In honour of “I Am Thinking of Ending Things”, A Modest Selection of Mindfuck Filums for those who like to be treated to a self-defeating devilish, logically illogical scenario.
Let's dispense right-away with the number one's number one: “Mulholland Drive”. There. Done. See also the rest of the trilogy: “Lost Highway” and “Inland Empire”.
Chris Marker's short “la Jetée” begat “Twelve Monkeys” with Brad Pitt that begat “Twelve Monkeys” the TV series (whose main actor pops up in the 4th season of 'Westworld'!). Boris Vian's "l'Herbe rouge" arguably led to Alain Resnais's "je t'aime je t'aime".
Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman ...I actually suspect they are but one person operating under different aliases.
“Cronocrimenes” (aka “TimeCrimes”). Your man glimpses a terrifying figure stalking a woman in the distance and decides to intervene. Big mistake. In the same ballpark, “The Butterfly Effect” (two inferior sequels followed). "The grandfather paradox": if you killed your ancestor, would you exist? Huh... See "Dark", "Terminator", "A Sound of Thunder", and what about "TimeCop" where the Lottery is a trap to catch time-travellers! Not to forget René Clément's "It Happened Tomorrow".
Ten-star “Primer”. The genius of “Primer” is that its final scene opens the way to further (multiple? never-ending?) revisions, meaning that the film we have just viewed can be seen as a temporary version! Heavy, man...
The “Saw” movies belong here, since 1) the deus ex-machina named Jigsaw manipulates the other characters, entrapping them in his complex schemes despite giving them the illusion of acting out of their free will, and 2) what we see is but the product of devious editing (see also “Mother”...): what we are presented with is not the main plot, but the double plot engineered so as to serve Jigsaw's masterplan.
“A Tale Of Two Sisters” (South Korea). “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not” with la p'tite Tautou. “Mother” (South Korea again), a terrific demonstration of the power of narration. “Jacob's Ladder”.
Personal favourite of mine: “The 13th Floor” - the best Phil K Dick adaptation from a non Phil K Dick story ever shot. “Spider Forest” (South Korea) – wonderful. “Possible Worlds”. “The Truman Show”. “Revolver”. “Reconstruction” (Danish).
Your woman in “I Am Thinking of Ending Things”: “Everything is tinged.”
Your man in “I Am Thinking of Ending Things”: “There is no objective reality.”
(taken from “I Am Thinking of Ending Things”)
Kylie's video for “Come into my World”.
SPOILER AHEAD SPOILER AHEAD It has been argued that the second half of “Tenet” paves the way for the first half. Let us recap the main plot briefly: Agent 000 and his merry partner R-Pattso -that's Robert Pattinson to you- attempt to prevent the end of the world, since said apocalypse (what is at stake in the final battle, in case you hadn't got it) would prevent the time reversing machine from being invented in the future and falling into their hands, thereby depriving them of the means to go back in time and “get up to lots of stuff” (in the past before the film started, and including the opening scene assault on the Ukrainian opera) – and additionally prevent the end of the world.
SPOILER AHEAD The resolution of “Dark” is equally ingenious; regular readers know how I feel about “Dark” (I am rather liking it, yes). Our hero and his babe prevent the time-machine from being invented so that the alternate doomed universes cannot be created. Doing so, they erase their own duplicated existence – but disappear happy in the knowledge that they will be born naturally in the original universe where they are fated to meet.
A bit of literature.
Alain Robbe-Grillet: “Les Gommes” - to name but one of his amazing novels. Let's also mention "la Jalousie", whose readers cannot escape the present tense -despite the confusion of past and future events- and are not afforded the breathing space of a narrator (Remember les frères Dardenne's "Rosetta"? Its camerawork suffocates the viewers by clinging to the protagonist for the entire duration of the movie.) Robbe-Grillet went on to create the hypnotic "l'Année dernière à Marienbad". (By the way, talking of “Les Gommes”, it would be interesting to read it side by side with Simenon's “La Mort de Belle”...)
