These are musts: Oldboy by Park chan-Wook, Cure by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, The Skin I Live In by Pedro Almodovar, The Club by Pablo Larrain, Amores Perros by Alejandro Iñarritu, Climax by Gaspar Noe, and I'll add Seven, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction.
Enter the Void -- about a DMT trip
Waking Life -- about a man trapped in a lucid dream, all done in rotoscope animation
Scanner Darkly -- made by the Waking Life guy, with improve rotoscope animation, about a cop losing his mind
The Usual Suspects -- a group of men plan a heist, with a twist
Se7en -- a serial killer is on the loose and Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt have to stop them
eXistenZ -- people get trapped in a virtual reality world played on biomechanical computers that look like blobs of flesh
Videodrome -- the sociopathic president of a TV channel is looking for the next big thing, and he thinks he's found it in a pirate broadcast that shows people being murdered. Or does it? And as he watches he begins hallucinating... or does he? Lots of weirdo body horror and mindfuckery.
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind -- if you could erase some of your memories, would you? Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet explore the idea.
Synedoche New York -- a man writes a play about him writing a play about him writing a play. It's all very recursive and even before that starts happening the world is presented in a very dreamlike fashion. Then he starts casting people to play him in the play, who then cast other people to play him in the play within the play. And it gets weirder from there.
Perfect Blue -- anime movie. It's what Black Swan was based on but I think the anime is the superior work. It's about a Japanese pop idol singer who quits to become an actor. And ends up getting stalked. Possibly by herself.
Predestination (2014). My favorite time-travel movie of all time, with some serious WTF twists.
The Triangle (2009). It looks like it's going to be one of those tired "haunted ghost ship in the Bermuda Triangle" movies but it turns into something else entirely.
“Well shot and acted” is a way of saying it’s not a poor student film. It was made by film industry professionals, yes. And no it’s not a thriller, but every scene is doing something other than what it appears to be doing, and the way it plays with subjectivity and a protagonist whose perspective is gradually revealed to be unreliable is not so unlike Memento or Shutter Island.
I want to defend my point here about the common, although understandable, abuse of phrases like “well shot” when talking about movies. There’s a Reddit thread about this called “‘Gorgeously shot’ and lazy film criticism.” There’s a solid Matt Zoller Seitz essay called “Please, critics, write about the filmmaking.” There’s an essay by Jim Emerson called [“Well-Shot and Needs Editing”](https://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/well-shot-and-needs-editing), decrying the use of those phrases when pretending to say something about a movie:
“In the 1970s and 1980s you always heard people compliment ‘the beautiful cinematography’ … It was the kind of thing someone could substitute for not saying anything at all: ‘Well, I noticed something about the movie: some of the pictures were pretty!’
“Now it's ‘well-shot,’ which means absolutely nothing -- or, rather, could mean absolutely anything -- except, maybe, ‘not well-shot.’ Anyway, it's one of those things lazy critics habitually throw into the final paragraph of their reviews, which Richard T. Jameson (of Straight Shooting and other venues) has summarized as: ‘There was also photography and music.’ A local semi-reviewer recently invoked the phrase with regard to the shaky-cam work in ‘The Hunger Games.’ He didn't like the movie... ‘but it was well-shot.’ Which means... what? The focus-puller was doing his job? What, exactly, was ‘well’ about the way it was shot?”
The Game (1997). Often overlooked, but a fantastic movie.
Man, I'm so due for a rewatch.
Watched cuz this comment. Good movie
Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Old Boy? Edit: NOT the Spike Lee Version.
I see Chan-Wooks Old Boy I upvote
He directed the first few episodes of The Sympathizer
Arrival
Videodrome, Perfect Blue, Oldboy, Paprika, Truman Show
Source Code
Predestination Coherence eXistenZ Possessor
Coherence and Possessor are amazing.
The Machinist with Christian Bale
mulholland drive!
Jacob’s Ladder
Couldn't find this on streaming. So got this and a few others from the library. TIL: They made a Remake of it. It was not good.
I forgot about the remake. Yikes
*2001: A Space Odyssey*. *Orpheus* (1950). *Metropolis* (1926). My three all time favorite films!
Predestination.
These are musts: Oldboy by Park chan-Wook, Cure by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, The Skin I Live In by Pedro Almodovar, The Club by Pablo Larrain, Amores Perros by Alejandro Iñarritu, Climax by Gaspar Noe, and I'll add Seven, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction.
