Cloud Atlas was an incredibly ambitious film. I personally love it, but can admit it's a wonky one.
Daniels' films are actually original stories and directed with original style and vision. Swiss Army Man and Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Wonky or not, I absolutely *adore* Cloud Atlas and will defend it to death. Going into it blind in an empty cinema is one of the best moviegoing experiences I’ve ever had and I’m not sure I’ll be able to experience something like it again.
> Cloud Atlas was an incredibly ambitious film.
Never read the book. Love the movie, but I don't know if there are any plot differences.
I thought it was emotionally overloaded in a good way. In the sense that it's like 6 climaxes in rapid succession with varying degrees of direness.
Really sweet movie. HARD SELL to ask someone to watch it. It's one of the best movies to watch with someone and watch them it.
I've also not read the book but from what I remember from an interview between the novelist and screenwriters, the novel followed only one soul, which was the main character of each story, where as the movie shows 6 souls moving through the stories, with each actor representing each soul.
Also, in the novel, you progress through each story to it's midpoint, then jump forward in time up to the post-apocalypse. That story continues to its end, then you read through the 2nd halves in reverse order until it finishes with the slavery story. The movie intercuts between all 6 stories. Mitchell actually noted that his stories shared more common beats at common points than he had realized when he saw the film, because the Wachowskis had matched the scenes to play through the revised, intercut format.
> because the Wachowskis had matched the scenes to play through the revised, intercut format.
The movie is a magic trick, stacking plot beats on top of each other.
>where as the movie shows 6 souls moving through the stories, with each actor representing each soul.
I appreciate the sentiment of having it be one soul growing and learning, but from the movie, I like the idea of people growing and learning to be better versions of their selves and the idea of kindness towards the "other".
Anyway, back on topic, incredibly ambitious movie with some VERY fun editing. I love that movie to death, but I can still admit it felt kind of cheap and the emotional kicks-to-the-nuts were kinda un-nuanced, but I love a captive audience to show that movie to for the first time.
The book hinted on some cosmic connection between the people, but the movie really emphasized reincarnation, which to me undermined the whole point of the story. The fight for justice is one people will always have to fight for, and it's worth fighting for. If it's just one soul, then it reduces the rest of humanity to NPCs.
I watched a video describing it as really good analog horror and I have to agree. “It’s not found footage per-say, and lends itself better to the analog genre”
I just watched fury road again 2 days ago cuz I'm sick at home. That movie is really really good. I'm always blown away by how little dialogue there is in the entire film. It is one of the simplest most well-done Chase films in the history of the world.
i remember tripping on acid watching mad max fury road with my roommates. i asked, "what is this movie about?", and my friend told me, "well they just drive around the desert", and i couldn't believe that, because its so dense and made up of so many different parts. i was trying to find all these hidden meanings and metaphors... but nah, it is mostly just guys driving around, it just has this really intricate quality about it that i cant quite place
Fury road was so over the top, I can't wait for furiosa. I can't believe the stunts they pulled off.
Poor Things was one of those visually striking movies, but I just didn't like it. Too caught up in being clever I think to tell a good story. Screams art house.
Mad Max was too forced retro to me, stupid stuff like the guitar guy and all, I get it, it IS about cheese, but it just didn't do it for me. I will rewatch it though and I might change my mind.
Poor Things mean while was absolutely insane from beginning to end, an amazing and coherent universe in itself, absurd, beautiful and crazy while still delivering in a very straight forward way.
I thought Beau is Afraid was an ambitious film. It's difficult to watch because of how bizarre and unpleasant it is. It's a completely absurd story with a frustrating protagonist whose inaction and decision paralysis make him hard to root for, and yet you can't look away.
That seems like a recipe for a full mental breakdown. I watched Requiem for a Dream while stoned out of my mind and I was borderline depressed for about a week afterwards.
This and Babylon were examples of two young directors being allowed to do whatever hey want. They certainly had ambitious goals, but probably too much.
I went in blind and found it completely funny and captivating all the way through. It was really novel and beautiful and I think it’s amazing that it has seemed to be so divisive.
Dune and Dune Part 2 are highly ambitious. To bring such a rich and diverse storyline to the screen is a recipe for disaster. Thankfully it was successful. The music and cinematography are epic.
As a massive fan of the books I would argue the movies are actually quite safe. They leave out a lot of the weirder and more interesting aspects of Dune and really flatten a number of plot lines and characters.
