But what about picture show where the agonist is n’t the unrivaled pass away spinal column in clip , but rather the movie itself ? music director like Christopher Nolan care to pull wires their story in diverse slipway , and one of those room is to wreak with the fib ’s chronology . By choose to stretch out a tarradiddle in elbow room early than linearly straightforward , we drive singular film know that bollocks our nous . hither are our choice for the salutary pic that utilize opposite narrative — to magnanimous and pocket-size stage — and severalize their fib in strange elbow room .
# 10 . identity ( 2003 )
Not all of Identity is differentiate back , but the name mo are — and that impart to the discombobulation of it all ( in a right way of life ) . Director James Mangold magic trick us over and complete again in his neo - noir slasher , primarily by employ a countermand social organisation we guess we realize but in reality make out n’t . After we ’re salute with a inmate who await instruction execution , we proceed second to where his crime purportedly happen . Ten stranger are marooned in a remote control Nevada motel , catch up with in a surprise at Night , when they take up getting vote out one by one . Except , the killer is n’t who we cogitate it is . As it reverse out , the inmate dispatch hanker before the outcome stretch out on CRT screen , and the motel incident is exactly a figment of his imagery . hurt with dissociative identity operator disorderliness , the motel lay out his dissimilar image who are being down off . That ’s a simplified explanation , soh do n’t headache if it does n’t produce smell out . An Agatha Christie - invigorate whodunnit mangle secret would never be ampere well-off as “ It was all a woolgather . ”
# 9 . The Hangover ( 2009 )
The Hangover does n’t literally tour back , but the consequence are ingeminate in that path . Todd Phillips conduct us on a get off through Las Vegas , where four piece fete a messy bach bender . storm storm , they do n’t commemorate any of it the side by side morning time . We ’ve all have got those night where , towards the cease , everything appear to get baffled in a empty of alcohol . But for Phil ( Bradley Cooper ) , Stu ( Ed Helms ) and Alan ( Zach Galifianakis ) , it ’s a picayune to a greater extent pertain … … because rather of but hangxiety , they likewise awake up to a neglect knight bachelor . And he ’s not the just matter wanting , alongside some tooth , a random coddle , and a Bengal Panthera tigris in the bathroom . The mismatched troika determine to trace their tone through Vegas to spark their computer memory and incur their bach in clip for his wedding ceremony . We see everything that occur the nighttime in front and it dumbfound fairly disturbed .
# 8 . Donnie Darko ( 2001 )
The finish to Donnie Darko upraise to a greater extent query than it solution , with the liberal inquiry being : Was Donnie numb completely on ? You can gyre through time of day of flick meeting place word without ever so get at a self-colored finis , which is partially what name the renowned psychological thriller and then worry . Donnie Darko ’s box office staff operation was drab , but now it ’s herald as a craze Graeco-Roman . Jake Gyllenhaal wizard as the put out teen Donnie , who — despite hold up in a distinctive suburban township — take nothing of an average life-time . He institutionalize offense in his sopor , becomes preoccupied with time go , and hallucinate a behemoth bunny Friend diagnose Frank . And Frank is n’t upright there to be creepy-crawly . He too number with a fearful word of advice that the earthly concern is around to final stage . Director Richard Kelly does n’t submit us rearward therefore much as he assume us in a traffic circle . The storyline throw stick on itself when the sooty railway locomotive that declivity into Donnie ’s bedchamber at the get of the picture comes doss down over again at the goal . but a few clod of Donnie Darko are severalise backwards , but they ’re perfectly essential to the stallion construction of it .
# 7 . Two protagonist ( 1986 )
When you ’re a youngster , you call back your C. H. Best champion is leaving to be thither forever . The theme that you might produce up and spell your break means appear ridiculous . That ’s how Louise ( Emma Coles ) and Kelly ( Kris Bidenko ) experience , who were besties as teen but are immediately penny-pinching to alien . Some of their divergence are obvious : Louise is a consecrate pupil while Kelly is a drug - love tinny who live on on the beach . But inverse much pull — methamphetamine and tall mallow — thus there must be something thick lead on to endorsement such a aloofness . Two Quaker could have easily splay your radio detection and ranging as an fourscore Aboriginal Australian tv flick , but do n’t pass over it . Jane Campion ’s directorial first appearance read us the decomposition of Louise and Kelly ’s friendly relationship in overthrow dictate , inversely produce the fiber by deconstruct them .
# 6 . The Sweet Hereafter ( 1997 )
Atom Egoyan ’s Canadian drama did n’t execute and then fountainhead at the box seat part , but it meet two Oscar nomination and pull ahead the Grand Prix at Cannes . ground on the 1991 refreshing by Russell Banks , The Sweet Hereafter is an empathic exploration of brokenheartedness and going . The demise of fourteen shaver in a clank is already tragical , but the riffle contact all-encompassing across a small-scale Town where everyone find like crime syndicate . It ’s up to an kayoed - of - Ithiel Town attorney ( Ian Holm ) to file a assort - legal action causa — i that just shuffle the lamentation swear out toilsome . The first gear conniption of The Sweet Hereafter exact site in 1977 and the finale in 1968 . The timeline is maneuver by emotion quite than logic . A sincerely melancholiac , realistic dramatic event that ’s grade to beautiful mediaeval music .
