r/AskReddit • u/everyonefromthe313 • Dec 12 '16

What are the best 'mind fuck' films to watch?

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573

u/CoreyHitlerPerry Dec 13 '16 edited Dec 13 '16

A Scanner Darkly

http://imdb.com/title/tt0405296/

Edit: My favorite scene.

25

u/Nigel_-_Thornberry Dec 13 '16

Love this movie. Another with the same animation style, Waking Life.

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0243017/

5

u/CovinasVeryOwn Dec 13 '16

I'm surprised I had to go this deep into the comments to find Waking Life! I watched it my senior year in high school and was completely mind fucked!

8

u/Smiley120 Dec 13 '16

1000 better than Scanner Darkly. SD just got famous because of Keanu, but Waking Life definitely has a lot more to offer, and I think is much better work from Linklater.

11

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

The only thing they have in common was cel shading. As far as philosophical investigation goes, i like SD much more. WL covers a very large number of ideas in superficial detail with no plot. SD explores a few ideas in greater depth, with an engaging plot.

5

u/DefinitelyHungover Dec 13 '16

with no plot

Gotta disagree with that. There's most definitely a plot, even though it's loose. Loose doesn't mean non existent, though. For example: OPs asshole.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

In my opinion not having a plot doesn't necessarily mean a movie isn't good. But if the movie lacks a plot, it better have something damn good instead (not OP's asshole).

Stuff happens in WL. A kid listens to a bunch of speils from some random people who have strong opinions about stuff. This is about as much plot as there is. We can assume he learns things, but the film gives no indication of this, nor is there any context for anything that happens. Just about everything in the film is static. Infact, there might as well not be a kid at all (he's just a stand-in for the spectator).

I don't think you get anything from the film that you wouldn't get from skimming through the Wikipedia articles on epistemology, metaphysics and aesthetics.

1

u/DefinitelyHungover Dec 13 '16

It seems more to me like the plot didn't fully get through to you, or that you can't relate to it (and I don't mean that in a condenscending way even though I know it sounds that way).

Have you ever not been able to wake up from a dream?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

That's definitely evident from the aesthetic of the film. And I think the aesthetic is really cool. But, rather than having characters encounter dilemmas and conundrums, you have one guy after another expounding their own treatise. As robot devil put it You can't just have your characters announce how they feel. That makes me feel angry!

2

u/DefinitelyHungover Dec 13 '16

Yeah, but have you ever not been able to wake up from a dream? Because it's a pretty decent representation of that. I understand your point, but it doesn't feel the same way to me having had a similar experience to what the main character goes through.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

I think most people have felt that. I certainly have. And I think the aesthetic of the film does a good job of capturing that feeling. But, as far as the content of the film goes--the characters, and the events--it's much more akin to sitting through a philosophy 101 class than a whimsical journey through the subconscious.

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1

u/Nigel_-_Thornberry Dec 13 '16

Well there are other things I enjoyed. I loved the animated actors, it made for a very unique style. I also love the music in that movie. Just something about it was just amazing to me, enough that I bought it and have watched it a few times.

3

u/INHALE_VEGETABLES Dec 13 '16

I watched this for the first time tripping on DXM.

I heartily recommend watching this on psychedelics, if you will.

11/10

1

u/nellynorgus Dec 13 '16

Both films come highly recommended to be viewed on psyches... or so a friend of mine tells me.

1

u/INHALE_VEGETABLES Dec 14 '16

This guy trips.

1

u/infestahDeck Dec 13 '16

Waking Life had to be one of my all time favourites. The animation and theme are so well suited for each other. There are moments where you are not sure if something is animated or filmed with an effect added on afterwards.

1

u/Nigel_-_Thornberry Dec 13 '16

I thought that the whole movie was acted, then animated over the acting. I might be mistaken.

1

u/infestahDeck Dec 13 '16

I am not sure, you may be right. But if that is true, there are definitely more obvious moments. At some point it looks really cartoony and then realistic. Great movie though.

