10 Films That Completely Defy Expectations

When we walk in to a movie, be it a comedy, drama, horror film or action thriller, we know what to expect. Heck, Hollywood has programmed us to understand a cinematic experience even before we’ve seen a single extended take. Trailers spill the beans, pointing out meaningful moments and spoiler-esque plot elements as part of some no longer necessary marketing maneuver while the web works its wonders as part of Messageboard Nation’s desire to scoop its Internet competition and be first with any casting/creative choice. Besides, moviemaking has become a formula, a fixed point in a baffling business model’s bottom line which sees the same old things trotted out time and time again, hoping that you, as a clueless viewer, will ignore the blatant similarities and plunk down your hard earned dosh.

But every once in a while (a ‘blue moon’ would be too regular), films defy their expectations. Usually the result of some artistic ambition or a back door deal with Tinseltown’s indie identity, there are times when you go in anticipating one thing, only to get something else in return. It’s not a matter of bad PR or a lack of perception. It’s just that we have become so blinded by what the artform provides that our own bias clouds our keep an open mind. With that in mind — and the 9 July DVD/Blu-ray release of a perfect example of this ideal at Number Eight on our alphabetized list — we offer 10 films that suggest one thing, but are much, much more. Sure, they may stay locked in their genre dynamics, or their previous incarnations, but then they break free, bringing along with their invention a clear sense of why many of us fell in love with the medium in the first place.

Let’s begin with something both baffling and brilliant:

 
#10 – Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

After David Lynch’s TV series fizzled, failing to ignite the imagination of viewers who stuck it out for two wholly uneven seasons, the filmmaker vowed to bring everyone’s favorite town full of eccentrics back to the big screen for one final hurrah. What he provided, instead, is the greatest kiss off an artist has ever provided to his adoring public. First, Lynch abandoned the cliffhanger ending of the TV show for a prequel explaining Laura Palmer’s last days, then began the film with a weird detour into an FBI case involving another victim of the demonic ne’er-do-well, Bob. And things just got more surreal from there.

 
#9 – Sunshine

Danny Boyle doesn’t do “conventional”. His addicts in Trainspotting are just as funny as they are flawed, and his zombies in 28 Days Later are merely misguided citizens infected with a horrifying rage virus. So when he announced a sci-fi epic about the saving of the sun, many believed they’d be getting the typical tired future shock. What Boyle provided was a perfect companion piece to Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, another amazing look at man’s place in the universe spiced up with both philosophy and thrills. It’s a masterpiece of meaning from a man who just can’t make an uninteresting film, even when he fails.

 
#8 – Spring Breakers

The title is the first hint that something slightly unusual is going on here. This isn’t a movie about the annual college rite of passage, but a look at those who trade their entire future for a few days of sun, fun, sex, and other (often illegal) indulgences. In this case, writer/director Harmony Korine pushes the very limits of the notion of personal freedom, giving four young ladies the chance to let loose and escape their social shackles. The result, guided by white rap ringleader Alien (an amazing James Franco) is a descent into personal Hell, with no one coming out unscathed.

 
#7 – Red State

Kevin Smith wanted to make a horror movie. He told everyone that this would be his own personal take on the overdone genre. What he delivered instead was a masterpiece of audience manipulation, a movie that starts out one way (a group of horny guys decide to hook up with some trailer park MILF), veers off in another direction (an amazing mid-movie monologue from actor Michael Parks), and ends up a Waco style stand-off between the FBI and religious nuts. Oh, and the Rapture may play a part in it as well. A terrific take on what it means to believe and be duped by same.

 
#6 – Popeye

If you could pick one ’70s icon to make a comic book movie, something based on the classic cartoon character and his spinach loving hijinx, who would you choose? Steven Spielberg? George Lucas? Heck, even Francis Ford Coppola? Here’s guessing Robert Altman wouldn’t be high on your wish list, and with good reason. His experimental approach to realism made for some of the era’s most uncompromising works of art. In this case, when hired, Altman decided to tackle the project with equal authenticity, building his own version of Sweet Haven on the Isle of Malta and making everyone act like human animation. Even today it’s ahead of its time.

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#5 – Hellraiser

When Clive Barker got Stephen King to call him the “future of horror”, few would imagine the next step for the celebrated author will be a turn behind the lens. But he got his chance to shine with this thinly veiled allegory about adultery and how far one partner would go to cuckold the other. In this case, a disgruntled wife kills men she picks up in bars to feed them to the rotting corpse of her former lover, the brother of her clueless husband, all under the roof of his family home. Sure, there’s blood and gore, but the betrayal is much more lethal.

 
#4 – The Gong Show Movie

Chuck Barris decided to make the first meta movie ever when he took old footage from his hit TV show (including an infamous sequence where panelist J. P. Morgan flashed her breasts) and edited into his own obtuse version of 8 & 1/2. The movie is basically a two hour long mea culpa, a behind the scenes sneak peek at the craziness that happened while The Gong Show was in production, as well as the weird backlash that resulted from its popularity. Throughout, Barris appears embarrassed to be revisiting his media humiliation, while giving his fans more of what they always wanted.

 
#3 – The Fountain

Darren Aronofsky had only made two previous films — Pi and Requiem for a Dream — before he announced this overly ambitious project. Wanting to take on mortality and the meaning of life, he roped in rising superstars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and made his proposal. Warners balked, and so the filmmaker had to rewrite the material, and accept Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz as his leads (some compromise). If you pull it apart and put it back together with careful consideration, you get it. Then Aronofsky’s genius steps in and shows you things you didn’t see before, even after numerous viewings. Timeless.

 
#2 – Drive

Film noir as filtered through the revisionist lens of a knowing foreign filmmaker. Drive defies expectations because it never fully gives in to the genre contrivances the material demands. Heck, Albert Brooks, one of the most beloved and baffling stand-ups in the history of comedy plays the main villain here, and he’s sensational. Nicolas Winding Refn, a Danish director whose work is categorized by its existential aggressiveness, takes the story of a career criminal (Ryan Gosling) who befriends a lonely woman and her child and makes the narrative work as both a thriller and a character study/romance. And there’s blood. Lots of blood.

 
#1 – Attack the Block

The alien invasion sci-fi trope is so old and moldy that dinosaurs decided it was laughable back in the pre-human era. But when given a grin inducing spin by British comedian turned filmmaker Joe Cornish, it becomes a social commentary about the state of immigrant Britain. Unlike Edgar Wright’s brilliant deconstruction of the zombie genre, Shaun of the Dead, which utilized another tired terror concept to redefine the buddy film, Attack the Block argues that the extraterrestrials are the least of our character’s concern. Instead, poverty, drugs, and desperation lead to a survival instinct that will come in handy once ET lands with evil on its mind.

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