So I recently saw two movies I thought were really good.
Vantage Point was very well done, I thought. It’s about a terrorist plot to assassinate the president, told from the point of view of all the main characters (including the terrorists). So it’s like the same 23 minutes over and over and with the parts and different questions answered and mysteries solved as it goes along and new POVs are seen. I saw that about two days ago.
Today I saw the CGI film Hoodwinked which is about the story of Lil’ Red Riding Hood told from the four POV of the granny, the wolf, the woodsman, and Red herself. Again, it was basically the same half an hour or so over and over but from the different characters’ perspectives. As I watched (and enjoyed) it, I thought back to how it was like Vantage Point in a lot of ways…and then started thinking and wondering what other movies are sort of like this or like the plot where a story is retold over and over only with variables changed.
I could think of two others:
Go is a good movie that has three stories that are connected and intertwined in sort of a “different POV” fashion and of course Run Lola Run, while not being from different points of view, still holds that “same story retold with different variables”.
I love these types of movies. Other than these four, how many others are there? Anyone have any suggestions?
Lucas Belvaux’s Trilogy consists of three movies that tell interconnected stories that happen concurrently. I haven’t seen them, but they’re supposed to be very good.
The rather obscure 11:14 is exactly the sort of thing you’re talking about. A single event and all the stories surrounding it are told from the POV of various characters, revealing more as it goes along. It’s quite well put together independent movie; more of a dark comedy than any other genre.
edit: already mentioned
[Courage Under Fire has the same story repeated with variations depending on who tells it. Various sitcoms have down this as well. ]
I haven’t seen it, but Timecode has four perspectives on screen simultaneously. Kind of like this video (Cibo Matto’s “Sugar Water” directed by Michael Gondry, although that has the ‘reverse’ twist).
Not a movie exactly, but the trilogy of plays called The Norman Conquests depicts events of a single weekend in three different areas of a country house; you might get quite a different picture of the weekend from just watching one than from all three. It was done by the BBC back around 1980 with Tom Conti; doesn’t seem to be available on DVD, though.
Elephant by Gus Van Sant. It’s about a Columbine-type situation, and it shows the events of that day, leading up to the disaster, from the POV of different people in the school. I know a lot of people don’t care for it, but I thought it was really good.
I recommend Timecode — it doesn’t have the most compelling story, but they way it’s told is a very interesting cinematic experiment: Four continuous-take cameras follow several characters around L.A. as their lives intersect with one another. The events run concurrently with one-another in real-time in the four quadrants of your screen. The script was loosely plotted, and the cast — including Salma Hayek, Holly Hunter, Julian Sands, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Kyle MacLachlan — improvised their performances. upon reviewing thread… somebody already mentioned it…
Great movie, actually, despite Patrick Swayze.