10 movies everybody pretends to understand but nobody does
There are countless movies regarded as the greatest of all time—films held in such high esteem that failing to have seen them can earn you a raised eyebrow and a questioning glance. Mentioning that you haven’t watched The Godfather or Citizen Kane might lead to some serious side-eye and doubts about your credentials as a culturally informed member of society.
In some cases, we’ve seen the films, but we don’t always understand them. Worried that we might be deemed unintelligent if we admit that we didn’t get what was going on when that abstract sequence was added into the middle of a seemingly coherent film, or that the character you thought was dead is now suddenly alive, it’s sometimes easier to pretend. Other times, we’re just lying to ourselves because, of course, we understood that everything was just a dream or that the plot twist made total sense…
Some films are renowned for their complexity, leaving audiences scratching their heads while simultaneously feeling intrigued. These movies often evoke a sense of pride in those who claim to have unravelled their mysteries. Yet, it’s entirely OK to admit that even if you thoroughly enjoyed a film, its meaning might not be immediately clear. Often, multiple viewings are necessary to grasp its full essence. Even if you never fully decode the story, what truly matters is how the film made you feel and its lasting impression. Sometimes, the way a movie lingers in your mind is more important than fully understanding it.
So, from Mulholland Drive and Inception to Persona and Blow-Up, here are ten movies that everyone pretends to understand, but really…does anyone?
10 movies everybody pretends to understand:
10. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
We all love 2001: A Space Odyssey, right? Gaspar Noé claims to have seen it over 50 times, while Steven Spielberg once claimed in an interview with Paul Joyce, “I came out the other end of that picture much higher than any of my friends who had taken mind-altering substances. I went in there clean as a whistle. And I came out of there altered myself.” It seems as though, for many filmmakers, the experience of watching Stanley Kubrick’s space epic was a life-changing one. Most of us like to say that the same thing happened to us, too.
While many people emerge from 2001: A Space Odyssey gravely affected by what they’ve seen, mesmerised by the light tunnel or unable to forget that iconic bone-throw transition sequence, a lot of viewers are left wondering what it was all about. Why did the film end with Bowman in that room, suddenly old? Why does he transform into a foetus? What does the monolith actually represent? No one wants to look like they don’t understand one of the most acclaimed movies of all time, but we can’t pretend that Space Odyssey is a film that can be easily understood with just one or two viewings.
9. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
David Lynch’s films are often very confusing. We could’ve easily selected Eraserhead, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, or even Blue Velvet to put on this list, but it only makes sense to pick Mulholland Drive. The 2001 movie requires multiple watches to truly get a vague grasp on what’s going on, but only when you think about the film, read about other people’s interpretations, and discuss it with friends, the plot and its themes begin to unravel and make more sense.
The film stars Naomi Watts as a budding actor named Betty and Laura Harring as an amnesia-suffering femme fatale type named Rita. They try to figure out who Rita really is, engaging in an affair in the meantime. But with scenes that seem totally out of context, like the jumpscare scene, the cowboy, and Betty’s (well, Diane’s) visions of miniature old people – as well as the big plot twist – many viewers have struggled to wrap their heads around what it all means.
8. Blow-Up (Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1966)
A more high-brow pick next in the form of Blow-Up, Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni’s meditation on art, postmodernism, consumerism, artifice, and performance. Even self-proclaimed fans of the movie might struggle to explain what the film is all about when put on the spot because each sequence is rife with symbolism and ambiguity.
It’s a stylish and influential film, with David Hemmings’ character embarking on an obsessive journey to uncover a murder he believes he’s captured in a photograph. Yet, the film becomes much more confusing when you realise the movie is not about solving the murder at all. Still, with a great soundtrack by Herbie Hancock and appearances from 1960s icons Jane Birkin, Veruschka, Gillian Hills, and The Yardbirds, it’s not hard to see why Blow-Up is such a cult film.
7. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
The same year that Antonioni’s Blow-Up was released, Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman released another classic, Persona, confusing more film fans with its ambiguity. It’s not a surprise that Persona influenced Mulholland Drive – movies with themes of merging identities and the performance of the self certainly prove to be hard to decipher. That’s the point, though – what good would a film about the complexities of identity be if it was easy to understand?
Persona has earned esteemed status since it was released and is basically staple viewing for film students across the world. However, it’s certainly a movie that isn’t easy to wrap your head around, what with the seemingly arbitrary montage at the start of the film and other confusing images that emerge as the plot continues. Like many movies on this list, Persona begs the audience to watch it multiple times to piece together what Bergman is trying to say.
6. Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
The highly acclaimed Celine and Julie Go Boating, directed by legendary French filmmaker Jacques Rivette, has a runtime of a whopping 192 minutes, forcing viewers to decipher over three hours of pure confusion. It’s a visually stunning movie, with Dominique Labourier and Juliet Berto giving compelling performances as the main characters, but what Rivette is actually trying to communicate becomes blurred within its narrative, which exists between reality and performance.
The movie sees the pair fabricate a world of their own, with magic becoming a prominent theme. Naturally, what’s real and what’s not becomes difficult to understand. It’s certainly a highly revered film for a reason, but most of us like to pretend we know more of what is going on than we’d care to admit.
5. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
When dealing with a film that focuses on the subconscious mind and multi-layered dreams within dreams, things will get a little confusing. Arguably, Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus, 2010’s Inception, stunned audiences and left more than a few scratching their heads. For the uninitiated few, the film follows Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Dom Cobb, a professional thief who infiltrates his victims’ dreams in order to gain secrets and knowledge from them.
In order to keep the line between dream and reality, Cobb uses a spinning top with the idea that if the top spins indefinitely, he is in a dream, and if it falls, he is in reality. For many viewers, the bulk of confusion surrounding the film arises from its ending, which shows the spinning top continuing to spin but with a slight wobble. Hence, it is left intentionally ambiguous whether the final sequence happened in reality or simply another dream.
4. The Matrix (Lana and Lilly Wachowski, 1999)
Operating within an increasingly complex, multi-layered reality in which not even the characters themselves are aware of what is real and what is simulated, The Matrix is a masterclass in creating sci-fi dystopias that are as gripping as they are confusing. Within the film, the titular ‘Matrix’ is a simulated reality that has been created in order to exploit unknowing humans for their energy. Hence, the majority of people living in the world of The Matrix are not aware that the reality they live in is fabricated.
Even when the protagonist, Neo, uncovers all these dystopian secrets, the line between true reality and simulated reality is still fairly blurred. Moreover, the vast majority of audiences at the time of the film’s release did not pick up on the fact that the film was created as an allegory for trans identity by the Wachowski’s. As a result, The Matrix has confused audiences on multiple levels for over two decades now.
3. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)
One of the most iconic films of the early 2000s, Donnie Darko is part angsty coming-of-age film and part bizarre psychological thriller. In the film, the titular protagonist encounters a mysterious figure in a grotesque bunny costume who informs him of the looming apocalypse. At the time of its initial release, the film was not hugely successful – thanks in part to a lack of promotional material. However, the cult status that the film subsequently garnered led more and more people to discover Kelly’s film, which invariably led to a deluge of unanswered questions.
Like many of the films on this list, Donnie Darko blurs the line between true and imagined reality. Much of the film takes place in a ‘tangent universe’, which is connected to the real world via a wormhole. There are few notable physical differences between the two realities, leaving the audience and characters often unaware of which world they are seeing.
2. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
Paul Thomas Anderson has never been a filmmaker to over-explain plot points or stories. Many of his films leave audiences with unanswered questions and a sense of ambiguity, but 1999’s Magnolia takes that confusion to entirely new heights. Featuring an extensive cast made up of performers like Tom Cruise, Melinda Dillon, Jeremy Blackman, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, among various others, the film contains a multitude of overlapping storylines and a narrative structure which is often difficult to keep track of.
On top of its disparate storylines and characters, Magnolia also features a colossal runtime of over three hours, which is a long time to ask an audience to concentrate for. Once you add in Anderson’s unexplained symbolism, such as the film’s frog rain, you can start to see why so many people found Magnolia frustrating and confusing when it was first released back in 1999. Once you begin to wrap your head around it, though, it is arguably one of the filmmaker’s best.
1. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2009)
Charlie Kaufman wasted no time in establishing himself as a deeply original filmmaker, with his directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, expertly dealing with a complex and often confusing storyline. The film focuses on theatre director Caden Cotard, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose commitment to creating a true realist production begins to blur the lines between the real world and fiction. Of course, this was all done by design, with the film’s title contrasting the city of Schenectady with the word ‘synecdoche’, derived from ‘simultaneous understanding’.
Over the course of the film, Cotard becomes increasingly obsessive over his theatre production, with his warehouse operating on a seemingly different plane of existence from the outside world. In addition, the character’s nervous system begins to shut down due to a condition. The character’s internal struggle is reflected in the film’s narrative structure and plotline, which often require multiple viewings to truly comprehend.
