The allure of any form of art is its subjectivity, the way in which it can mean completely different things to different people. This quality has ensured that many of the best and most impressionable movies throughout cinematic history have endured through fan discussion and thematic dissection. However, there have been some occasions where public discourse, or at least certain sects of it, have completely misinterpreted the message of a film.
In some cases, this misunderstanding has led to great films being dismissed by people who mistook their meaning and messaging, reducing rich and contemplative thematic journeys to surface-level shock value. In other cases, it has resulted in movies being celebrated for championing the very thing they sought to satirize and skewer. Whether it’s the fault of a director who kept things too obscure or an audience who refused the grapple with the film’s true meaning is up for debate, but these pictures have been completely misunderstood ever since they first premiered.
10
‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013)
A biographical epic about the shady stockbroking career of Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), his fraudulent firm, and the FBI investigation into his duplicitous schemes, The Wolf of Wall Street sees director Martin Scorsese depict both the frenzied, hard-partying allure of immense wealth and the heinous immorality such power breeds. There have been a great many fans, however, who have viewed the movie more as an outright celebration of Belfort’s lifestyle, undoubtedly a byproduct of Scorsese’s flamboyant style and high-tempo excitement.
It should be noted that Scorsese executed a very similar balance in Goodfellas, proving he is adept at juggling the dark intrigue of a certain evil with the brutality of the consequences one faces if they indulge it. The Wolf of Wall Street perhaps doesn’t have the same life-and-death stakes to deliver the pivotal point so emphatically. While plenty of viewers do grasp its focus on capitalist greed, fiendish immorality, and the evil of white-collar crime, it is impossible to deny that the film has also inspired plenty of adoring young men to major in finance and pursue the high-roller lifestyle.
9
‘Jennifer’s Body’ (2009)
Initially received as a dumb teenage horror movie starring Megan Fox as a cheerleader succubus, Jennifer’s Body was incredibly easy to dismiss upon release as a shlocky piece of genre fare. It was a massive oversight from the industry, especially considering director Karyn Kusama would go on to be involved in numerous hit series, and writer Diablo Cody was hot off the back of winning an Academy Award for her Juno screenplay.
Thankfully, Jennifer’s Body underwent something of a resurgence and critical re-evaluation as the #MeToo movement challenged Hollywood’s issues with gender disparity and objectification. It was no longer considered a shallow sex fantasy laced with accents of horror but was explored in more detail as a compelling and nuanced examination of the friendship between teenage girls and the victimization many young women face at the hands of men. Partially the fault of a woefully mismanaged marketing campaign, Jennifer’s Body was—and continues to be—misinterpreted as a cheap and exploitative monster horror. However, it is slowly garnering respect as a piercing and pointed feminist story.
8
‘Starship Troopers’ (1997)
It is impossible to discuss misunderstood movies without mentioning the satirical B-movie action sci-fi cult classic Starship Troopers. Following a teenage marine and his comrades as they fight against a bug-like alien race hellbent on destroying Earth, the 1997 action frenzy was received poorly by critics and audiences alike upon release, with many taking issue with director Paul Verhoeven’s apparent glorification of the nature of war.
As the years have gone by, Starship Troopers has found its place in pop culture as a bombastic parody of wartime propaganda, a skewering of military sensationalism that presents combat as a fantasy of honor, manliness, heroism, and adventure defined by ridiculous ultraviolence and teen drama absurdity. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that the glory of Starship Troopers was only discovered when audiences learned to stop taking it seriously, instead appreciating it as a fully committed satire of jingoism defined by its desire to undercut military excess rather than glorify it.
7
‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (1999)
It was marketed as an erotic thriller, received as an erotic thriller, and even judged as an erotic thriller, but Eyes Wide Shut was never intended to be such a spectacle. As the final film in Stanley Kubrick’s illustrious career, the 159-minute psychological drama invests far more heavily in its meditations on marital trust, secluded desire, self-deception, and power, exploring such nuanced and complex themes amid a dreamlike display of Christmastime in New York City.
Following a doctor who finds himself embroiled in a dangerous underground sex cult after his wife’s confession of fantasizing about an affair, sex does play a significant role in the film, but as a catalyst for a journey into the complexity of relationships and the psychological strain romance has on an insecure mind, rather than a salacious focus at the forefront of the plot. This misunderstanding not only caused confusion from viewers, but it also left some people completely disinterested in even watching it in the first place. The ungainly nature of its ambiguous narrative perhaps contributed to the misinterpretation as well, making Eyes Wide Shut a must-see for all film lovers that not enough people have not seen it.
