Have you ever stared open-mouthed into the dim light of a film’s end credits, wondering what you just spent the last two hours of your life watching?
Me too.
Except, unlike most people, I actually enjoy strange and confusing movies. Years ago, I saw a little flick called Donnie Darko. And I loved it. The plot was non-linear and unpredictable, Frank was frightening and fascinating, and just when you thought you had the whole movie figured out, a giant wormhole rips through the fabric of spacetime and turns everything on its head.
Wait…what?
I couldn’t understand how a movie could be so confusing and so entertaining at the same time. I mean, don’t you have to know what’s going on to enjoy a film?
Apparently, I don’t, but I still wanted answers. For anyone who’s ever seen Donnie Darko, you probably know there’s an entire website dedicated to explaining the plot, time travel, and parallel universes. It’s pretty handy for trying to make sense of a movie that never had a chance of making sense in the first place.
Donnie Darko was probably my first indication that I’m into some pretty esoteric shit. It was refreshing not being able to predict the entire plot within the first five minutes, and the craziness of everything kept me watching. I wanted more, so I set off trying to find the weirdest, most confusing, oddball movies out there. Random, poorly-explained, unpredictable films are the kind of weird movies I’m into—movies that have you dissecting all the details and unsolved mysteries for days afterwards. Movies, that, hopefully, you enjoy in spite of the confusion. Weird Movie Wednesday is my attempt to explain the strange parts to the best of my ability, provide my own theories, and give a short synopsis of the film that will help you decide whether or not it’s worth your time.
Index
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- A Cure for Wellness
- A Scanner Darkly
- Adaptation
- American Psycho
- Annihilation
- Anomalisa
- Beetlejuice
- Being John Malkovich
- Burn After Reading
- Cats
- Circle
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- eXistenZ
- Filth
- From Dusk Till Dawn
- High-Rise
- Horns
- John Dies at the End
- Little Shop of Horrors
- Mars Attacks!
- Melancholia
- Midsommar
- mother!
- Mr. Nobody
- Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
- Only God Forgives
- Perfect Blue
- Rubber
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
- Seven Psychopaths
- Sorry to Bother You
- Suspiria
- Synchronic
- Tenet
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
- The Killing of a Sacred Deer
- The Lobster
- The Signal
- Titane
- Tusk
- Under the Silver Lake
- Under the Skin
- Us
- Vivarium