There's nothing like a good mind-fuck in a movie!
EDIT: Loving the suggestions, guys! Keep 'em coming!
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Paprika. It's extremely bizarre, but SO GOOD.
I love the fucking music for that movie. I really need to dig up my old copy for my day off tomorrow.
Surprised no one has said this yet, but Brazil. It's impossible to watch that movie and not wonder what the hell just happened by the end.
Oldboy. Also saw someone suggested Jacob's Ladder. Solid.
Definitely agree, Oldboy was by far the biggest mind-fuck movie I've ever seen.
This is what I was gonna say, I was literally yelling at the end
Great movie too for those that didn't see it. I don't think mind fuck is strong enough to describe this film!
Real fuck.
Yes! I was just thinking of Jacob's Ladder. And Old Boy is sick.
12 monkeys
Damn this is an amazing movie! Easily one of my favorites!
One fell off the bed. WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT MONKEY!? And then another one. WHAT HAPPENS TO THE MONKEYS?
Or is it a movie?
Primer. I watched the movie twice back to back and still had to internet the timeline. I love movies like that!
"Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon."
I did the same thing. Took me about 10 minutes of staring at that diagram to finally get how it worked. Awesome movie and on such a small budget!
Watched it several times. One of my favorite movies. Still don't understand it.
http://cdn.unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/primer-chart.jpg
Watched it once, was confused as shit.
Read this graph, understood the movie
Watched again, enjoyed knowing what the fuck was going on.
Alternatively, there's this chart.
also, Shane Carruth's new movie 'Upstream Color'
This is sitting in my Netflix queue, waiting until I get the kids to bed early enough to watch it.
I have watched it six or seven times, I still find stuff I missed.
"Here's what's going to happen. I'm gonna read this, and you're gonna listen, and you're gonna stay on the line. And you're not gonna interrupt, and you're not gonna speak for any reason. Some of this you know. I'm gonna start at the top of the page. Meticulous, yes. Methodical, educated; they were these things. Nothing extreme. Like anyone, they varied. There were days of mistakes and laziness and in-fighting, and there were days, good days, when by anyone's judgment they would have to be considered clever. No one would say that what they were doing was complicated. It wouldn't even be considered new, except for maybe in the geological sense. They took from their surroundings what was needed and made of it something more."
So there was a thread like 2 weeks ago on something about trippy movies, and this one came up. I downloaded it and watched it... It was weird, and is hard to understand, but I am not sure that makes it a good movie. but yes, it is confusing.
Because despite all the complexity of the plot essentially it's just about people. Power, money, security, how far are we willing to go to achieve it and what will we do when we do.
I've always loved chronologically challenging movies. Primer, Memento and The Prestige are amongst my all time favorites.
The Prestige
Completely threw me for a loop. Definitely one of my favorites.
Just opened up the thread for this. One of the best movies I've seen. I never suspected the ending, but when it was explained, it was so well thought out.
Read the book. Even more of a mindfuck because the text is the journals of the main characters and you can never tell when they're lying to you.
One of Nolan's bests, an incredible cast: Jackman, Bale, Caine, Scarlet Johanson (even David Bowie), an incredible plot, and an incredible twist.
Edit: Caine. Darn spell check.
Caine.
My friend claims that the prestige isn't good, everyone knows the ending and it's really obvious.
He's a prick.
It's obvious after you've seen it.
The ending is obvious though. Once you watch the movie a second time, you catch more and more clues. My friend's dad guessed it 10 minutes into the movie the first time we watched it.
-- General Mindfuck movies --
Waking Life
Mulholland Drive
Moon
Primer
Dogville
Adaptation
The Prestige
Memento
Jacob's Ladder
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Matrix
A Clockwork Orange
Natural Born Killers
Equilibrium
Eyes Wide Shut
Blue Velvet
I Heart Huckabees
The Shining
Stranger Than Fiction
Being John Malkovich
Synecdoche, NY
Lost Highway
12 Monkeys
The Man From Earth
Reservoir Dogs
Naked Lunch
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Requiem for a Dream
Oldboy
Police, Adjective
Gattaca
Unthinkable
Cube (1997)
-- War movies that will fuck you up --
Full Metal Jacket
Apocalypse Now
Platoon
Deer Hunter
Dr. Strangelove
The Pianist
City of God
Hotel Rwanda
Munich
Saving Private Ryan
Thin Red Line
Donnie Brasco
Vice Guide to Liberia
This is What Winning Looks Like
Schindler's List
Come and See
Have fun man.
