Many films that are considered great base their success on an elaborate script that is developed throughout the entire footage to, once they reach their climax, surprise the viewer with a total turn in the story that completely destabilizes you and substantially changes everything. the meaning of the film.
Some of these gimmicky changes are mere cheap tricks that only look for the easy surprise to justify the rest of the movie, but others, how to say, are the icing on the cake, the final punch that completely dislodges you and makes you remember that one. history until the end of time (or until next month at least). And be careful, I do not want to say that the films that I am going to list below are masterpieces, but what cannot be denied is that they hide behind a worked script and that makes them great.
The logical and normal thing is that now I would put the happy list for you and you will review it "I have already seen this one", "This one was good but it was not so bad", "This one I wrote down", "This other one is a very fat shit" ... and if we extrapolate that same unexpected twist to the post and he told you about ... 10 unexpected Cuban rice recipes? Ha! I'm not going to be so subtle, no, calm down. I can only tell you one thing: "5 minutes with full heat and then leave the rice to simmer for 15 minutes". Delicious!
As I do not want to release spoilers I am going to limit myself to leaving you a brief summary of each film (thanks to Filmaffinity), and if the idea attracts you and you have not seen it yet, I recommend that you give it a chance.
1- Shutter Island
director: Martin Scorsese
Distribution: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Max von Sydow, Jackie Earle Haley, Elias Koteas, John Carroll Lynch, Ted Levine, Christopher Denham
Synopsis: In the summer of 1954, bailiffs Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Ruffalo) are assigned to a remote island in Boston Harbor to investigate the disappearance of a dangerous murderer (Mortimer) who was being held in the Ashecliffe mental hospital. , a prison for disturbed criminals run by the sinister Dr. John Cawley (Kingsley). They will soon discover that the center holds many secrets and that the island hides something more dangerous than the patients. Psychological thriller based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (author of "Mystic River" and "Gone Baby Gone").
2- Memento
director: Christopher Nolan
Distribution: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior, Stephen Tobolowsky, Harriet Sansom Harris, Jorja Fox
Synopsis: Leonard is an investigator for an insurance agency whose memory is irreversibly damaged by a blow to the head, suffered while trying to prevent the murder of his wife: this is the last fact that he remembers from the past. Because of the blow, he has lost his recent memory, that is, everyday events disappear from his mind in a few minutes. Thus, to investigate and avenge the murder of his wife, he has to resort to the help of an instant camera and the notes tattooed on his body.
3- Enemy
director: Denis Villeneuve
Distribution: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, Isabella Rossellini, Joshua Peace, Tim Post, Kedar Brown, Darryl Dinn, Misha Highstead, Megan Mane, Alexis Uiga
Synopsis: Adam (Gyllenhaal) is an affable history teacher who leads a rather monotonous life. One day, watching a movie, he discovers an actor who is identical to him. Obsessed with the idea of having a double, the search for that man will have unexpected consequences for him ... Free adaptation of the novel "The duplicate man", by José Saramago.
4- Cheap Thrills
director: THE. Katz
Distribution: Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, Sara Paxton, David Koechner, Amanda Fuller, Brighton Sharbino
Synopsis: Craig, a family man in the middle of an economic crisis, drowns his sorrows in a bar when a stranger proposes a deal: he will give him a certain amount of money if he carries out a series of actions, each one more strange and violent. What starts out as a game will end in delirium.
5- Oldboy
director: Park Chan-wook
Distribution: Choi Min-sik, Yu Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jeong, Ji Dae-han, Oh Dal-su, Kim Byeong-ok, Lee Seung-Shin, Yun Jin-seo
Synopsis: Min-sik Choi is a Korean businessman who is one day kidnapped and confined for years in a cell where there is only one television. And yet he does not know why he is there ... It is the second part of the "revenge trilogy" by Chan-wook Park
6- Blank minds
director: Simon Brand
Distribution: James Caviezel (AKA Jim Caviezel), Greg Kinnear, Bridget Moynahan, Joe Pantoliano, Barry Pepper, Peter Stormare, David Selby, Jeremy Sisto
Synopsis: Five men wake up locked in a warehouse, not knowing how they got there or who they are. They soon discover that their situation is related to a kidnapping, but they do not know if they have been kidnapped or are the kidnappers. In any case, their situation is deplorable: one is tied to a pole, another has a bruised face, another is handcuffed to a pipe, and the other two show signs of having been beaten. The five of them try to piece together what they have done during the last hours, but then the conflict arises: how do you know who to trust, if you don't even know who you are?
7- Predestination
director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Distribution: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor, Elise Jansen, Freya Stafford, Christopher Kirby, Alexis Fernandez, Cate Wolfe, Madeleine West, Jim Knobeloch
Synopsis: A special agent (Ethan Hawke) from a secret government department, an agency created in the 1980s that allows time travel, will have to perform a complex series of "jumps" back in time in order to stop known as "the failed terrorist" (The Fizzle Bomber), an individual who is laying bombs across the country with thousands of victims. On one of his trips to the 70s, the agent, who works undercover as a bartender in a bar, meets a man who tells him an extraordinary story ...
8- Coherence
director: James Ward Byrkit
Distribution: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen, Alex Manugian, Lauren Maher, Hugo Armstrong, Lorene Scafaria
Synopsis: In Finland, in 1923, the passage of a comet caused that the inhabitants of a town were completely disoriented; a woman even called the police claiming that the man in her house was not her husband. Decades later, a group of friends remember this case while having dinner, toasting and preparing to see a comet pass by ...
9- Origins
director: Mike Cahill
Distribution: Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Steven Yeun, Archie Panjabi, Kashish, Cara Seymour, William Mapother, Venida Evans, Ako, Dorien Makhloghi, Charles W. Gray, John Schiumo, Farasha Baylock, Christopher Santamaria, Sebastian Santamaria , Rhonda Ayers, Crystal Anne Dickinson, Come Evans
Synopsis: Ian Gray, a molecular biology student specializing in the evolution of the human eye, meets a mysterious woman whose iris is multi-colored. Years later, his research leads him to make an amazing discovery, which could change the way we perceive our existence.
10- Ex-Machina
director: Alex Garland
Distribution: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno, Chelsea Li, Evie Wray, Corey Johnson, Symara A. Templeman, Deborah Rosan, Elina Alminas
Synopsis: A billionaire programmer selects Caleb, a young employee of his company, to spend a week in a remote place with the aim of taking part in a test in which his latest creation will be involved: a robot-woman in which intelligence artificial is everything.
