In honour of crazy new comedy Bunny and the Bull, out 27th November, here’s our list of Top 10 surreal films…
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Synecdoche New York
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Award winning writer Charlie Kauffman (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) directorial debut tells the story Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) a theatre director who attempts to create a Broadway masterpiece by gathering an ensemble cast in a warehouse in Manhattan. As his life falls apart he slowly begins to blur the line between the play and reality as his personal and professional relationships are pushed to the limits in this strange tale of personal discovery.
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Requiem for a dream
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Directed by Darren Arnofsky (The Wrestler) and with a cast including Jared Leto (American Psycho) and Jeniffer Conolly (Blood Diamond) Requiem for a Dream shows four paralleled individuals each with a menacing addiction to different drugs. The film gives us an insight into the disastrous consequences that occur due to their addictions. The film has a huge cult status and had a huge impact on audiences and critics alike when originally released.
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Naked Lunch
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David Cronenburg’s 1991 feature is an adaptation of the William S. Burrough novel . William Lee is an exterminator who finds that his wife is stealing his insecticide for recreational use but, eventually becomes addicted himself. He begins to hallucinate convincing himself he is a secret agent, and his boss (a giant bug) has assigned him the mission of killing his wife, who according to the bug, is a rival agent. A bizarrely shot film that delves into a man’s psyche with very odd imagery related to bugs and drugs.
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Donnie Darko
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Considered to be one of the best cult films ever made, Jake Gyllenhal made his leading debut as Donnie, a troubled teenager with schizophrenia who stops taking his medication. One night a jet engine mysteriously crashes through the roof of his house. Including the now iconic, Frank the rabbit, the film explores Donnie’s obsession with time travel and the effect his behaviour has on his relationships with family and friends.
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Being John Malkovich
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From the super team of Charlie Kauffman and Spike Jonze, Being John Malcovich is a comedy that imagines what it may be like to walk in someone else’s shoes, or live in their head. John Cusack and Cameron Diaz star in this cult classic that deals with the nature of self, by exploring what it may be like to see the world through actor John Malcovich’s eyes. The film also includes very brief cameos from Brad Pitt, Dean Penn and Wiona Ryder.
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Bunny and the Bull
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Directed by Paul King (The Mighty Boosh) Bunny & the Bull is a road movie set entirely in a flat. Living with a painfully restrictive routine, Stephen Turnball refuses to interact with the world or think about the past. When a sudden infestation of mice forces him to change his ways, he finds his mind hurtling back to the disastrous trek around Europe he undertook with his friend Bunny, a womanising, gambling-addicted booze-hound. Unable to stem the flood of memories, Stephen’s flat becomes the springboard for an extraordinary odyssey through landscapes made up of snapshots and souvenirs.
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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Starring Johnny Depp Fear and Loathing is a whirlwind adaptation of the book by Hunter S. Thompson. Director Terry Gilliam, (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) the master of complex, bizarre visual imagery, has a field day interpreting the drug-hazed world in which the characters live and much like Bunny and The Bull is ultimately a road movie.
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Inception
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Christopher Nolans upcoming feature is the follow up to his box office smash the Dark knight. Starring Leonardo Di Caprio the film is a contemporary science-fiction thriller set inside the architecture of the mind. Inception sees a man become involved in a murder of the mind when he starts to see visions of a crime unfold.
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Mulholland Drive
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Directed by the master of the surreal, David Lynch. The film tells the story of Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) an aspiring actress, who moves to L.A. She meets and befriends an amnesiac hiding in her aunt’s apartment. The story includes a string of seemingly unrelated sub plots that eventually connect in different ways. These are all brought together by surreal scenes and images with a cryptic narrative.
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A Clockwork Orange
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Stanley Kubrick’s striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess’s famous novel is now infamous for its themes and enduring popularity. Alex (Malcolm McDowell) the leader of a quartet of droogs, is a vicious hoodlums who spends his nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, and breaking into people’s homes. A dark, satirical social commentary, A Clockwork Orange explores fears of social freedom and repression for a society plagued by rampant crime.
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