Edit: Added and removed some stuff.
Synecdoche NY is great. A must see if you want mindfucks.
I think you just listed about 80% of my favorite movies.
Every film that wasn't has just been added to my to watch list.
my_nigga.jpg
Agreed. The idea of that movie was so depressing, but it was so awesome.
What is the mindfuck in Gattaca?
GATTACA!!!
God I love that movie.
I love that you mention Waking Life first. Amazing film.
Gonna suggest Thin Red Line for war movies. It's a different sort of war movie, but the philosophy in it is some psychedelic philosophy everyone should understand.
Thanks for this list.
You are the only person I've ever met who has watched The Man From Earth. I think I love you.
Enter the Void and 2001 A Space Odyssey
2001, a friend of mine watched it recently and thought it came out in the past decade or two. The effects are THAT good. Plus the ending is just, awesomely mind blowing.
I saw 2001 when I was a little kid, a young (but mature) teenager. I remember thinking to myself "That was amazing, but I have to watch when I am older to understand it better"
2001: find BluRay, do NOT watch it on laptop, try to enjoy it on the best A/V system you can find.
THIS. ENTER THE VOID
I watched Enter the void for the first time last night. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Eraserhead. You probably won't have any revelation after watching it, but you will most likely ask yourself "What the hell did I just witness?".
I finished Eraserhead and just kind of sat there and went '...well.'
I still get weird when people carve chicken.
AKA: r/spacedicks : THE MOTION PICTURE
Yes. That is one strange film.
I thought we were in the mind of eraser head and seeing the world as he did. The ending made me inexplicably happy.
I think Eraserhead is the only movie that I can't formulate an opinion on. I'm glad I watched it, but I'm not sure if I liked it or not.
Memento. Nolan's best movie by far. So complex that people have created visual guides to decipher the progression of time within the movie.
And it's on Netflix :)
This movie aint got nothing on Primer.
Worth noting to anyone who came here actually looking for a film to watch:
These 2 films probably do have the most convoluted and intricate plotline of any film so far in this century, however there is nothing mindfuck-ish about the rest of each movie. They're both great films but basically the entirety of their appeal is in the story/structure. So, if you're looking for something that has a complex plot that you need to watch multiple times to work out, but that can actually be worked out, go for these. Oldboy, The Usual Suspects, and Inception are also some other good plot-focused mindfucks (these however do have some other great qualities in addition the plot).
If you're looking for something that mindfucks you in a different way, like "What the hell was that, holy shit I don't know what's real anymore" - go for things like 2001 and Mulholland Drive (both high on the mindfuck scale, I'd say); Requiem For A Dream (sort of a mindfuck); Waking Life (extreme mindfuck); and Donnie Darko, etc.
Old Boy is great.
Going to have to second this. Oldboy is amazingly mind-fuckish -- and you need to watch it all the way to the end to see the beauty of its storyline.
Yeah don't do that thing we all do where you just turn the movie off 3/4 of the way through because you probably already saw the important bits.
Love Old Boy!
Hafe to add "Pi" to that list, by the same guy who did Requiem for a Dream.
Pi is way more of a mind-fuck than Requiem. Lynchian levels of crazy if you ask me.
"Pi" is indeed a much under-appreciated film.
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To be fair, in terms of mind fuckyness, Primer is in a class all its own.
Primer actually starts to make a little sense after you watch it about 20 or 30 times.
But if you keep going, it will begin to make less sense again after that.
I made a timeline once and had it all figured out until near the end when he appeared one more time!
Or they could just watch it in chronological order..
Yeah bro. Get the mind condom ready for this one.
There are also very many cool visual infographics to decipher the progression of time in the various dreams in Inception
Gets better every time you watch it!
The Game. It's SO GOOD.
I just lost the game.
DO NOT FRET FRIENDS! YOU ARE FREE!
I hate you
Cube, or Pi. Both great movies.
so, per your advice i just watched cube. my mind wasn't fucked it was just piss poor acting and a non-ending. thanks man.
The Usual Suspects.
Being John Malkovich Alice directed by Jan Svankmajer
A Beautiful Mind - since it's actually based on a real guy and mostly real events