Ms. Web didn’t try to confuse the few people who saw her. The comic book movie ended this way: due to incompetence, lazy filmmaking, or anything else, maybe we’ll never know for sure.
However, many films created by auteurs aim to confuse their audiences, begging them to get to the bottom of the plot in order to locate the true message of the story. Most of the time, they succeed. But some movies leave audiences frustrated and still searching for the meaning of the movie after the credits. Here are a dozen movies that have a reputation for baffling and confusing audiences.
There have been a plethora of blog posts and YouTube videos claiming to be able to explain the plot of Christopher Nolan’s time travel adventure. Despite featuring amazing action scenarios, even the Oscar-winning director admits that this film, starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, is “not entirely understandable,” so if you’re watching this mind-blowing thriller, just enjoy the ride.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Honestly, almost every single film directed by surrealist David Lynch can be on this list, but none of them required a glossary of the global Lynch created from Frank Herbert’s sci-fi masterpiece. If you also take into consideration that director Denis Villeneuve has Controlled to create two successful films from the same novel, you begin to wonder if Mulholland Drive is really that complicated.
Where to stream: Max, digital rental
Speaking of Denis Villeneuve, The Sullen Prisoners director’s sequel reunites him with the film’s star, Jake Gyllenhaal. This absolute stunt puzzle of doubles was given little attention when it launched, as was the fate of most of A24’s non-horror offerings. (Their marketing (The team doesn’t seem to have figured out how to sell videos that don’t have an interesting hook. )It gained a cult following in the decade after its release, while its Canadian-born director turned to big-budget filmmaking. Cinema with Arrival and its two adaptations of Dune.
Where to stream: Kanopy, Cinemax, Digital Rental
The Coen brothers’ film about a pretentious screenwriter looking to unleash his creativity won awards at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, adding its first award, the Palme d’Or. Is it because he satirizes Hollywood so well, or is it because of his metaphorical vision of heaven and hell?It’s most likely both, but when you see John Goodman running down the hallway of a burning hotel with a shotgun at the end of the film, you might wonder what message the filmmakers were really looking to convey.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Joaquin Phoenix plays an investigator who seeks to locate his missing ex-girlfriend and her new wealthy boyfriend; However, this case comes to 3 in an entertaining film filled with a very clever 70s rock soundtrack, baffling contradictions, and an attention-grabbing labyrinthine plot. for multiple visualizations. . . The good news is that Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s equally confusing novel is a must-revisit film.
Where to stream: Paramount with Showtime, digital rental
Your favorite director’s favorite movie has such an unusual and mysterious ending that you have to watch its mediocre sequel, 2010: The Year We Were Brought in Contact, to understand what it all meant. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the innovative special effects of this classic frame hold up (quite surprisingly) and are well worth watching.
Where to stream: Max, digital rental
This film features a cast of all the wonderful British actors of the last 30 years, but condenses John le Carré’s intricate and intricate spy novel into something digestible, something the filmmakers couldn’t pull off. Look instead for the 1979 BBC adaptation starring Alec Guinness as the former spy. George Smiley, who tells his story of double agents and betrayal in just over five hours.
Where to stream: Starz, digital rental
There are plenty of subreddits committed to explaining Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning film about an alien (Scarlett Johansson) who seduces and hunts humans (we think), but then starts sympathizing with them (it’s a theory). A tough scene with a lonely baby on a beach that, for some, fits well with the film’s theme or, for others, muddies the plot.
Where to stream: Kanopy, Max, Digital Rental
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays an avatar of the film’s editor and director, Charlie Kaufman. He strives to put on a play in a life-size reproduction of New York City that he built with the MacArthur Fellowship he was awarded. Over the years, the difference between the play and the genuine global blurs, leaving the actors (and the film’s audience) suffering as they perceive what’s happening.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
As evidenced by the more than 20% disparity between critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, this visually stunning yet sci-fi film starring Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac left moviegoers with more questions than answers. It’s about a biologist who seeks to find out what happened to her husband while he was inside a phenomenon called “The Shimmer,” but most likely the film’s ambiguous ending left audiences baffled and frustrated.
Where to Stream: Pluto TV, Virtual Rental
It starts out like any other kitschy Wes Anderson movie, this one about extraterrestrial beings coming into contact with humans in the small desert town. As the characters face the uncertainty of this development, it becomes a meta-satire about. . . narration? If you’re already a fan of Anderson’s style, there’s a lot to love here. Otherwise, this labyrinthine, star-studded gem is unlikely to influence you.
Where to stream: Prime Video, digital rental
Brad Pitt reportedly left this film because he found the script co-written by Darren Aronofsky illogical. Pitt replaced Hugh Jackman, who seeks eternal life in three other timelines. The stories never came together for the few people who saw it. And it’s now considered one of the biggest box office blunders of all time.
Where to Stream: Digital Rental
Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert said in their TV review that they admired David Cronenberg’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs on paranoia and addiction, but they couldn’t introduce it. It’s not hard to see why. Cronenberg incorporates elements of Beat’s life and paintings into the script, but the film’s mystical elements and talking insects make the plot almost incomprehensible.
Where to stream: Maximum
Jason Keil is a writer, editor, and podcast host in Phoenix, Arizona. Despite many attempts, he has yet to read the copy of “Infinite Jest” on his bedside table.