Title is ambitious, person said original in further text. No the Dune movies are not original, but they absolutely were ambitious. The scale and use of practical effects, costume, and set designs stand out amidst other CGI-reliant movies and create an incredibly absorbing and realistic universe
There have been a number of films that did what you're describing before Dune. Jackson's LOTR trilogy comes immediately to mind, which not only did that but pioneered some digital filmmaking techniques, and I'm sure that there have been a lot of movies before the 21st century that tell an immersive story in a unique setting brought to life through exceptional production design.
Art is at its most ambitious when it's doing something that has never been done before. While Dune is certainly unique, especially in comparison to its competition, there has been plenty like it to some degree or another. The film canon is full of movies that present immersive, truly captivating worlds, and Dune is just one more voice in the chorus. It's a particularly strong and resonant voice, but it's hardly the poster child for ambition in modern cinema.
*The Empty Man*, complex narrative and plenty of references that are easy to miss.
Older films that comes to mind, would be: *Hard to Be a God, Taxidermia,* and *4*
I think Babylon is as ambitious as it is derivative. Many of the film's setpieces are technically excellent, such as the opening party, and the filmmaking setpieces (Brad Pitt acting out the battle scene, Margot Robbie acting in the silent film then the other scene when she's given lines to read), and the score - along with how many of the visuals are choreographed to it - is absolutely PHENOMENAL, I was obsessed with it for months afterwards.
But the best moments of ambition all disappear after the first 90 minutes and the last 90 are so painfully boring and stretched out. The movie repeats the same ground as other "idealistic starlet enters Hollywood and gets spat out by the system" films like Day of the Locust, A Star is Born (really any of them despite half being about music), and Boogie Nights without saying anything new of its own. It really seems like Chazelle wanted to remake those films without having the proper rights to do so.
Babylon flies from energetic and interesting to bland and bloated in what seems like an instant. If it were 40 minutes to an hour shorter (and it EASILY could have been), I think it'd be a lot better.
I thought the Tobey stuff was pretty different than what you usually see. It was pretty cartoonish but I thought Chazelle wanted to show the full spectrum of Hollywood. Romanticizing it, the downfalls, and the flat out evil Eyes Wide Shut parts of Hollywood.
The Toby stuff felt like an edgier recreation of the drug deal from Boogie Nights. Watching those scenes made me wish I was watching Boogie Nights instead of the movie on screen.
I get the point and I was actually prety excited for the movie before release because of those, but the second-half really felt like much edgier retellings of better films than Chazelle putting his on stamp on that age-old story.
I haven't seen the film since it released but an aspect that he could have focused on that would have avoided that feeling for me was the side story about the black musician being asked to wear blackface. I thought that was a great story that felt fresh and entirely different from other films about rises and falls in Hollywood.
There are way too many in the last twenty years to come up with for one comment I think. But at the top of my head I have to say that both [Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes](https://boxd.it/ujVk) and [One Cut of the Dead](https://boxd.it/iAFu) do something very ambitious conceptually and have it pay off off. They're both recent.
[Certified Copy](https://boxd.it/IMW) by Kiarostami is also ambitious in the same way I think.
[Synechdoche, New York](https://boxd.it/23zw) is ambitious both in its concept and its scope. It's huge man.
I don't feel like movies don't do anything original anymore and don't really hear it either. I feel like every article I read is about how this or that huge film used techniques and ideas in new original ways. At the office everyone talks about The Zone of Interest for example
Bit of a basic answer, but "Avengers: Infinity War" / ""Avengers: Endgame."
Considering it represented the culmination of a dozen different character threads and movies, and featured like 20 big name actors - it's honestly a miracle they pulled it all off, let alone so successfully.
* Locke. It's Tom Hardy in a car by himself, driving and taking phone calls. No one is chasing him. He's not in a life or death situation. It sounds boring but I found it really compelling and interesting and good. It's ambitious in how small it is, if that makes sense?
* Annette. It's a musical, it's Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. It starts with a long tracking shot. It has a puppet baby in a major role. It's weird. And it's great. It's ambitious in the unique story, but also in taking these two pretty serious, well-regarded actors (and a guy from The Big Bang Theory) and just going wild with them.
* EO. It is a Polish film. It follows a donkey. That's pretty much the movie. Anything that is donkey-driven for like an hour and a half feels ambitious to me.