Enter the Void -- about a DMT trip Waking Life -- about a man trapped in a lucid dream, all done in rotoscope animation Scanner Darkly -- made by the Waking Life guy, with improve rotoscope animation, about a cop losing his mind The Usual Suspects -- a group of men plan a heist, with a twist Se7en -- a serial killer is on the loose and Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt have to stop them eXistenZ -- people get trapped in a virtual reality world played on biomechanical computers that look like blobs of flesh Videodrome -- the sociopathic president of a TV channel is looking for the next big thing, and he thinks he's found it in a pirate broadcast that shows people being murdered. Or does it? And as he watches he begins hallucinating... or does he? Lots of weirdo body horror and mindfuckery. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind -- if you could erase some of your memories, would you? Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet explore the idea. Synedoche New York -- a man writes a play about him writing a play about him writing a play. It's all very recursive and even before that starts happening the world is presented in a very dreamlike fashion. Then he starts casting people to play him in the play, who then cast other people to play him in the play within the play. And it gets weirder from there. Perfect Blue -- anime movie. It's what Black Swan was based on but I think the anime is the superior work. It's about a Japanese pop idol singer who quits to become an actor. And ends up getting stalked. Possibly by herself.
Coherence (I really loved this one) Primer Triangle
Came here to say primer
Annihilation
The most recent “mind-bending narrative” film I’ve seen was “You’ll Never Find Me.” It’s on Shudder and I was pretty into it - very Hitchcock-esque.
Recently I saw The 13th floor. Would recommend
I haven't seen it in decades, so I'm not sure it holds up, but Deathtrap.
It’s a good one. More like a psychological thriller.
Lots of twists though, and it's half spoof, still very fun iirc.
If you're ok with graphic violence, Martyrs (2008) is a helluva ride!
Agree for sure IF you're not squeamish. DO NOT WATCH IF you are and have issues with graphic violence/horror.
Anguish (1987) Forgotten (2017) Identity
K-pax
Predestination (2014). My favorite time-travel movie of all time, with some serious WTF twists. The Triangle (2009). It looks like it's going to be one of those tired "haunted ghost ship in the Bermuda Triangle" movies but it turns into something else entirely.
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes. Summer Time Machine Blues. One Cut of the Dead.
The shape of water
While I do love the movie, what about it was mind bending or shock reveal? If you watch the trailer, you kinda know what to expect.
It was just different and well made
Definitely was. Just figure the OP was looking for more twists and psychologically thrilling and I wouldn't say Shape of Water fits any of that.
Time crimes Dark city Mr nobody
want something truly mind-blowing? Move over from movies. watch the German show on Netflix - Dark.
Tár is a masterpiece that left me thinking about it for days.
It was well shot and acted, but i dunno if it's in the same vein of shutter island, memento etc mind blowing reveals?
Possibly the psychological portion of Tar would be enough. But yeah, definitely not really in the vein of twists and such.
“Well shot and acted” is a way of saying it’s not a poor student film. It was made by film industry professionals, yes. And no it’s not a thriller, but every scene is doing something other than what it appears to be doing, and the way it plays with subjectivity and a protagonist whose perspective is gradually revealed to be unreliable is not so unlike Memento or Shutter Island.
I want to defend my point here about the common, although understandable, abuse of phrases like “well shot” when talking about movies. There’s a Reddit thread about this called “‘Gorgeously shot’ and lazy film criticism.” There’s a solid Matt Zoller Seitz essay called “Please, critics, write about the filmmaking.” There’s an essay by Jim Emerson called [“Well-Shot and Needs Editing”](https://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/well-shot-and-needs-editing), decrying the use of those phrases when pretending to say something about a movie: “In the 1970s and 1980s you always heard people compliment ‘the beautiful cinematography’ … It was the kind of thing someone could substitute for not saying anything at all: ‘Well, I noticed something about the movie: some of the pictures were pretty!’ “Now it's ‘well-shot,’ which means absolutely nothing -- or, rather, could mean absolutely anything -- except, maybe, ‘not well-shot.’ Anyway, it's one of those things lazy critics habitually throw into the final paragraph of their reviews, which Richard T. Jameson (of Straight Shooting and other venues) has summarized as: ‘There was also photography and music.’ A local semi-reviewer recently invoked the phrase with regard to the shaky-cam work in ‘The Hunger Games.’ He didn't like the movie... ‘but it was well-shot.’ Which means... what? The focus-puller was doing his job? What, exactly, was ‘well’ about the way it was shot?”
The Lodge! If you've not seen it, go in as blind as you can.
Mind Game (2004) is a trip and a paradox.
Saw
LOL I dunno mate. Saw, I mean yeah I guess the end to Saw 1 but anything past that is not really mind bendy or psychologically thrilling.