Most of the time when we watch movies, they’re fairly conventional and have plots that we can wrap our heads around. But some directors have pondered the questions “What if my film doesn’t have to make sense?” or “What if my film featured a homicidal telekinetic car tyre named Robert?”. Films that stray from the norm and are deliberately abstract can sometimes provide you with a moviegoing experience unlike any other. Sometimes they can just be pretentious wank.
Five Abstract Films That Are Actually Good
The Fountain (2006)
Darren Aronofsky is no stranger to abstract film, having made films like Pi (1998) and Black Swan (2010), but it’s his 2006 film The Fountain that’s his most out-there yet. The stories it tells cross all of time and yet it’s an incredibly moving and human film. The Fountain is sure to take you on a journey spanning over thousands of years, and by the end you’ll have transcended into another plane of existence, with one of the greatest movie scores ever and an absolutely incredible finale.
Memento (2000)
Memento showed us that movies don’t have to be told in order. The film’s scenes are all jumbled up and not in chronological order but that only makes it more exciting, making us figure out the mystery and put all the pieces of the puzzle together at the same time as the film’s protagonist Leonard, a man with short-term memory loss. Despite being unconventional in its narrative structure and its storytelling, Memento is never too confusing, and when the final scene causes everything to click into place you realise just how much of a genius Christopher Nolan is.
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Cloud Atlas has six different plots all occurring across six different eras in time with the core cast of Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving and others appearing as different characters across these different timelines. There aren’t many films that try to tell this many stories all in one film, and to connect them all together, but Cloud Atlas does a great job, with every single one of these stories being really interesting to watch.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
David Lynch is a director who’s made his fair share of mindfuck films, and films that go beyond what traditonal cinema seeks to do, so any one of his films could have made this list.
But watching Mulholland Drive feels almost dreamlike, as you’re never quite sure what’s going on how everything links together, or what on earth Billy Ray Cyrus is doing in it, and yet by the end it all, you know what’s going on and you understand exactly how everything comes together.
Annette (2021)
Music by pop duo Sparks, a baby played by a puppet and yet it somehow works. Oh, and Adam Driver becomes the first actor to sing whilst performing cunnilingus. Enough said.
Five Abstract Films That Are Pretentious Wank
Rubber (2010)
A film featuring a homicidal telekinetic car tyre named Robert should be, in theory, one of the greatest films ever made. Is it one of the greatest films ever made? Sadly not. It’s a real shame because the premise alone is better than most films that have come out of Hollywood in the last decade and yet the film itself is so bland. Very quickly the film loses its appeal, and it can never quite decide what it wants to be. Is it an action film? A comedy? A horror? Who knows? Certainly not me.
John Dies at the End (2012)
Do you know what’s the most frustrating thing about the film John Dies at the End? It’s that John doesn’t die at the end. If I’ve been promised that John dies at the end, then I’d quite like to see John die at the end.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
The first half of Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things is actually rather good. It sets up an awkward but intriguing atmosphere with some good writing and great performances but by the second half of the film it’s almost as if the script was thrown out the window, run over by a car, stamped on by an elephant and then finished by a two-year-old baby.
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Sorry to Bother You tries to go deep with its metaphors, and it tries to tackle race issues and capitalism, but the film just ends up being an absolute mess and completely disorientating. Armie Hammer wants to turn his workers in to half horse-half people for reasons and the film ends up with its own less interesting version of BoJack Horseman.
Mandy (2018)
Nicolas Cage is one of those actors that is either going to strike gold and be incredible or the film is going to be so bad that you can’t wait for it to be over. Mandy is the latter. Every single character in the film is on LSD. Need I say more? Maybe do some yourself to make it bearable.