Confusing Films

[Danny Ocean]

To be honest the whole 'it's confusing' thing has put me off seeing inception. I wouldn't care if I got it or not, it's the way people are acting about it. I've seen loads of people go 'hurhurhur stupid people don't get it', they sound just so arrogant and annoying.

So much so that I wouldn't want to either be patronised or become one of those arrogant pricks. I'd much prefer not to see it, and stay out of this strange developing shitstorm

Trust me it isn't very confusing. If you just pay attention to where the characters actually are, and how the whole dream-system works, you'll follow it just fine. There's no secondary plot or big allegory. You would be doing yourself a great disservice not to see that film, it's truly very, very good. Also, very stylish.

Although the final scene will make you want to jump for joy, then cry a little bit, then kill the director.

 

[Christopher Dudgeon]

Pi - Awsome but weird ass movie
Primer - Figured it out on my 2nd watch but still go back to it
Oldboy - Right up until the end¬¬

 

[Mutie]

Heh I actually hated The Shining. And tho I hate to be the 'read the book' guy...

read the book

It's awesome.

There's a bit with hedge animals.

O_O

Stephen King is really very talented.

Fuckin' A, dude. The book is by far superior and film just isn't... good, you know? It completely fails to provide a sense of isolation, negates all the genuinely scary parts of the book and inserts a load of "shock tactic" extra scenes and completely changes the ending, thus failing to both explain the events of the story or bring any closure to it. Bah!

OT: The original Ju-On (The Grudge) and Ju-On (The Grudge) 2 can give you a bit of a mental twist if your not in the right mind set.

 

[Betancore]

Donnie Darko. The time travel thing really, really messed with my mind. Inland Empire was pretty confusing too. And Legion. Well, it wasn't all that confusing, but there was just so much wrong with it. What confused me was why they thought it was a good idea.

 

[high_castle]

A Scanner Darkly (Could anybody explain what that was about)

I love this movie. And the book. Admittedly it'd be easier to understand if you've read the book (which you really should; Philip K. Dick was a genius). If you absolutely refuse, though, here's the plot in a nutshell.

Spoiler: A Scanner Darkly

Bob Arctor is an undercover narcotics agent. Since the war on drugs has escalated, the identities of all undercover agents are closely guarded secrets. When he reports to the police station, he has to wear a scramble suit designed to disguise his identity.

When he's not at the police station, he lives with a group of junkies under the name Fred. To maintain his cover, he joins them in binges on the powerful narcotic, Substance D. He and his friends just had to commit another one of their group to a rehab group for this powerful hallucinogen. He's also in love with his dealer, Donna.

Unfortunately for Bob, all the Substance D he's doing is wreaking havoc on his brain. He suffers brain damage to the extent where he has two separate identities. When he's with the police, he's Bob Arctor. He watches "Fred" on video and has no idea that it's him. When he's with his friends, he's Fred entirely. It gets to the point where he can no longer function and he's committed to rehab.

It's in that rehab he sees the source of Substance D. They're using messed up junkies, too blitzed to recognize their tasks or surroundings, to grow the flower the drug's distilled from. Even worse, Donna turns out to be a cop who pushed Bob into his mental breakdown so she could get a mole inside the operation.

It's an awesome film. Yes it does push the "Drugs Are Bad" message, but it was written by a guy who did a lot of drugs and who watched dozens of his friends die or suffer horrible fates as a result of their indulgences back in the 60s. Plus, part of the message also stems from futility of the War on Drugs.

Yeah, I've written a thesis on this author and this book. Definite favorite.

 

[ultimateownage]

The only movie to ever confuse me was the final Pirates of the Carribbean movie. It was less that it was confusing, more that the plot was ridiculous, made no sense, and was very poorly handled.

 

[Sarkule]

A Scanner Darkly (Could anybody explain what that was about)

Don't worry I can!
Basically the main character played by Reeves in an under cover Narcotics cop, so undercover in fact that he has started using the drugs they're trying to bust,and then...

Spoiler

his drug use leads him to having permanent brain damage and a crippling addiction, he is fired from his job and sent to a rehab center. It turns out that Winona Ryder was his supervisor all along and the police force was ensuring he was hooked on purpose because they felt the recovery center had a connection with whoever was supplying the drugs, but they would only ever let people who were completely gone into the rehab program. Reeves was selected to work on a recovery farm, and lo and behold, underneath the corn row are the blue flower the drugs are derived from. Reeves manages to retain enough of his former self to pick a flower and present it as a "gift for his friends". Aka Ryder when he is allowed to go back to town

OT: Anything by David Lynch
Primer (I get it now, but the first a saw it, whew)
And a whole slew of B-movies. Not on purpose, but because of sloppy writing.