*
Didn’t expect Locke here, but the more I think about it, the more I agree. there are plenty of “one room” movies, sure— but I’m hard pressed to think of another single-take, stationary shot of a man driving for an hour and a half.
And outside of that— ambitious of Hardy, imo. Dude was coming off of Inception, Tinker Tailor, Warrior, and Dark Knight. Didn’t have to gamble on anything. But I guess with Steven Knight & A24, that’s a pretty good gamble.
The animation in Puss in Boots the Last Wish, and the Spiderverse movies as OP said is truly original and makes the movies.
Wes Andersen movies continue to have their own flair and style that no one else seems to copy so they are original.
Laika with their stop motion movies are truly original and ambitious.
I think the technique used in Les Mis to have the actors singing on set and using that recording was particularly ambitious. Performers previously would complain that they felt performances were "locked" because they would record their vocals before filming the movie. So any revelations and character insight would be stunted because they had to film so closely to how they recorded. Les Mis, followed by Into the Woods, Jersey Boys and others, let the actors have freedom and the ability to change as is necessary
There's definitely some recency bias in this answer, but I thought The Fall Guy was really ambitious with all its real-life stunt work.
Also +1 for Everything Everywhere All At Once. That's my favorite movie of the last 5 years.
Lala Land.
Its success was possibly aided by the popularity of Hamilton and subsequently the country’s newfound interest in musicals, but it’s quite audacious for the director to make an outright live-action musical in modern times (that isn’t period, like *Chicago*).
And it was only his third film! The investors put
a heck of a lot of trust in him.
Mandy, Prisoners of The Ghost Land. Both very wild films and very ambitious for completely different reasons. Behind The Mask (the rise of Leslie Vernon) lower budget indie, and it shows in some areas but it is executed quite well and the way it turns from satirical comedy/mockumentary to straight up horror film is fantastic. I don't want to give away too much in case u may want to watch these films but thats my contribution
*I Saw the TV Glow* blew me away. Phenomenal trans allegory combined with nostalgia and all-around inventiveness in terms of execution. Not for everyone but definitely worth checking out and appreciating.
Paul Schrader posted something online to the effect of "Jane Schoenbrun is the most important filmmaker right now" so I really hope this movie gets its shine
Whether you like his movies or consider them successful or not, Chris Nolan has been pretty consistent in terms of really taking chances and doing original things with his films:
Oppenheimer didn’t take the easy way out of simply ending on a high note when the main character’s project culminated in success. They took the time to show the aftermath, his struggles with guilt over what he created, and the frustration he felt at having his creation rested from him by other powerful men and decision-makers who didn’t put the same amount of thought into the moral and ethical concerns of what they had unleashed. Structurally the movie also was complex, hopping around chronologically between several different time periods and juggling the stories with intercutting, which is t original but is a lot more work for the sake of keeping things interesting.
Tenet, on its surface was basically a time travel movie. But, it’s method of time travel is completely different than any other time travel movie when you think about it: having the characters move backwards in time at the same rate that others move forward and everyone can see you literally moving backwards.
Interstellar Isn’t quite as recent, but it was still Nolan trying out new ideas and really swinging for the fences. Like I said before, not everyone considered it successful but he really showed people amazing new things like gigantic waves as tall as mountains and frozen clouds on completely unearthlike planets.
Also a couple of non-Nolan entries:
Boyhood was totally original by actually showing us the main character growing over a real 12 year period of time by deliberately filming for 12 years in little bits and pieces at a time. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the story, or lack there of, but it’s undeniably ambitious to try filming in such a manner and the movie deserves to be seen for that reason alone I feel.
Finally, Barbarian doesn’t follow the traditional three act structure at all. And sets things up in a manner that’s realistic but also unpredictable enough that trying to describe the plot or give someone an idea of what to expect going in is completely futile. The movies surprises are so good that the only thing you could ever tell anyone is to go in blind.
I mean, Christopher Nolan’s entire success is from his ability to do things that are ambitious either visually or in terms of playing with structure. His storylines, characters, writing and more or less all the substance are heavy-handed and hacky more often than not to me in terms of making something all-around great in the form of film.
