, where the failure of her career to take off is the fault of some mysterious shadowy mafia organisation and not her own shortcomings, where the hitman is a klutz who can't get anything done, and where she can always fix things, Nancy Drew-style. This is the majority of the movie, that brightly coloured story that slowly starts to fall apart and get uglier as time passes. It's partly the psychology of guilt - her trying to make herself the heroine even though she's the villain, using every trick the movies have taught her - and partly a pretty harsh satire of how Hollywood works (or how we think Hollywood works); Sunset Boulevard updated with a twist.
And then the dream ends when it fails to fix anything, she wakes up, we're given the real story in flashbacks. She thinks back to the dream, can't reconcile who she wants to be with what she's irrevocably done, snaps and offs herself.
Or does she...? Pam-pam-paaaa! There's a few seconds at the end hinting that this is part of the dream as well - whether it's her dream or Lynch's dream is up to the viewer. There is no orchestra.
Except most of what happens in the film is her dream on that last night. (The film actually starts with a shot of someone falling asleep, face first into a pillow.) In which she's the innocent wide-eyed ingenue who takes old Hollywood by storm, where her lover doesn't remember what's happened but is instinctively drawn to her, where the director is humiliated and emasculated, where the failure of her career to take off is the fault of some mysterious shadowy mafia organisation and not her own shortcomings, where the hitman is a klutz who can't get anything done, and where she can always fix things, Nancy Drew-style. This is the majority of the movie, that brightly coloured story that slowly starts to fall apart and get uglier as time passes. It's partly the psychology of guilt - her trying to make herself the heroine even though she's the villain, using every trick the movies have taught her - and partly a pretty harsh satire of how Hollywood works (or how we think Hollywood works); Sunset Boulevard updated with a twist.
And then the dream ends when it fails to fix anything, she wakes up, we're given the real story in flashbacks. She thinks back to the dream, can't reconcile who she wants to be with what she's irrevocably done, snaps and offs herself.
Or does she...? Pam-pam-paaaa! There's a few seconds at the end hinting that this is part of the dream as well - whether it's her dream or Lynch's dream is up to the viewer. There is no orchestra.
That's how I see it, at least. There's a few details that are hard to work out, but on a whole it works great, I think.
Tai_Mai_Shu
New Member
^^^ Memento was great. I totally forgot about that one.
Lincoln Rhyme
New Member
Frailty had an very unexpected ending. One of my favorite movies of all time.
cajun_duck
New Member
Moon
eclair
Member
^ Moon?
^^ Unexpected endings, then Dr.Caligari has to be the ultimate.
Yowsers! I am planning on a rewatch tonight, will comment further after.
^^ Unexpected endings, then Dr.Caligari has to be the ultimate.
Yowsers! I am planning on a rewatch tonight, will comment further after.
cajun_duck
New Member
beer good
Well-Known Member
Personally I thought the biggest mindfuck about Moon was realising that the director is David Bowie's son. Ground control to Major Tom...
But yeah, it's a good movie.
eclair
Member
Rewatch of Mulholland Drive. The inherent sadness of it never seemed as intense before, which is likely a result of watching it this time without a goal in mind. In previous viewing the goal was always to seek out clues and figure out what the hell was going on, this time I was more relaxed about that.
The vague notions I had about it before were based on the thought of Betty, Diane, Camilla, and Rita all being the same person, the differing facets of one person and how they play out in the consciousness/dream state. However, your explanation is more solid as it makes sense of more of the puzzle pieces.
The vague notions I had about it before were based on the thought of Betty, Diane, Camilla, and Rita all being the same person, the differing facets of one person and how they play out in the consciousness/dream state. However, your explanation is more solid as it makes sense of more of the puzzle pieces.
