Mindfuck movies

Matthew Baldwin lists sixteen of his favorite mindfuck films, including La Jetée, Dark City, and Memento.

As I stood in line to buy my tickets, I noticed a small hand-lettered sign in the box-office window that read, “People arriving five or more minutes late to Memento will not be allowed entrance.” This was at a small art-house cinema — not one to place arbitrary restrictions on its patrons — and it struck me as odd that the limitation applied solely to this one film, so I asked the cashier about it when I reached the front of the line.

“You can’t understand anything about the film if you miss the first five minutes,” she told me with a roll of her eyes. “We’ve had late-comers charge out here after the end and demand that we explain the whole thing to them.”

Baldwin gives Primer some much-deserved love, which is always appreciated around here.

• best of
• lists
• matthewbaldwin
• movies