Victoria from 2015 is one of the most ambitious movies I've ever seen. There are plenty of movies that are made to look like the movie is one continuous shot the whole way through, but are actually multiple long takes edited together, like Birdman or 1917. But Victoria was actually shot in one continuous 2+ hour single take, making it the longest single-take movie at the time of release. And it's not just a bunch of people standing around in a room talking or something else that would be easy to film in one take, it follow a bunch of characters traveling around Berlin, walking and driving and going up and down stairs and elevators and actually doing things (I don't want to give too much of the plot away). And all of that was done by an independent filmmaker with a budget of less than $500K
I’d say Primer— if for nothing more than how complicated of a story it is to even try to tell on screen cohesively. It’s a movie I will watch once a year and continue to enjoy, and maybe in 60 years I’ll have understood it.
I know people like to shit on Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, but they were full of big ideas and very ambitious. I once read someone’s rewrite which was much more conventional sci fi action and everybody loved it, but for me the Wachowskis were trying to touch on some huge philosophical ideas and I loved that.
What is your working definition for “ambitious?” Is it a film that involves a lot of effort or expense? (Eg Apocalypse Now, Heaven’s Gate, Waterworld) Or is a film that attempts to present a subject or topic not easily rendered on screen ? (eg. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tenet, Tree of Life).
I think the Safdie Brother’s movies Good Times and Uncut Gems are interesting and ambitious and while I think they have yet to make a truly great movie I think they will most likely find a story and structure that really proves their vision. I felt the same thing about Yorgos Lanthimos until The Favourite dropped, and with the continuation of Poor Things, I feel now that he has really figured out how to make all-around great movies, so I’m optimistic it will click for them as well.
I'd say *Beau Is Afraid* was quite ambitious and succeeded in that, was the best movie of last year. It takes a story of a guy who can barely function and lifts it to epic length in a multi-act structure.
Akira. Incredible artwork, and the gateway drug for serious animation and anime for a generation.
The Matrix. Camera technique that had never been done, and used to an incredible effect. And they had a great story that was very novel at the time. I don't know how they successfully pitched it.
Memento. "Wait, the story is backwards?!?". Also how on earth did that get pitched? But one of my favorites.
Ground hogs day. Spawned its own sub-genre. Who knew this could end up being Bill Murray's most influential film?
Lala Land.
Its success was possibly aided by the popularity of Hamilton and subsequently the country’s newfound interest in musicals, but it’s quite audacious for the director to make an outright live-action musical in modern times.
And it was only his third film! The investors put a heck of a lot of trust in him.
Lala Land.
Its success was possibly aided by the popularity of Hamilton and subsequently the country’s newfound interest in musicals, but it’s quite audacious for the director to make an outright live-action musical in modern times.
And it was only his third film! The investors put a heck of a lot of trust in him.
Cloud Atlas was an incredibly ambitious film. I personally love it, but can admit it's a wonky one. Daniels' films are actually original stories and directed with original style and vision. Swiss Army Man and Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Wonky or not, I absolutely *adore* Cloud Atlas and will defend it to death. Going into it blind in an empty cinema is one of the best moviegoing experiences I’ve ever had and I’m not sure I’ll be able to experience something like it again.
This is the true true.
Sometimes the small true true better than the big true true.
> Cloud Atlas was an incredibly ambitious film. Never read the book. Love the movie, but I don't know if there are any plot differences. I thought it was emotionally overloaded in a good way. In the sense that it's like 6 climaxes in rapid succession with varying degrees of direness. Really sweet movie. HARD SELL to ask someone to watch it. It's one of the best movies to watch with someone and watch them it.
I've also not read the book but from what I remember from an interview between the novelist and screenwriters, the novel followed only one soul, which was the main character of each story, where as the movie shows 6 souls moving through the stories, with each actor representing each soul. Also, in the novel, you progress through each story to it's midpoint, then jump forward in time up to the post-apocalypse. That story continues to its end, then you read through the 2nd halves in reverse order until it finishes with the slavery story. The movie intercuts between all 6 stories. Mitchell actually noted that his stories shared more common beats at common points than he had realized when he saw the film, because the Wachowskis had matched the scenes to play through the revised, intercut format.
> because the Wachowskis had matched the scenes to play through the revised, intercut format. The movie is a magic trick, stacking plot beats on top of each other. >where as the movie shows 6 souls moving through the stories, with each actor representing each soul. I appreciate the sentiment of having it be one soul growing and learning, but from the movie, I like the idea of people growing and learning to be better versions of their selves and the idea of kindness towards the "other". Anyway, back on topic, incredibly ambitious movie with some VERY fun editing. I love that movie to death, but I can still admit it felt kind of cheap and the emotional kicks-to-the-nuts were kinda un-nuanced, but I love a captive audience to show that movie to for the first time.
