Sometimes, a weird movie is what’s needed to provide a completely different experience. Most movies follow a stringent set of rules, even if audiences might not realize it. This is why strange and quirky movies can be so entertaining. They offer something that most conventional mainstream movies don’t.

Of course, there are some movies which seem to be intentionally weird in a shallow attempt to shock audiences. What’s more impressive is a movie which can incorporate strange ideas and techniques into the very fabric of its being without being so off-putting that people can’t enjoy them.

7

Snatch (2000)

Guy Ritchie’s Gangster Comedy Bristles With Wit

Snatch remains one of Guy Ritchie’s best movies, and it embodies so much of what makes him unique. He’s created a few brilliant crime comedies, but none quite like Snatch, with its elaborate web of conniving eccentrics and its punchy directorial style. The narrative is also distinct from the likes of The Gentlemen and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, since there are many absurd coincidences and jokes which impact the story.

Snatch opens with the eye-catching sequence of a diamond robbery being carried out by a group of thugs disguised as orthodox Jews. This sets the tone for a freewheeling crime caper as different gangs try to get their hands on the loot. Ritchie’s snappy dialogue ensures that they’re all memorable in their own way, and Jason Statham and Brad Pitt both deliver some of their most entertaining performances in a sparkling ensemble cast.

6

The French Dispatch (2021)

Wes Anderson’s Anthology Gives Him Even More Freedom

Wes Anderson’s movies are known for their idiosyncratic style, and The French Dispatch may be the single film that defines this aesthetic more clearly than any other. Anderson’s nonconformist approach draws attention to the artifice of the medium. In The French Dispatch, he frames several short stories within the device of a vaunted literary magazine publishing its final edition.

Each segment of The French Dispatch takes on a slightly different style to mirror the idea that the stories are being told with the voices of different writers. However, Anderson’s love of symmetry, visual depth and ᴅᴇᴀᴅpan dialogue unites the segments. The result of this effect is a celebration of all kinds of art, as the stories primarily focus on the ways that art can shape our perceptions of the world, and vice versa.

5

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Malkovich Plays Himself In An Odd Psychological Adventure

Charlie Kauffman is one of the only screenwriters in Hollywood who can generate interest in a new project based on his reputation alone. Movies like Being John Malkovich demonstrate clearly why he’s unlike anyone else. Kauffman is an iconoclast who revels in questioning every maxim of conventional storytelling and cinema. He found the perfect collaborator for Being John Malkovich in the form of Spike Jonze.

Being John Malkovich follows an insecure office worker who finds a bizarre portal which lets him inhabit John Malkovich’s mind for a short period, and he immediately tries to exploit this phenomenon for personal gain. It’s a fascinating exploration of image, idenтιтy and much more. It’s also one of the most disarming and unique dark comedies ever made, with a great cast ensuring that the story doesn’t go too far off the rails to feel hard to relate to.

4

Sorry To Bother You (2018)

Sorry To Bother You Gradually Gets Weirder And Weirder

Sorry to Bother You starts off as a quirky comedy, but this does nothing to prepare audiences for how strange things get. As Cash works his way up the corporate ladder, his surroundings and the people he meets become more eccentric. More than this, the entire world seems to spin out of control, as the fabric of reality stretches near breaking point with twist after bizarre twist.

To go into detail about Sorry to Bother You‘s story would risk ruining the joy of its many surprises. Just when it seems like a clever allegory about code-switching and the subtle racism of corporate culture, it morphs into something else entirely. Boots Riley clearly enjoys playing a game with his audience, and this means that Sorry to Bother You leaves its audience with plenty to think about.

3

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

Terry Gilliam’s Hidden Gem Shows Off His Singular Style

Terry Gilliam has always had a habit of tearing down conventions, starting with his Monty Python movies. Brazil and 12 Monkeys both proved that he was just as creative in his solo work, but not all his movies get the attention that they deserve. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is famous for its troubled, decades-long production, but the movie itself never really broke through in any meaningful way.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote underlines Adam Driver’s status as one of the most interesting actors in the business. He plays a filmmaker who returns to the location of his first student film to find that an elderly man whom he cast as Don Quixote has spent decades believing that he really is the fictional Spanish adventurer. Gradually, the lines between fact and fiction start to blur, which lets Gilliam have some real fun with his dreamlike compositions.

2

Swiss Army Man (2016)

The Daniels’ Pitch-Black Comedy Showcases Their Inventive Approach

Daniel Radcliffe has starred in several weird movies since the end of the Harry Potter franchise, which has allowed him to avoid being too closely ᴀssociated with the role that made him famous. Swiss Army Man may be the weirdest of them all, as he plays a ᴅᴇᴀᴅ body being used as a tool for survival by a disturbed man lost in the wilderness. Paul Dano also delivers a great performance.

Since the Daniels won Best Picture for Everything Everywhere All at Once, more people have been looking back on Swiss Army Man. It’s just as original and surprising as their Oscar-winner, with a similar vein of absurdist comedy running throughout the twisted melodrama. It has the kind of ending that urges audiences to go back and watch it again, reinterpreting its surreal story through a new lens.

1

The Lobster (2015)

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Surreal Style Reaches Its Peak

Yorgos Lanthimos’ movies can all be easily identified by his unsettling style. His dialogue takes ᴅᴇᴀᴅpan humor to new levels of absurdity, and his characters often seem on the brink of breaking down and indulging their most animalistic desires. The Lobster was the movie that solidified this style, and the dark comedy remains one of the director’s best and most entertaining works.

The Lobster is a twisted romance satire, poking fun at society’s obsession with pairing off like some kind of arbitrary buddy system to propel people through the chaos of life. However, the tribe of single people in The Lobster are just as damaged and fanatical as anyone, further underlining Lanthimos’ point that humanity’s dogmatic view of romance and connection leaves nobody untouched.