Poll: Best Uncoventional Narratives

Results of 5,442 votes:

1. 1.
   

   Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

    

   The narrative repeats a sequence of events with the main character attempting different options through the learning curve to reach the proper conclusion.
2. 2.
   

   Memento (2000)

    

   The narrative is built around its main character's inability to create new memories. In doing so, the audience experiences the distinct, nonlinear patterning of the character's obsession to piece toge…
3. 3.
   

   Inception (2010)

    

   The narrative uses dreams to create layers of narratives in which the characters conduct a task of mental deception.
4. 4.
   

   Pulp Fiction (1994)

    

   The narrative carefully places connecting stories of characters engaging in violent acts of retribution and redemption in a nonlinear but climax sequence.
5. 5.
   

   Fight Club (1999)

    

   The narrative fools the audience by presenting duality as singular by using homoerotic undertones.
6. 6.
   

   Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

    

   The narrative shows characters attempting to eliminate memories of each other, creating holes in their lives.
7. 7.
   

   Mulholland Drive (2001)

    

   The narrative follows two characters in a dream narrative, which progressively breaks from dream to reality without explanation, exposing the duality of truth and fantasy as well as obsession and hatr…
8. 8.
   

   Cloud Atlas (2012)

    

   The narrative contains separate stories from the past to the future using the same actors who embody antagonistic intention to heroic ones through the separate stories.
9. 9.
   

   2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

    

   The narrative cuts between three major acts in which a monolithic object sparks ideas of human potential and the dangers of it from evolution to advanced scientific innovation, including artificial in…
10. 10.
    

    The Tree of Life (2011)

     

    The narrative uses a disjointed structure to tell simplistic and common story using imagery to tie the singular story to the meaning of life and the universe.
11. 11.
    

    Donnie Darko (2001)

     

    The narrative creates a split in a town's reality so its main character can prevent the impending destruction of the universe and return the town to its intended reality.
12. 12.
    

    The Usual Suspects (1995)

     

    The narrative uses an unreliable character who twists stories, characters and events to explain a suicide mission revolving around drugs.
13. 13.
    

    Irreversible (2002)

     

    The narrative reverses the order of the events in a backwards progression leading the audience to experience the impact of violence, and to understand its cause/context directly after.
14. 14.
    

    Inland Empire (2006)

     

    The narrative inserts its main character into the dimension of her profession as an actress, losing her distinction between herself and her movie character.
15. 15.
    

    Primer (2004)

     

    The narrative is based on a logical chain of time travel-related events that hold both past, present and future implications as characters enter a seemingly disjointed time loop, which dictates the pr…
16. 16.
    

    Looper (2012)

     

    The narrative links future & past incarnations of its main character, using events of the present as implications for characters of the future as they quest in the present.
17. 17.
    

    Citizen Kane (1941)

     

    The narrative centers around characters attempting to piece together the final utterance of a character through flashbacks and nonlinear sequencing.
18. 18.
    

    Groundhog Day (1993)

     

    The narrative forces its jaded character to relive the events of day.
19. 19.
    

    8½ (1963)

     

    The narrative interweaves a character's memories and fantasies.
20. 20.
    

    The Machinist (2004)

     

    The narrative places the audience in the perception of its main character whose view of reality is distorted by guilt and insomnia.
21. 21.
    

    Magnolia (1999)

     

    The narrative connects the stories of several characters and their experiences that have brought them to confront their fears, failures and inadequacies in the course of a single night.
22. 22.
    

    Stay (2005)

     

    The narrative examines a tragic event of reality through a separate chain of surreal events of life, death and guilt relating to the tragic reality.
23. 23.
    

    Vanilla Sky (2001)

     

    The narrative pushes a character into realms of his distorted reality and memories, which he attempts to understand.
24. 24.
    

    Run Lola Run (1998)

     

    The narrative exposes three possibilities for a task (separated in three parts), which can result in slim failure or success.
25. 25.
    

    The Jacket (2005)

     

    The narrative pulls the audience into the faulty memory and past/future time lapses of its character as he attempts to discover the reality of his impending doom.
26. 26.
    

    Lost Highway (1997)

     

    The narrative features a character descending into more pleasant manifestations that are broken down by reminders of a dark reality.
27. 27.
    

    12 Monkeys (1995)

     

    The narrative is circular using a character traveling to the past to help humanity survive its future using the juxtapositions of memory, perception, manipulation, verbal impotence and mental divergen…
28. 28.
    

    The Rules of Attraction (2002)

     

    The narrative explores three related characters related to each other by infatuation as the story takes nonlinear turns to explain their unpleasant meetings and behaviors.
29. 29.
    

    Reservoir Dogs (1992)

     

    The story focuses on characters implicated in a botched robbery as the narrative switches back-and-forth between past and present, as the characters attempt to piece the puzzle of who is undercover co…
30. 30.
    

    21 Grams (2003)

     

    The narrative weaves together grieving and depressed characters through nonlinear connections.
31. 31.
    

    Go (1999)

     

    The narrative uses flashbacks to connect an event involving three characters.
32. 32.
    

    Natural Born Killers (1994)

     

    The narrative switches manically between the perception of killers and their victims through the lens of a sensationalized media and corrupt justice system exploiting both within a two-tier structure.
33. 33.
    

    Catch-22 (1970)

     

    The narrative presents an understandable main idea through the irony of a train of logic, which cancels its own logic out by its own logic, thus creating a catch-22, an unsolvable paradox.
34. 34.
    

    Barton Fink (1991)

     

    The narrative places a culture snob masquerading as a "man of the people" as he explores the hellish reality of the Hollywood scene as circumstances and characters change underneath the back…
35. 35.
    

    Short Cuts (1993)

     

    The narrative connects various stories through slight events and occurrences.