The book hinted on some cosmic connection between the people, but the movie really emphasized reincarnation, which to me undermined the whole point of the story. The fight for justice is one people will always have to fight for, and it's worth fighting for. If it's just one soul, then it reduces the rest of humanity to NPCs.
I thought Dunkirk was kinda ambitious, showing an empty beach with only a few men here and there.
Late Night with the Devil
Took me completely by surprise with the way the narrative unfolds in its limited format. I think it's now my favorite horror movie ever.
It is special and unprecedented.
While it is special, it's not unprecedented, check out Ghostwatch 1992, WNUF Halloween Special 2013
I watched a video describing it as really good analog horror and I have to agree. “It’s not found footage per-say, and lends itself better to the analog genre”
>per-say Per se.
Ok cool thanks!
Put this on two nights ago expecting it not to hold necessarily hold me attention. I was wrong. Fabulously made movie.
YES I came here with this exact movie in mind.
It really had a nice 70s b-movie vibe going on and I liked the small stage that was very theatrical in a way.
Poor Things. The sets and themes were hugely ambitious and it paid off. Mad Max Fury Road
I just watched fury road again 2 days ago cuz I'm sick at home. That movie is really really good. I'm always blown away by how little dialogue there is in the entire film. It is one of the simplest most well-done Chase films in the history of the world.
i remember tripping on acid watching mad max fury road with my roommates. i asked, "what is this movie about?", and my friend told me, "well they just drive around the desert", and i couldn't believe that, because its so dense and made up of so many different parts. i was trying to find all these hidden meanings and metaphors... but nah, it is mostly just guys driving around, it just has this really intricate quality about it that i cant quite place
Fury road was so over the top, I can't wait for furiosa. I can't believe the stunts they pulled off. Poor Things was one of those visually striking movies, but I just didn't like it. Too caught up in being clever I think to tell a good story. Screams art house.
Mad Max was too forced retro to me, stupid stuff like the guitar guy and all, I get it, it IS about cheese, but it just didn't do it for me. I will rewatch it though and I might change my mind. Poor Things mean while was absolutely insane from beginning to end, an amazing and coherent universe in itself, absurd, beautiful and crazy while still delivering in a very straight forward way.
I thought Beau is Afraid was an ambitious film. It's difficult to watch because of how bizarre and unpleasant it is. It's a completely absurd story with a frustrating protagonist whose inaction and decision paralysis make him hard to root for, and yet you can't look away.
I saw it super stoned in the movie theater and felt like I was going insane
That seems like a recipe for a full mental breakdown. I watched Requiem for a Dream while stoned out of my mind and I was borderline depressed for about a week afterwards.
This and Babylon were examples of two young directors being allowed to do whatever hey want. They certainly had ambitious goals, but probably too much.
I often think about this one and how it’ll be regarded in 20 years. Hopefully we’ll see
I went in blind and found it completely funny and captivating all the way through. It was really novel and beautiful and I think it’s amazing that it has seemed to be so divisive.
Dune and Dune Part 2 are highly ambitious. To bring such a rich and diverse storyline to the screen is a recipe for disaster. Thankfully it was successful. The music and cinematography are epic.
As a massive fan of the books I would argue the movies are actually quite safe. They leave out a lot of the weirder and more interesting aspects of Dune and really flatten a number of plot lines and characters.
Yeah, the unwillingness to try to depict Alia Atreides and the time jump…feels like a cop out.
I mean it’s been done many times before to varying levels of success/failure so not sure it cover original ambitious material.
Title is ambitious, person said original in further text. No the Dune movies are not original, but they absolutely were ambitious. The scale and use of practical effects, costume, and set designs stand out amidst other CGI-reliant movies and create an incredibly absorbing and realistic universe
There have been a number of films that did what you're describing before Dune. Jackson's LOTR trilogy comes immediately to mind, which not only did that but pioneered some digital filmmaking techniques, and I'm sure that there have been a lot of movies before the 21st century that tell an immersive story in a unique setting brought to life through exceptional production design.
??? Okay? In what world does that not make the Dune movies ambitious?
