A couple of television series have been mentioned, so I recommend Slings & Arrows, a Canadian series set in a theater festival (something like Stratford Shakespeare Festival). During each of the three seasons, the theater troupe in the show is performing a Shakespeare play, and the plot of the play reflects in what’s occurring to the characters in the theater troupe.
And given Harvey Weinstein’s crimes, Shakespeare in Love is probably disliked by some, but I liked it and found it clever.
I used to think The Usual Suspects was a clever film. Still love it, but I am now of the opinion that “unreliable narrator” is a very cheap way to pull off a twist ending. So is cheap misdirection. For example, killing off a suspect (faking their death), only to have them be the perpetrator later on (Christie did this with 10 Little Indians).
One of the brilliant things about The Sixth Sense is they left little clues throughout the film so you could figure it out before the reveal if you were paying attention and a little clever yourself.
Watch it in chronological order here: https://vimeo.com/194394156
Let’s agree to disagree on that one.
I nominate The Sixth Sense too
Unbreakable can also go in that bucket.
Dang, I got all the way to your post before I discovered that I was beaten to Looper. I thought it was clever. And speaking of time-traveling Bruce Willis and twist endings, 12 Monkeys belongs in the conversation also.
Anaconda (1997)
Cited solely for the scene in which John Voight is swallowed and regurgitated by a giant CG-anaconda; the most clever use of John Voight ever, imo.
The Battle Wizard (1977)
Twice the fun and four times the imagination of the same year’s Star Wars. “Clever” is but one of many adjectives that apply to this indescribable Hong Kong martial arts fantasy, including (but not limited to): mind-blowing, surreal, action-and-visual effects-packed, cheesy and amazingly inventive. And it has a kung fu fightin’ gorilla!
The Black Book (1949) – A clever merging of period piece and film noir aesthetics results in a beautifully lit and shot thriller set during the French Revolution with some audacious sequences probably designed by producer William Cameron Menzies.
Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
A clever and compelling mix of elements tells the story of the Beast of Gevaudan.
Dog Day (1984)
Obscure French-made elegy to the American gangster has Lee Marvin on the lam in France with stolen loot interacting with a family of degenerates. Clever and unpredictable (except for the end) with always-awesome Miou-Miou, Tina Louise and scene-stealing David Bennett (the kid from The Tin Drum – arguably the greatest child actor of his time).
Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958), The Fabulous Baron Munchhausen (1962), The Stolen Airship (1967)
Karel Zeman films in Mystimation; the quintessence of clever. Don’t miss them.
Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
The very clever adventures of a debonair concierge.
Last Days of Man on Earth, a.k.a. The Final Programme (1973)
Perhaps too clever – and still ahead of its time – adaptation of Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius stories is not for all tastes.
The Magnetic Monster (1953)
Unusual sci-fi cleverly uses footage from the big budget German film Gold (1934) for its awesome climax.
The Saragossa Manuscript (1965)
Classic Polish film intertwining tales of intrigue, fantasy and the bizarre. Brilliantly plotted and cleverly filmed.
Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948)
This superior remake of Rome Express (1932) boasts better train intrigue and an upgraded climax in story of a stolen diary that could start WWIII. Witty, clever and very entertaining.
I saw this movie a little later, so I’d heard the buzz about the twist, but not what it was. So I went into it with the twist about you know what in the back of my head, and I picked up little clues along the way. Like you think his wife is pissed he showed up to their anniversary dinner late, but you realize she’s sad.
I read something that was pointed out in the last Harry Potter movie, when Hermione takes the polyjuice potion to become Bellatrix to get into her vault at Gringott’s. So you have Helena Bonham Carter pretending to be Emma Watson pretending to be Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix. It took some extra work between the two ladies but it’s executed flawlessly, so kudoes to both of them.
Aaah! Zombies!! is a very clever movie about zombies. The clever part is that it’s told from the zombies’ point of view.
I would put everything Wes Anderson ever directed in the “clever movie” category because I love how he always comes up with a cohesive visual aesthetic. And not only that, a cohesive “vibe” for all the characters as well…it’s always a vast comedy of manners with every character like they’re part of a matched set or something, where everything fits together just so. My favorite is Moonrise Kingdom but he nails it with everything, even Fantastic Mr. Fox which is a cartoon. Or maybe it was made with actual models that were physically constructed, I am not sure. But it’s ingenious.
This is what I came to say. It’s extremely clever, and hilarious. The dialogue is incredible.
And by the same writer, Adaptation. Which is intricate and brilliant and which I’m going to have to watch again since I got what Kaufman was doing only about half way through the movie.
Personally, I was very disappointed by Inception. There’s all this hype about how it’s layers within layers of dreams within dreams, and yet in the movie itself, three layers is considered unprecedented and amazing? I’ve had dreams seven layers deep before, and it was no big deal. And they never really take full advantage of the potential of a dreamscape-- The only times it really got “dreamy” were when the characters were doing “don’t do that”. Like, that freight train down the middle of the street? That should have been what passed for normal, in a dreamscape. It felt like the dream mechanic was just an excuse to cram in over-the-top action-movieism and to handwave it away as being consequence-free.
But I’m surprised that I’m only the second to mention 12 Monkeys. It’s really hard to make a time travel story that holds together (Back to the Future, for instance, most certainly does not), but so far as I can tell, 12 Monkeys handled it flawlessly.
Let me be the third person. Time travel’s already been addressed but another clever aspect of the movie is how it compares the spread of viruses and ideas.
I’m partial to Cloud Atlas. The way the six stories interlock with each other in a mirrored pattern makes it clever. It helps to know the symmetrical arching structure from the book. The movie chops all six timelines into bits and scrambles them. It reassembles them cleverly to bring out various interconnections bridging across the timelines.
I think there’s a fine line between “clever” and “fucked-up, overly-confusing, pretentious nonsense.” Especially when the concept of time travel and multiple timelines is involved.
I actually think one of the BEST movies in the “alternate timelines” genre is actually The Butterfly Effect, which I think a lot of people have written off simply because it was a vehicle for Ashton Kutcher. I don’t really give a damn about that, the movie would be compelling with ANY actor or actress in that lead role. The key is that it doesn’t TRY to pretend there’s some scientific or logical explanation for the traveling between alternate timelines. It’s just presented as sort of supernatural. Maybe some people would consider that a cop-out, but I actually don’t. The heart of the movie is the abstract idea of changing your past in order to change your future, and it explores this idea in a very interesting (and very sinister) way.
I don’t expect much scientific rigor in an explanation for the mechanics of time travel. If you want to make it magical, then fine, make it magical. But I do care about how the consequences are explored. For comparison, J. K. Rowling did a good job of it with the Time-Turners. Though of course that was just a small portion of one book: It’s a lot harder to do right when it’s the entire focus of a story.
What about J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child?
I haven’t seen the play, but I’ve read the script. In this case the focus of the whole story is time-travel and alternate realities, and it works well.
Oh yes. This movie handles it great. And I do also like that the how is not really explained. It would be too much, and unnecessary. The WHAT would happen is done very well.
I also like that it is easy to relate to for most people. In my case it certainly is. There are a number of choices that I can pinpoint in my life that got me to where I am today. If I had made other seemingly simple choices my life would be wildly different than it is. I think that’s true for all of us.
For instance, if I hadn’t taken one simple elective class in high school back in 1977, I would be in an absolutely, completely, different (and possibly desperate) situation.