7 films you will keep thinking about long after
Time loops, memory gaps, dreams within dreams: seven films that are not over when the credits roll. Spoiler-free, with running times and how much focus they need.
Some films you watch, and an hour later you barely remember what they were about. Others do not let go. You argue about them on the way home, rewatch single scenes the next day and notice things the second time that slipped past you before. These seven belong to the second kind. They ask for your attention, but give a lot back.
Memento
2000, 113 minutes. Leonard cannot form new memories; after a few minutes everything is gone. He is looking for the man who killed his wife, using notes, Polaroids and tattoos as his memory. Christopher Nolan tells the story backwards, so you know as little as Leonard does. Short, precise, and a completely different film the second time.
The Prestige
2006, 130 minutes. Two magicians in late 19th-century London, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, go from colleagues to rivals and from rivals to enemies. The film itself is built like a magic trick: it shows you everything you need to know, and you still look the other way.
Inception
2010, 148 minutes. A thief, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, steals ideas from dreams. His last job is the opposite: planting an idea. That means going into dreams within dreams. It sounds complicated but is told with surprising clarity, and it is a big action film on the side. People still argue about the final shot.
Shutter Island
2010, 138 minutes. In 1954, a US marshal and his partner arrive on an island with a hospital for mentally ill offenders, because a patient has disappeared. A storm is coming, and nothing on the island is what it seems. Martin Scorsese directs it as a dark psychological thriller, again with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Arrival
2016, 116 minutes. Twelve alien ships land on Earth, and a linguist, played by Amy Adams, is asked to find out how to talk to the beings inside. Denis Villeneuve does not make an action film out of it, but a quiet film about language, time and choices. It is based on a short story by Ted Chiang.
Ex Machina
2015, 108 minutes. A young programmer is invited to his boss's remote house to test an artificial intelligence: is it truly conscious, or just pretending? Alex Garland tells it as a chamber piece with three main characters. The effects won an Oscar, but the real tension comes from the conversations.
Coherence
2014, 89 minutes. Eight friends meet for dinner while a comet passes Earth. Then the power goes out, and a light comes on in the house down the road. The film was made on a small budget, with much of it improvised. That is exactly what makes it feel so immediate. The hidden gem on this list.
How much focus they need
- Easy to get into: Inception, Shutter Island, The Prestige.
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