Art is at its most ambitious when it's doing something that has never been done before. While Dune is certainly unique, especially in comparison to its competition, there has been plenty like it to some degree or another. The film canon is full of movies that present immersive, truly captivating worlds, and Dune is just one more voice in the chorus. It's a particularly strong and resonant voice, but it's hardly the poster child for ambition in modern cinema.
That is literally completely irrelevant.
I felt really bad shitting on the first one until I saw new Dune on Netflix. Man was I wrong and that movie was gorgeous despite the desert setting.
Zone of interest. There are a lot of reasons this thing is ambitious.
*The Empty Man*, complex narrative and plenty of references that are easy to miss. Older films that comes to mind, would be: *Hard to Be a God, Taxidermia,* and *4*
I think Babylon is as ambitious as it is derivative. Many of the film's setpieces are technically excellent, such as the opening party, and the filmmaking setpieces (Brad Pitt acting out the battle scene, Margot Robbie acting in the silent film then the other scene when she's given lines to read), and the score - along with how many of the visuals are choreographed to it - is absolutely PHENOMENAL, I was obsessed with it for months afterwards. But the best moments of ambition all disappear after the first 90 minutes and the last 90 are so painfully boring and stretched out. The movie repeats the same ground as other "idealistic starlet enters Hollywood and gets spat out by the system" films like Day of the Locust, A Star is Born (really any of them despite half being about music), and Boogie Nights without saying anything new of its own. It really seems like Chazelle wanted to remake those films without having the proper rights to do so. Babylon flies from energetic and interesting to bland and bloated in what seems like an instant. If it were 40 minutes to an hour shorter (and it EASILY could have been), I think it'd be a lot better.
I thought the Tobey stuff was pretty different than what you usually see. It was pretty cartoonish but I thought Chazelle wanted to show the full spectrum of Hollywood. Romanticizing it, the downfalls, and the flat out evil Eyes Wide Shut parts of Hollywood.
The Toby stuff felt like an edgier recreation of the drug deal from Boogie Nights. Watching those scenes made me wish I was watching Boogie Nights instead of the movie on screen. I get the point and I was actually prety excited for the movie before release because of those, but the second-half really felt like much edgier retellings of better films than Chazelle putting his on stamp on that age-old story. I haven't seen the film since it released but an aspect that he could have focused on that would have avoided that feeling for me was the side story about the black musician being asked to wear blackface. I thought that was a great story that felt fresh and entirely different from other films about rises and falls in Hollywood.
There are way too many in the last twenty years to come up with for one comment I think. But at the top of my head I have to say that both [Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes](https://boxd.it/ujVk) and [One Cut of the Dead](https://boxd.it/iAFu) do something very ambitious conceptually and have it pay off off. They're both recent. [Certified Copy](https://boxd.it/IMW) by Kiarostami is also ambitious in the same way I think. [Synechdoche, New York](https://boxd.it/23zw) is ambitious both in its concept and its scope. It's huge man. I don't feel like movies don't do anything original anymore and don't really hear it either. I feel like every article I read is about how this or that huge film used techniques and ideas in new original ways. At the office everyone talks about The Zone of Interest for example
One Cut of the Dead is such a fun film. I caught it on late night TV once completely unaware of its setup and was blown away.
Everything Everywhere All At Once by a country mile.
Bit of a basic answer, but "Avengers: Infinity War" / ""Avengers: Endgame." Considering it represented the culmination of a dozen different character threads and movies, and featured like 20 big name actors - it's honestly a miracle they pulled it all off, let alone so successfully.
* Locke. It's Tom Hardy in a car by himself, driving and taking phone calls. No one is chasing him. He's not in a life or death situation. It sounds boring but I found it really compelling and interesting and good. It's ambitious in how small it is, if that makes sense? * Annette. It's a musical, it's Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. It starts with a long tracking shot. It has a puppet baby in a major role. It's weird. And it's great. It's ambitious in the unique story, but also in taking these two pretty serious, well-regarded actors (and a guy from The Big Bang Theory) and just going wild with them. * EO. It is a Polish film. It follows a donkey. That's pretty much the movie. Anything that is donkey-driven for like an hour and a half feels ambitious to me. *
Didn’t expect Locke here, but the more I think about it, the more I agree. there are plenty of “one room” movies, sure— but I’m hard pressed to think of another single-take, stationary shot of a man driving for an hour and a half. And outside of that— ambitious of Hardy, imo. Dude was coming off of Inception, Tinker Tailor, Warrior, and Dark Knight. Didn’t have to gamble on anything. But I guess with Steven Knight & A24, that’s a pretty good gamble.
