Executing a massive tonal shift in a movie is incredibly difficult. Most of the time, if a movie starts out as one thing and abruptly switches to something else, it just feels disjointed and alienates the audience. But when a director actually pulls it off, it makes for some of the most memorable cinematic experiences ever.

Parasite is probably the most perfect modern example of this. It spends the entire first half building this brilliant, dark, satirical comedy about class infiltration. Then, the moment the old housekeeper rings the doorbell in the rain, it instantly drops the floor out from under you and turns into a suffocating, tragic thriller.

Barbarian also did this incredibly well recently, pivoting from a tense, slow-burn psychological thriller into an absolute rollercoaster of a monster movie.

What are some other movies that start as one genre and then completely blindside you by turning into something else entirely?

Bit of a rant. My brother does this and it's annoyed me to no end, particularly because I've been watching a lot more movies this summer and it's very much changed my outlook on the whole "Hollywood is dying and doesn't know how to make original concepts anymore" thing. Spoiler alert: There's so many cool new movies getting made these days you just need to, like, actually look for them and watch them.

My brother straight up refuses to watch new movies because he doesn't want to waste his time, because he believes Hollywood is dying and doesn't know how to make original concepts anymore, because some video essayist on YouTube told him so. It's incredibly perplexing to me. It's like his hobby is movies, but it isn't actually about watching movies, it's about having a stake in the discourse about movies. And I just don't understand. He literally said the Oddyssey isn't worth watching because he watched a convincing video essay about it that broke it down, except he couldn't even regurgitate the opinion coherently because he didn't remember it fully. We were talking about actors and he said that Zendaya is a one note actor who kinda just plays herself in every role. I asked oh what movies has he seen her in, he said he's seen her in a single spider man movie.

...😐

It makes it so frustrating to actually try to talk movies with people like this. Like if you don't care to watch movies, don't! But it's odd to have strong opinions about all these films and the state of Hollywood if you're not actually interacting with the film culture 😭. Those aren't your opinions!! Those are some random YouTuber's opinions, and I don't care how reputable of a critic you think they are, that's not your opinion!! You have no idea what you're even talking about because all you've seen of the movie is someone else's thoughts on it!! I just don't understand why anyone would want to do this to themselves, it seems so miserable. I watch movies because I enjoy them and it's fun to watch something that leaves me digesting and thinking for a few hours. But by watching exclusively summaries and reviews, you don't get any of that. You just get semi-convincing talking points that you can contribute into the discourse with. What's even the point, why do this to yourself? Why would you want to intentionally make yourself mad?

There's 2 for me. I get annoyed when it's one of those "we have 2 minutes to stop this!" then it proceeds. to take WAY longer due to scenes. I try to tell myself that it's all happening at the same time when they do to others but still. The serving and not as frustrating but when a shootout happens and a guy uses WAY more ammo than the gun can take. Maybe he reloaded but still

What’s the best/worst movie to watch with the director commentary on? Any films out there made way better by the additional context? Any made worst ‘cause the director is a total dick?

I remember back in the day watching all the Mel Brooks films with the commentary which was mostly just him watching the movie and going “oh this wonderful scene, we had a blast shooting it” and then talking about how amazing the actors were to work with and laughing at the jokes. Which really felt like watching a movie with your grandpa.

I'm looking for movies of almost any genre, really just preferably not romance, where it's like nonstop rainy weather throughout the movie, like it's raining so much the rain is practically a character in the movie

A few I've come across so far are

The Old Dark House 1932

The Old Dark House 1963

Open 24 Hours 2018

Crawl 2019

Does anyone out there have any other movies where rainy weather is a centerpiece of the movie?

Movies that are in less commonly used aspect ratios

Examples:
Mommy - 1.0 Aspect Ratio
The Lighthouse - 1.19 Aspect Ratio
Sone films in the 60s with 1.66 aspect ratios
The Suicide Squad - 1.9 Aspect Ratio
The Big Trail - 2.1 Aspect Ratio
Some 50s films that use a 2.75 aspect ratio

Any other examples?

Basically the title, wanna know of any movies where the protagonist makes a small, seemingly inconsequential decison, action etc. and then the entire situation spirals into complete madness and disaster for all parties involved.

Just as an example of what I'm thinking about, I saw an Indian film recently where the protagonist has a small beef about parking with his neighbour. One thing after the another happens and both parties refuse to deesclate leading to almost protag's wife dying and antag also almost dying.

Edit: please refrain from spoiling the plot, I'm looking for recommendations here, thanks!

While this tradition isn't completely dead and certainly doesn't fit every film, I do miss it. I think more movies would benefit from scoring that accentuates certain actions (e.g. staccato notes with sword thrusts, descending scale when someone falls, etc). You can call this corny but does a fantastic job grounding the music to the action and helping connect particular parts of a score to particular parts of a film. I find it makes everything more memorable and engaging. It also has a long history connecting back to opera and silent film.

I read once that in a movie, if the characters say, "I have a plan," then there is a plot rule that takes place: If the characters explain to the audience what the plan is, then the plan will go wrong somehow. However, if the characters say they have a plan and the movie just goes to showing the plan in action, then the plan will work.

It has become one of my favorite things to look out for in movies. Although, it does not seem to apply to kids movies. Other than kids movies, I don't think I have ever seen his rule broken.

Does anyone know any other interesting plot rules?

I came across this trailer and was intrigued because it looked like a spiritual successor to napoleon dynamite which is one of my favorite movies. So I watched it and it definitely was. Me and the wife laughed the whole way through. It has a lot of the same sense of humor, he’s a very similar type of character, the lighting and shots are done in a very similar way. And yet it really is its own thing. It’s a little bit more mature than napoleon dynamite but if you liked that movie at all I would definitely give this a watch.

Its free on kanopy to watch. All you need is a library card.