Check out the extraordinary work by French literature professor Pierre Bayard who deconstructed the likes of 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd' and 'The Hound of Baskerville' via literary criticism theories that suggest that characters develop and lead a life independent of their creator's intention! - Hence plot impossibilities...
Another hero of mine: Kurt Vonnegut “Galapagos”.
Loig Allix Thivend, “The Dublin Disaster” - available on amazon. Loig Allix Thivend, “The Rise of the Shadows, 54+1 Stories” - shit-hot stuff and no mistake. Check out in particular “The Controllers”: its author is pretty pleased with it. The Rise Of The Shadows - 54+1 stories: Synopsis 1996-2006 eBook: Thivend, Loig: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
In particular, if you liked the TV series 'Severance' you will love 'The Controllers' (written a dozen years before, mind).
That “Line Under the World” Italian story from the 50s, which got adapted for the small screen in the 70s (can't recall the proper title, sadly). “The Tunnel Under the World”, Frederick Pohl.
“Happy Deathday”1 and 2. Great craic turbocharged by its main actress miss Jessica Rothe, not at all inspired by the likes of “Lola Rennt”, the never bettered “Groundhog Day”, that bank heist episode of the “X Files”, the “rewind” episode of “The Twilight Zone”, “The Edge of Tomorrow “, “TimeCode “, "Blood Punch' (except why oh why do only two of the protagonists retain memories of what happened and not the third one? Huh?), "50 First Dates" with - and these two names will strike fear into you: Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider. Talking of, you can also check out the underwhelming proto-“Groundhog Day” with a wanna-be Adam Sandler (as if the world needed one!!) titled "Palm Springs".
Infiiiiiiinitely better: the extraordinary "Everything Everywhere All At Once", a quantum physics comedy where Michelle Yeoh demonstrates the extent of her talent - plus you ca never go wrong with Jamie Lee Curtis...
Great craic: "Boss Level" or movie as videogame. In the same area, "Blood Punch" (see remark above) and "12:01". The usual 'if we could relive our life, what would we do differently?' ('There's a lot of things / if I could I'd rearrange' - The Fly U2)
“L'Appartement” with la Bellucci - brrr...... Monica...... I had this theory, right? If any of the characters showed any bit of consideration towards any of the other two at any stage, the whole edifice would collapse. But they don't. And therefore...
Which brings us to the “Terminator” series. The problem with creating sequels was that they could not fit with the original premise: if Sarah Connor destroys the watchacallit that will permit the rise of the machines, then there won't be any future war with the machines, etc. Plus the terminators could not continue to come back to a path now straightened in Parts 3, 4, 5, 6... (I have lost count now). So, what the screenwriters did, get this, they changed tactics and solved the problem posed by the resolution in Part 2 …by offering alternative timelines. The (present) time-period terminators go back to in the last 2 or 3 instalments is not the same as the one in the first instalment. Ecco!
Free Will... the Nudge Theory... Tight Tank Tops... the Eternal Return.
“Irreversible”. Martin Amis's “Time's Arrow”. Takashi Miike “Imprint”. “Stranger than Fiction” with... Will Ferrell?!??!!?? The vintage “Twilight Zone” episode with the Southern belle marrying the wrong guy. “Sliding Doors”.
Please note: “mindfuck movie” is not a synonym for “final twist”, otherwise we'd be listing the likes of Agatha Christie, Night Shalamayan, Roald Dahl and so on... No, the intellectual pleasure of a mindfuck movie lies in working out the unravelling taking place; piercing the mystery; reframing the plot within a grand scheme; appreciating the appliance of a certain logic to the apparent ongoing disintegration - because there is a perverse logic underpinning the plot, there is a carefully planned system at work.
"The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes" - André Gide
Exhibit A: “Seul Contre Tous” - Gaspar Noé. How many movies can you think of that credit an “ethical advisor”? The unbearable logic of the plot is that the protagonist keeps making it worse for himself – but he just can't see it that way. He can only react to the situation according to his -admittedly severely tainted- perspective. Yes, quite clearly, he is not a Very Nice Man ...but we can't help rooting for him nonetheless. His travails turn into a veritable cinematic tour-de-force.