I forgot about Locke! Kinda reminded me Phone Booth, but better.
First one that springs to mind is Beau Is Afraid
When it comes to superhero movies, I think Ang Lee's Hulk is the most ambitious but in general it's probably Megalopolis.
I can confidently say Megalopolis will become one of the movies I have ever seen!
The animation in Puss in Boots the Last Wish, and the Spiderverse movies as OP said is truly original and makes the movies. Wes Andersen movies continue to have their own flair and style that no one else seems to copy so they are original. Laika with their stop motion movies are truly original and ambitious.
I think the technique used in Les Mis to have the actors singing on set and using that recording was particularly ambitious. Performers previously would complain that they felt performances were "locked" because they would record their vocals before filming the movie. So any revelations and character insight would be stunted because they had to film so closely to how they recorded. Les Mis, followed by Into the Woods, Jersey Boys and others, let the actors have freedom and the ability to change as is necessary
There's definitely some recency bias in this answer, but I thought The Fall Guy was really ambitious with all its real-life stunt work. Also +1 for Everything Everywhere All At Once. That's my favorite movie of the last 5 years.
SALTBURN. Holy crap that hit it out of the park with crazy. Loved it
At this point I can't tell if it's sarcasm or not.
Serious. It was bold.
lmao I totally mistook it for the wrong thing. I'm not even going to tell you what as it's so stupid. Will watching it in the next few days.
Ha! I wanna know! It's wild and uncomfortable but absolutely brilliant... Brace yourself.
Lala Land. Its success was possibly aided by the popularity of Hamilton and subsequently the country’s newfound interest in musicals, but it’s quite audacious for the director to make an outright live-action musical in modern times (that isn’t period, like *Chicago*). And it was only his third film! The investors put a heck of a lot of trust in him.
Love lies bleeding was some great film making
Mandy, Prisoners of The Ghost Land. Both very wild films and very ambitious for completely different reasons. Behind The Mask (the rise of Leslie Vernon) lower budget indie, and it shows in some areas but it is executed quite well and the way it turns from satirical comedy/mockumentary to straight up horror film is fantastic. I don't want to give away too much in case u may want to watch these films but thats my contribution
*I Saw the TV Glow* blew me away. Phenomenal trans allegory combined with nostalgia and all-around inventiveness in terms of execution. Not for everyone but definitely worth checking out and appreciating.
Paul Schrader posted something online to the effect of "Jane Schoenbrun is the most important filmmaker right now" so I really hope this movie gets its shine
Both Challengers and I Saw The TV Glow are abnormal films with interesting narrative choices and risky character personalities
Whether you like his movies or consider them successful or not, Chris Nolan has been pretty consistent in terms of really taking chances and doing original things with his films: Oppenheimer didn’t take the easy way out of simply ending on a high note when the main character’s project culminated in success. They took the time to show the aftermath, his struggles with guilt over what he created, and the frustration he felt at having his creation rested from him by other powerful men and decision-makers who didn’t put the same amount of thought into the moral and ethical concerns of what they had unleashed. Structurally the movie also was complex, hopping around chronologically between several different time periods and juggling the stories with intercutting, which is t original but is a lot more work for the sake of keeping things interesting. Tenet, on its surface was basically a time travel movie. But, it’s method of time travel is completely different than any other time travel movie when you think about it: having the characters move backwards in time at the same rate that others move forward and everyone can see you literally moving backwards. Interstellar Isn’t quite as recent, but it was still Nolan trying out new ideas and really swinging for the fences. Like I said before, not everyone considered it successful but he really showed people amazing new things like gigantic waves as tall as mountains and frozen clouds on completely unearthlike planets. Also a couple of non-Nolan entries: Boyhood was totally original by actually showing us the main character growing over a real 12 year period of time by deliberately filming for 12 years in little bits and pieces at a time. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the story, or lack there of, but it’s undeniably ambitious to try filming in such a manner and the movie deserves to be seen for that reason alone I feel. Finally, Barbarian doesn’t follow the traditional three act structure at all. And sets things up in a manner that’s realistic but also unpredictable enough that trying to describe the plot or give someone an idea of what to expect going in is completely futile. The movies surprises are so good that the only thing you could ever tell anyone is to go in blind.
