Vanilla Sky, Mulholland Drive and Matrix Revolutions : three of the most confusing films of all time?


Came across this little list the other day, and what makes this list different from other movie new related website movie lists is that this was a poll. The voters were chiming in on “What is the most confusing movie of all time” over atLovefilm
The Tom Cruise picture, Vanilla Sky took this top honor. The runners up were Mulholland Drive and Donnie Darko. Donnie Darko?! Really!? I would have thought Darko director Richard Kelly was nutty enough with 2009’s The Box, but what do I know. I loved Donnie Darko, however, and it wasn’t confusing to me.

It should be said that the other films that made this poll are
The Matrix Revolutions, Memento, 12 Monkeys, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Revolver and A Clockwork Orange . Wow. The late Stanley Kubrick hits twice. Actually, I don’t know what’s confusing about A Clockwork Orange either. I thought that was pretty straightforward. 12 Monkeys has a twisted logic, but it made sense narrative-wise. It was also a box office hit as well. Since the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con weekend is here, the majority of internet movie news sites seems to have no comment on this, or run with thier own list and/or ask readers what movie is “most confusing” to them. Aside from the recent Jennifer Aniston movie ‘The Bounty Hunter anyway.

One speculation as to why these films are confusing? Dreamlike states are a factor. I agree with that. Most of the listed are indeed heavy on the surreal. Some deal with alternate realities caused by shifts in a timeline where the timelime is corrected (Donnie Darko) or cannot be changed (12 Monkeys), others the distortion of reality (Vanilla Sky, Eternal Sunshine, the Matrix films). To this, I can understand the confusion. In Donnie Darko, the main character realized that he was stuck in a time loop which repeated itself. Some of the other characters knew it too, but were clueless on how to fix it. Darko was the key. Unable to change the outcome of his family members dying in the plane crash and his girlfriend being hit by a car (driven by Frank), when time reversed, Donnie chose to stay in his room and die, instead of listening (again) to Frank The Rabbit. The time loop breaks, characters have a fleeting memory of what transpired, like they woke up from a dream. However, with Darko “dead” and the time-vortex-wormhole inactive there will be no plane accident which would kill Donnie in the past. Things like this isn’t always a bad thing- they keep such films alive with fans old and new. Debate, speculation, multiple viewings. So when this “poll” is given, it could be said that a good number of them are films that people also enjoy because of the mind twisters. Continue reading →