Some films are made to be watched. Others are made to keep living inside your head.
The ones on this list belong to the second group. If you like that "what did I just watch?" feeling, go ahead and press play on the first one.
At first glance it looks like a dystopian survival story. But a few levels down you realise the film is not really about hunger, it is about human nature. Its metaphors on power, selfishness, justice and class are so strong that two people can watch the same film and reach completely different conclusions. The ending does not hand you the answers. On the contrary, it starts forming new questions while the credits roll.
The first thing you will do when it ends is read the comments.
Some films put you in the character's place; Fractured leaves you no choice. A father is trying to find his missing family, but the hospital insists no such family ever arrived. From that moment on, every scene you see becomes suspect. You cannot decide who to trust, and each new detail makes you drop your previous theory. The ending is not a twist written merely to surprise you. It makes you see the clues that were in front of you all along with completely different eyes.
Don't put too much faith in your first guess.
If you have ever wondered why Korean cinema gets so much praise for its twists, this is a great place to start. A missing brother returns, but nothing feels the way it used to. Instead of giving you the answer, the film asks a new question every ten minutes. The more you think you have solved it, the more doors the script opens. By the finale you are less surprised than amazed at how flawlessly every piece fits together.
You will catch more on the second watch than on the first.
Time travel has been done to death on screen, but The Call fuses it with an unusual kind of tension. A phone connection between two people living in the same house in different years looks innocent at first. Then every conversation begins to change the present. The film shows how small decisions can cause enormous consequences without ever dropping its pace. The last half hour barely lets you breathe.
Every time the phone rings you will tense up a little more.
Single-location films are often a risk. Oxygen turns that constraint into its greatest strength. Waking up in a narrow pod without knowing who she is, the lead character starts gathering the pieces of her memory, and so do you. As time passes the oxygen drops, the answers multiply and the tension never lets up. It is one of those films that proves you can pin someone to their seat without a single big action scene.
Watch this one alone and somewhere quiet if you can.
Mirage chooses to tell its time travel story through a strong narrative rather than complicated equations. One small incident on a stormy night changes the course of dozens of lives years later. Throughout the film you keep asking yourself, "would I have made the same call?" When the ending arrives everything falls into place and leaves behind that satisfying feeling that lingers for a long time.
Don't pick up your phone during the last 20 minutes.
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