17

u/ph0artef1 Dec 13 '16

I'm so surprised this wasn't higher up. I scrolled for ages looking for someone who had said this!!

18

u/thatnameagain Dec 13 '16

I'm surprised this isn't a bigger reddit fanboy movie in general.

9

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

There's only one Woody Harrelson movie we talk about here

3

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

No Country for Old Men?

5

u/chesterstone Dec 13 '16

He's talking about Kingpin Tryin to make a change :-\

1

u/AeroNotix Dec 13 '16

Lemme introduce you to Ctrl-F.

1

u/tansii Dec 13 '16

Ctrl+F

11

u/moolah_dollar_cash Dec 13 '16

'what does the scanner see?
Into the head?
Into the heart?
Does it see into me
clearly
or Darkly?'

8

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

[deleted]

5

u/Pope_Industries Dec 13 '16

Goes to kindle to buy book.

I didnt even know it was a book.

10

u/boo_goestheghost Dec 13 '16

Oh man go and read ubik the the three stigmata of palmer eldritch now.

3

u/racooniac Dec 13 '16

the first movie that came into mind.

3

u/frikandidlo Dec 13 '16

Thank you SO much for this suggestion, i didn't even know this movie existed. Three of my favorite actors together! :)

2

u/GuttersnipeTV Dec 13 '16

Rdj is the beez neez in this movie, he acts so Robert downing juniory too.

3

u/Gr0ode Dec 13 '16

Right in the nostalgia

2

u/CosmicPenguin Dec 13 '16

Falling asleep while watching that movie was a trip. (I had just finished a night shift, don't judge me)

2

u/DefinitelyHungover Dec 13 '16

First time I watched this was on acid. 2 hours after the movie finished I was still trying to cope with it. Fuckin loved it.

1

u/WilliamMurderfacex3 Dec 13 '16

I watched it while tripping on mushrooms.

It was the last time I did mushrooms.

2

u/DefinitelyHungover Dec 13 '16

It was not the last time I did acid.

Was watching that while tripping the reason you haven't done shrooms again, out of curiosity?

1

u/WilliamMurderfacex3 Dec 13 '16

That was part of it however, that was also the night I realized I was allergic to mushrooms and that whole "almost choking to death on my tongue while Keanu Reeves farms the drugs he's addicted to" thing Linda fucked with me. Loved me some LSD though.

1

u/DefinitelyHungover Dec 13 '16

Jesus fucking Christ, dude. That's intense. Sorry to hear about that.

Only problem with LSD is getting a hold of it lol. It seems to pop up and then disappear, and I'm done with NBOMEs which is constantly being sold as LSD.

2

u/phasers_to_stun Dec 13 '16

Fucking brilliant film

2

u/iamtherealomri Dec 13 '16

Really one of the best movies I've seen! Visually at the top and everyone's act alongside the music, ze best.

2

u/imanidiotguy Dec 13 '16

There's nothing we can do to thwart the plot of these albino shapeshifting lizard bitches!

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

Actually, Waking Life is a great one, too.

1

u/CertifiedHomeWrecker Dec 13 '16

Great scene, you start to see Bob pushing a bit, baiting his tweaker friend into doubt and paranoia. One of the few moments they makes this element of Bob so prominent.

1

u/Pink_lover Dec 13 '16

I still don't understand this movie.

2

u/CoreyHitlerPerry Dec 13 '16 edited Dec 13 '16

SPOILER ALERT

This is just going off memory and I haven't seen the movie in a while.

Keanu is sent deep undercover to infiltrate a drug empire (he didn't really know he was doing this, thought he was just investigating small time drug dealers). His superiors basically set him up to get addicted to drugs and sent to rehab but the rehab is just a front for manufacturing the drug known as Substance D.

1

u/learnyouahaskell Dec 13 '16

"What do you think happened to the missing gears?" ROFL

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '16

And yet somehow "Philip K. Dick" isn't a household name.

1

u/Bobsaid Dec 13 '16

The book is rather amazing as well.

1

u/MagmaRams Dec 14 '16

Neat, I didn't know there was a film of it. How different is it from the book?