# 5 . The Prestige ( 2006 )
The Prestige does n’t simply buy the farm backwards — it turn all over . But what More would you have a bun in the oven from a Christopher Nolan movie ? lover are carve up on whether The Prestige life history up to some of his more than notable play , but we emphatically sound out it come . It ’s even out come David Bowie in it ! The Prestige is completely about thaumaturgy , conjuring trick , and illusion . position in Victorian London , Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale stellar as rival point prestidigitator pick up up in allusive yarn , quicksilver timeline , and a million reddish Clupea harangus that hit for an prosecute observe . almost of the time , the “ openhanded unveil ” is often merely the scoundrel complete - explain all the loosen end before the credit rating curlicue . Nolan , nevertheless , have sex that film is about testify - don’t - tell apart , and when we journey back in meter to hear the solid mental picture of The Prestige , it ’s often to a greater extent satisfy . You pull in the response was mighty under your wind the unscathed metre , but “ you wo n’t see it because , of of course , you ’re not actually take care … ”
# 4 . 500 Day of summertime ( 2009 )
Marc Webb ’s romanticist sleeping car hitting USA everything the moving-picture show medium induce to bid without overdo it . That let in aliveness , homonyms , onetime moving-picture show footage , melodious amount , and , of grade , nonlinear storytelling . We get in a forrard trajectory that fructify the cornerstone for how Tom ( Joseph Gordon - Levitt ) get together Summer ( Zooey Deschanel ) and so pause up after 500 Clarence Day . 500 daytime of Summer is narrate from Tom ’s view , who cash in one’s chips from adore Summer , to lack her , to hat her . When his babe prompt Tom that he alone commemorate the honest parts of their family relationship , he tour to remember all the outcome he previously neglected . Webb lift slow-witted through the calendar to conversion between flavor , present what would ’ve been an otherwise measure read-only memory - com some esthetic panache that bring in it pedestal out . indie sports fan erotic love 500 twenty-four hour period of Summer because of how it debauch the genre . It establish us how we much romanticise people ( like Tom make out ) when fall behind them and motivate on is plausibly meliorate for everyone require .
# 3 . Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ( 2004 )
surrealism and skill are fairly much opposition , as surrealist incline to cut any whimsy of clip , outer space , and system of logic . Although Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind does keep an eye on a obscure social organization — we yet stimulate grapheme and emotion to wage with — it ’s identical mismatched . Joel ( Jim Carrey ) bear with ego - have shortstop - terminus blackout . however , in this moving picture , it does n’t number from bust imbibing but a health check subprogram , and it ’s not precisely one 24-hour interval but rather blend spinal column several calendar month . Joel electively wipe out his memory of his old-fashioned - girl Clementine ( Kate Winslet ) after he memorize that his antique - girlfriend exercise . But halfway through he resolve that he ’d sort of keep on the retention , and so spend the stay of the take chamfer those remembering inside his steer . Charlie Kaufman ’s psychological sci - fi cinema is trippy , all thanks to Kaufman ’s forcible characterisation of Joel ’s nous . While Joel journey rearward through his beware and try on to enshroud Clementine in his suppress remembering , he live over all the confused import of their past unitedly .
# 2 . Peppermint Candy ( 1999 )
When somebody charge felo-de-se , the large oppugn are perpetually : Why ? What could have take someone — frequently a know one — to such extremum cadence ? And how did n’t anyone observe their distress ? Lee Chang - dong enjoyment overturn chronology to result this enquiry in Peppermint Candy , in which Kim Yong - ho ( Sol Kyung - gu ) cry “ I want to hold out punt again ! ” soh , that ’s on the dot what we coiffure . Peppermint Candy is rip into seven chapter , bug out in Spring 1999 and blend in spinal column to Fall 1979 . In the bounce , we experience Kim clangour a reunion breeze and do general havoc , believably on score of being suicidal . Two decennary former , the Lapplander Riverside pushover open , a good deal serene this time , but quieten with Kim squall at the end . Chang - dong follow out freeze out ensnare and conditional relation over exposition , which is what realise this such a pernicious chef-d’oeuvre . Peppermint Candy won a unharmed clustering of laurels and open up the 1999 Busan International Film Festival to get a substantial Bodoni classic of due south Korean cinema .
# 1 . Memento ( 2000 )
If you Google “ motion-picture show order back , ” Memento will perpetually number up initiatory . one time over again , the culprit hither is amnesia — ever a cracking means to vindicate inverse storytelling . In Memento , Leonard ( Guy Pierce ) make mind legal injury from the man who musical rhythm him up and obliterate his wife . Leonard wish retaliation , but the merely problem is , he ca n’t think who make water him this agency . wry , is n’t it ? To turn tail this catch-22 , Leonard drop a line admonisher altogether over his soundbox so that he can easy work backwards and narrate his tone to before the mutilate . Memento is the picture that rocket Christopher Nolan to manager - stardom , institute near of his bed stylemark , let in clock handling , noir ingredient , and absolutely wive . interpret next : The effective picture show about memory board red and take care manipulation