As far as I know nobody has dared adapt “Ubik” yet. “L'invention de Morel”- Borges (filmed a couple of times), (“Death and the Compass”- Borges again.) Bradbury's concept short story "A Sound of Thunder" was turned into a terrifically enjoyable action/adventure movie in 2005 featuring Sir Ben Kingsley in a wig (...therefore he is a villain eh).
“An Occurence at Oak Creek Bridge”. “The Escapist” with Brian Cox. “The Illusionist”. “Sleuth” with Sir Larry and Michael Caine. That episode of "The Avengers" in which the killer turns out to be a computer controlled house...
They didn't know it was impossible - so they did it.
“Black Mirrrrr”. It may have tapered off a bit recently, but had provided us with so many terrific episodes. When they got it right in the first three seasons... boy was it sensational. I seem to remember a terrifying Xmas episode with John Hamm amongst others.
The honorary mother of all genuinely great mindfuck movies: “Triangle”. The ever terrific Melissa George ends up on a deserted cruise boat. Ends up on a deserted cruise boat. Ends up on a deserted cruise boat. Ends up on a deserted cruise boat.
“Memento”. Set a mighty challenge to the rest of the world and no mistake. ((Was never convinced by “Inception” -and this despite several viewings - which suffers from the same problems that plague most Nolan filums apart from his terrific first Batman: it is somehow confused and confusing but that's just my two-cents.))
“Coherence” with -of all people- your man Nicholas Brandon outta “Buffy”. The premise is ingenious: What would happen if our world …. ….. ….. with …. …... …...????? Makes you wonder, dunnit! As with 'Man Bites Dog' where they didn't tell the protagonist's real grand-parents what the movie was about hee hee: the cheeky scamps shot the movie without telling the actors what would happen next.
“The Hidden”. One simple clever idea, brilliantly executed. Shamelessly ripped off by a recent episode of “The Twilight Zone”. Must also mention that it features our very own Kyle McLachlan in proto-Agent Cooper mode, hurrah!
“Predestination” with Ethan Hawke. Now hold on to your hats! Simply gives “Dark” a run for its money no less. Basically, ........... becomes ............ and ............, which means that ...... is in fact ............ Bet you didn't see this one coming, right?
“Mr Nobody”, great piece of work that somehow flew under the radar. “Nueve Reinas” and “el Aura” with our favourite Argentinian actor Ricardo Darin.
Kurosawa's "Rashomon" offers three versions of the same story. What is "truth"? Is it only perception? Where do facts/actions end and interpretation begins? A certain view of quantum physics holds that nothing exists per se, but only in relation to other events.
“Spider”, Cronenberg and Ralph Fiennes. “ExistenZ”. “Identity” with John Cusack. “Donnie Darko”, which you may have heard of. The first season of “Westworld” (the least said about the third, the better). “Multiplicity”, a comedy with Michael Keaton and the ever beautifully haired Andie McDowell. "Black Bear" and Godard's "Nouvelle Vague". The first two seasons of “Mr Robot”. “Fight Club”, the spiral logic / end of "Rant".
(“A Brilliant Mind”) (“the Others”) The "locked room" mystery of crime novels.
Nicked from a forum on “Tenet”: “Christopher Nolan should make a romantic comedy where 2 people meet at a party and fall in love, but it turns out one is from the future and the other is from the past and the party is the only present where they can be together.
But here's the real problem- the bass at the party is so loud that the couple can't hear each other talk. If they try to turn the volume down on the stereo, then the party dies, and their love fades away. Because physics.”
Now guess which one is that? Go on..............
Stop Press! An article in The Independent on the subject of time loops (oh, yeah, forgot "Looper" with Bruce Willis): Why there’s more to time loop movies than Groundhog Day | The Independent . Its main point being that such stories have a moral function: ...to accept death.
