DIVIDING OPINIONS
Looking at data from over 9,000 films and 190,000 reviews, we give you a list of 10 of the world’s most critically divisive films with Lars von Trier’s Melancholia at number one
collide with Earth.
Initially, Von Trier ’s inspiration for the film came from a depressive episode he suffered and the insight that depressed people have a tendency to remain peaceful during catastrophic events.
The film is a Danish production by Zentropa, with international coproducers in Sweden, France, and Germany. Filming took place in Sweden.
2. The Counselor (2013)
Crime thriller The Counselor is directed by Ridley Scott, produced by Scott and Nick Wechsler and written by Cormac Mccarthy. Michael Fassbender stars as the eponymous counselor alongside Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt. The film deals with primal human concerns like greed, mortality, love, and trust related to the theme of corruption and profit in a high-stakes criminal environment. Out of greed, the counselor gets irrevocably in over his head in a drug deal around the troubled Ciudad Juarez, Mexico/ Texas border area.
3. Sin City (2005)
American neo-noir crime anthology Sin City produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, is based on Miller’s graphic novel of the same name.
The film stars an ensemble cast led by Jessica Alba, Benicio del Toro, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Elijah Wood, and featuring Alexis Bledel, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rosario Dawson, Carla Gugino, Rutger Hauer, Jaime King, Michael Madsen, Nick Stahl, and Makenzie Vega among others.
4. The Neon Demon (2016)
Psychological horror The Neon Demon is directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Mary Laws, Polly Stenham, and Refn, and starring Elle Fanning. The plot follows an aspiring model in Los Angeles whose beauty and youth generate intense fascination and jealousy within the industry. Supporting roles are played by Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves.
5. Inception (2010)
Christopher Nolan’s Inception is a science fiction film written, co-produced, and
directed by himself and co-produced by Emma Thomas. The film stars Leonardo Dicaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious, and is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for the implantation of another person’s idea into a target’s subconscious.
The ensemble cast features Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine.
6. The Hateful Eight (2015)
The Hateful Eight is a revisionist Western mystery film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern as eight strangers who seek refuge from a blizzard in a stagecoach stopover some time after the American Civil War.
Tarantino announced The Hateful Eight in November 2013, having conceived it as a novel and sequel to his previous film Django Unchained (2012). After the script leaked in January 2014, he cancelled the film, directed a live reading of the script at the United Artists Theater in Los Angeles, then announced that he had changed his mind. Filming began in December 2014 near Telluride, Colorado.
7. 21 Grams (2003)
Drama 21 Grams directed by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárri-
tu, from a screenplay written by Guillermo Arriaga, stars Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Danny Huston and Benicio Del Toro.
The plot revolves around the consequences of a tragic car accident. Penn plays a critically ill mathematician, Watts plays a grief-stricken mother, and Del Toro plays a born-again Christian ex-convict whose faith is tested in the aftermath of the accident. The three main characters each have past, present and future story threads, which are shown as non-linear fragments that punctuate elements of the overall story, all imminently coming toward each other and coalescing as the story progresses.
8. Youth (2015)
Italian comedy-drama Youth was written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. It is the director ’s second English language film and stars Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel as best friends who reflect on their lives while holidaying in the Swiss Alps. It is a story of the eternal struggle between age and youth, the past and the future, life and death, commitment and betrayal. The cast also includes Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, and Jane Fonda.
9. Under the Skin (2013)
This science fiction film directed and co-written by Jonathan Glazer is loosely based on Michel Faber’s 2000 novel Under the Skin. The film stars Scarlett Johansson as an otherworldly woman who preys on men in Scotland. Glazer and cowriter Walter Campbell developed Under the Skin for a decade, settling on a film that takes an alien perspective of the human world. Interestingly, most of the characters were played by nonactors, including road racer Jeremy Mcwilliams and many scenes were unscripted conversations filmed with hidden cameras on the street.
10. Somewhere (2010)
The drama Somewhere, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, Johnny Marco (played by Stephen Dorff), a newly famous actor, as he recuperates from a minor injury at the Chateau Marmont, a well-known Hollywood retreat. Despite money, fame and professional success, Marco is trapped in an existential crisis and feels emotionally empty. His ex-wife suffers an unexplained breakdown and he gets left with their 11-year-old daughter Cleo, played by Elle Fanning. They spend time together and her presence helps Marco mature and accept adult responsibility.
The film explores ennui among Hollywood stars, the father–daughter relationship and offers an oblique comedy of show business, particularly Hollywood filmmaking and the life of a “star.”