11 Movies That Will Make You Go “Huh?”

11) Enter The Void

If images are ideas, then Gaspar Noé’s 2009 film Enter the Void is a complete brain saturator. It’s a drug-infused movie that is as hallucinogenic an experience for the audience as for its characters. That is to say: it’s a trip. It makes Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas feel like Sunday School by comparison.

And like most trips, you know, according to things I’ve read, it’s a movie you want to be over after the first hour or so, and yet it continues on far longer than you’d like it to, rehashing stuff over and over again, introducing new and even more loosely connected elements that only contribute further to a feeling of disorientation and impatience. I mean this in the most positive way. As an experience, Enter the Void is unparalleled in the wide-ranging sample of movies I’ve ever come across; as a visual stream of subjective consciousness, it has to be considered one of the most stunning, gripping, and impressive feats of filmmaking ever released.

There’s a narrative mixed in with the trippy weirdness of Enter the Void, one that provides us with characters to engage with and arcs to follow, but the philosophy and metaphysical inclinations are far better realized on the screen than they could ever been in a screenplay. Something about the actual concepts put forth by some of the movie’s dialogue and aesthetic impressions is absurd on the surface but has a special power on the unconscious psyche. I think some people call this “pure cinema.” I call it effed up and wonderful.

I tend to think that movies meant to pull at our emotional strings get a bit of a bum rap from critics and self-identified cinephiles. Likewise, movies that are heady and poetic and meant to make you think about what you’re viewing are under-appreciated by mainstream audiences. Deeply confusing movies are, to an extent, designed to alienate the audience, to give them the sense that they know nothing, and therefore must pay close attention if they want to leave the movie thinking they haven’t completely wasted their time. But having your mind blown by a movie is an emotional experience too, giving the viewer a kind of rush that comes with the feeling of epiphany or merely surprise. I would argue that the emotional and cerebral movie are more alike than it may seem at times. Even if bewilderment is the only response, confusing movies offer an experience that is unique to cinematic storytelling.

Do you have any favorite or least favorite movies that left your brain in shambles? Share any and all WTF experiences below.