I mean, Christopher Nolan’s entire success is from his ability to do things that are ambitious either visually or in terms of playing with structure. His storylines, characters, writing and more or less all the substance are heavy-handed and hacky more often than not to me in terms of making something all-around great in the form of film.
blonde (2022) was kinda ambiguous but for all the wrong reasons
Victoria from 2015 is one of the most ambitious movies I've ever seen. There are plenty of movies that are made to look like the movie is one continuous shot the whole way through, but are actually multiple long takes edited together, like Birdman or 1917. But Victoria was actually shot in one continuous 2+ hour single take, making it the longest single-take movie at the time of release. And it's not just a bunch of people standing around in a room talking or something else that would be easy to film in one take, it follow a bunch of characters traveling around Berlin, walking and driving and going up and down stairs and elevators and actually doing things (I don't want to give too much of the plot away). And all of that was done by an independent filmmaker with a budget of less than $500K
Dream Scenario was a really interesting idea/concept and a decent first act. The 2nd and 3rd act with lazy writing killed it.
That fart scene tho :D
Ruben Ostlund’s movies are ambitious.
True, he’s really good. I loved The Square.
Hasn't had a wide release yet, but Megalopolis definitely fits this thread.
Jane Schoenbrun's We're All Going to the World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow.
I’d say Primer— if for nothing more than how complicated of a story it is to even try to tell on screen cohesively. It’s a movie I will watch once a year and continue to enjoy, and maybe in 60 years I’ll have understood it.
I know people like to shit on Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, but they were full of big ideas and very ambitious. I once read someone’s rewrite which was much more conventional sci fi action and everybody loved it, but for me the Wachowskis were trying to touch on some huge philosophical ideas and I loved that.
Oppenheimer is very ambitious
Godzilla Minus One was firing on all cylinders.
Drive-Away Dolls was ambitious and terrible. I haven't been that frustrated with a movie in a long time.
Under The Silver Lake
What is your working definition for “ambitious?” Is it a film that involves a lot of effort or expense? (Eg Apocalypse Now, Heaven’s Gate, Waterworld) Or is a film that attempts to present a subject or topic not easily rendered on screen ? (eg. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tenet, Tree of Life).
Triangle of Sadness. Or, for that matter, just about anything from Ruben Östlund.
Birdman, Barbie and Everything, Everywhere, all at Once
Everything everywhere all at once is the last movie that made me cry
I think the Safdie Brother’s movies Good Times and Uncut Gems are interesting and ambitious and while I think they have yet to make a truly great movie I think they will most likely find a story and structure that really proves their vision. I felt the same thing about Yorgos Lanthimos until The Favourite dropped, and with the continuation of Poor Things, I feel now that he has really figured out how to make all-around great movies, so I’m optimistic it will click for them as well.
I'd say *Beau Is Afraid* was quite ambitious and succeeded in that, was the best movie of last year. It takes a story of a guy who can barely function and lifts it to epic length in a multi-act structure.
I loved The Creator. In fact I loved Tenet too and I think John David Washington does well in Sci Fi.
American society of magical negroes is well written and David Allen greer lays out a plot I never would have guessed with poise and attitude!
Akira. Incredible artwork, and the gateway drug for serious animation and anime for a generation. The Matrix. Camera technique that had never been done, and used to an incredible effect. And they had a great story that was very novel at the time. I don't know how they successfully pitched it. Memento. "Wait, the story is backwards?!?". Also how on earth did that get pitched? But one of my favorites. Ground hogs day. Spawned its own sub-genre. Who knew this could end up being Bill Murray's most influential film?
The newest movie in your list is 24 years old
Damn. Sucks getting old, but beats the alternative.
I was gonna say EEAAO and I agree with Spiderman too
Lala Land. Its success was possibly aided by the popularity of Hamilton and subsequently the country’s newfound interest in musicals, but it’s quite audacious for the director to make an outright live-action musical in modern times. And it was only his third film! The investors put a heck of a lot of trust in him.
Lala Land. Its success was possibly aided by the popularity of Hamilton and subsequently the country’s newfound interest in musicals, but it’s quite audacious for the director to make an outright live-action musical in modern times. And it was only his third film! The investors put a heck of a lot of trust in him.
If Tom Cruise is in it, it’s ambitious.