Thankyou! It makes slightly more sense now!

 

[Acier]

A Scanner Darkly (Could anybody explain what that was about)

Don't worry I can!
Basically the main character played by Reeves in an under cover Narcotics cop, so undercover in fact that he has started using the drugs they're trying to bust,and then...

Spoiler

his drug use leads him to having permanent brain damage and a crippling addiction, he is fired from his job and sent to a rehab center. It turns out that Winona Ryder was his supervisor all along and the police force was ensuring he was hooked on purpose because they felt the recovery center had a connection with whoever was supplying the drugs, but they would only ever let people who were completely gone into the rehab program. Reeves was selected to work on a recovery farm, and lo and behold, underneath the corn row are the blue flower the drugs are derived from. Reeves manages to retain enough of his former self to pick a flower and present it as a "gift for his friends". Aka Ryder when he is allowed to go back to town

OT: Anything by David Lynch
Primer (I get it now, but the first a saw it, whew)
And a whole slew of B-movies. Not on purpose, but because of sloppy writing.

Thankyou! It makes slightly more sense now!

But yeah, it's kind of strange, especially the whole "spying on himself" bit. Although that plot point isn't too crazy, I figured it was the end that threw you off.

 

[Furious Styles]

the Abandoned

it makes no sense whatsoever, one of those "psychological horrors" that throws in random crap and calls it scary

 

[Pyotr Romanov]

This thread is so getting a bookmark, I love confusing movies, as few as I have seen.

OT: Donnie Darko, now one of my favorite movies ever, but the first time I watched it I didn't understand what was going on at all.
I'm really proud I understood as much of The Box as I did, though. One viewing, and at the way back home I constructed a whole theory explaining just about everything in the film.
Most of the theory has been forgotten by now, though.

 

[AWAR]

Deja Vu: wait what?
Begotten: Huh?

 

[Guffe]

Basic, damn great movie. You get it all in the end but the whole thing is one big mindfu**

 

[Dorby5826and360]

I think Donnie Darko was a confusing movie.

 

[Hollock]

Oldboy was pretty damn confusing to me. I get that he was locked in the room for 15 years and wanted revenge, but not too much else.

 

[Vrex360]

The Tracey Fragments, the whole movie is pretty much centered around just trying to figure out what is going on as it doesn't even try to adhere to the standard layout of a movie. It's all over the place in a jumble of pieces, 'fragments' if you will that finally when put together in the right way, make sense.

It's a wierd movie but it was helped a bit by a strong performance by Ellen Page who has proven that she can do very dark and very gritty serious roles as well as charming comedic roles.

 

[blueshark217]

The Room, Im confused as to what the main plot really is, cause there are a bunch of subplots hanging off of it.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Paprika. Good film, but also incredibly confusing. Just watch it, and you'll see what I mean.

 

[yoz13]

Donnie Darko pretty much left me confused

 

[Harkonnen64]

WATCHMEN! What the hell?

I saw the movie and though I didn't understand it, it compelled me to by the book. After reading it, I saw the movie again and went, "Oh, okay."

 

[octafish]

I recently watched the Takeshi Kitano film Takeshi's. I cannot make head nor tail of it.

Basically, the opening has Takeshi Kitano as a wounded Japanese soldier in a bunker being invaded by American troops. This is never mentioned again. The film then cuts to Kitano's life as a director, all the hassle he has to go under and how he reacts to this. It then drops this idea to focus on a blond doppelganger of Kitano who is played by him with dyed hair. He works in a convenience store and auditions for films every once in a while. This is made even more confusing by the fact that pretty much every actor in this film plays 2 roles, making it really hard to keep track of them all.

Basically, said blond doppelganger has a dying Yakuza pop into his store, and fall unconscious in the bathroom with a bag full of guns, a la Falling Down. Blondy sees his chance, and uses the guns to go on a shooting rampage against all the people that have wronged him. The film then goes back and forward so much, visiting old scenes and showing ones that haven't even happened, that it's impossible to understand what's going on. Half of what we're seeing is revealed to be a dream, dead characters come back, only to be killed again, and then return, again.

I doubt I will ever understand that film.

You should try playing his game. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_no_Ch%C5%8Dsenj%C5%8D]

I understood Mulholland Drive, but Lost Highway, despite being entertaining, was particularly disjointed. It is the only film where my brain didn't try to make sense of it.