6
‘Whiplash’ (2014)
Anchored in the absorbing and volatile dynamic between aspiring drummer Andrew (Miles Teller) and his aggressive, unconventional tutor Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons), Whiplash makes a visceral impact on viewers with the tightness of its story and the unbelievable punch of its performances. Given Andrew’s unflinching determination, many viewers have perceived the film to be a motivational story of obsessive commitment, realizing deep-rooted talent, and even as a condoning of Fletcher’s extreme and abusive techniques to extract greatness from his pupils.
What Whiplash actually presents is a rich exploration of the delusion of the pursuit of greatness, highlighting how easily ambition becomes self-destruction. This point is realized in the outright terrifying climax, with a wounded and banged-up Andrew playing in Fletcher’s festival show, where Fletcher vindictively humiliates him before he returns serve, interrupting Fletcher’s speech by opening the next number prematurely. It is a hypnotic sequence of rivalry and respect, but also of the corrosion of character. While some viewers find Whiplash’s ending to be a triumphant beat of self-discovery, it is more appropriately regarded as a loss of humanity, one amplified by the shot of Andrew’s father watching on in dismay, no longer recognizing his son.
5
‘Speed Racer’ (2008)
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
While it certainly isn’t a film for everyone, Speed Racer presents a stunning indulgence in sheer style and action-packed racing mania that operates with such purity that it commands respect, even though it never got much when it premiered. An adaptation of the Japanese manga directed by the Wachowskis, the 2008 family action movie follows Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch), who strives to become the greatest racer of his time, competing against an immoral race-fixing racket and trying to save his family’s business at the same time.
It contains barely enough of an emotional pull to get by, but where it does excel is with its unrestrained special effects, which present a vibrant, vivacious, and psychedelic splendor of divine color, expressionistic grandeur, and stylized excess. It may not be deft enough to be described as a visual treat per se, but its desire to deliver a spectacle of unconventional bombast and sheer chaos is both admirable and engaging. Sadly, many dismissed Speed Racer as a crude misfire and stylized racing drama when, in actuality, it is a stunning feat of unbridled reckless abandon that presents one of the most unique and stupefying pictures of the century.
4
‘Under the Silver Lake’ (2018)
While it certainly isn’t the only cerebral and contemplative think-piece to be undermined by a lousy trailer, Under the Silver Lake does stand out as a modern gem that should have been a classic, but as collapsed as a forgotten and criminally underrated movie that was horrifically misinterpreted. Sold as a wacky neo-noir comedy following conspiracy theorist Sam (Andrew Garfield) as he finds himself embroiled in a real conspiracy concerning his neighbor’s disappearance, what it actually presents is an elaborate commentary on internet-age isolation, the prominence of media, and the complex status of the male gaze in today’s world.
Given that many viewers went in expecting a quirky crime mystery, Under the Silver Lake’s confusing structure and lack of clear answers were met as failures of mystery storytelling rather than insights into its thematic observations on the chaos of modern society. It parodies conspiracy theories, exemplifies the lost nature of loneliness, and—while its lack of set female characters is a shortcoming—it’s delivered more in the context of commenting on Hollywood’s fantastical objectification of women rather than a misogynistic fault of the narrative. As such, many misinterpreted the film as being a shallow and short-sighted noir satire when, in truth, it is an intricate exploration of life’s futility and the gulf between quiet reality and the sensationalism of Hollywood.
3
‘The Fountain’ (2006)
The Fountain is a movie that defies understanding. This lack of clarity stems from the frustration of its obscurity, the curiosity of its three-pronged story never clearly converging, but rather standing as a complementary thematic journey of love, loss, and mortality. Confusion obviously sprouts from the fact that Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz lead all three stories, giving the impression of an epic spanning across time with a linear and literal narrative rather than three separate stories interlinked through theme and tone.
Additionally, the film’s prolific use of abstract visuals and philosophical religious symbols only adds to the complexity, causing many to initially look for puzzle pieces or patterns in the presentation when they are only intended to aid the atmosphere and experience of the film. Those who approach The Fountain with a more open-minded approach will undoubtedly be more receptive to its unwieldy nature and complex, indefinable structure. Despite its underwhelming critical reception upon release, it has garnered a cult following of people who respect it as a bold departure from narrative convention by Darren Aronofsky.
2
‘Babylon’ (2022)
There is already a growing retrospective regarding Babylon as one of the best movies of the decade and a glorious gem that both celebrates and condemns old Hollywood excess. Alas, that group is still a minority standing against the widespread opinion that it was a crude misfire from Damien Chazelle that flaunted explicit content as shock value. While its trailers did illustrate the bizarre, hard-partying affliction of the industry in the 1920s, the marketing for the movie perhaps didn’t highlight the depth of the characters’ journeys amid an era of rapid evolution, nor the ambiguous morality and outright lunacy that define many of its key figures.
As such, its tone was initially viewed as being divided and contradictory, wanting to both immerse audiences in the allure of Hollywood excess while critiquing it. While Chazelle’s personal stance on the industry’s culture remains somewhat unannounced, the uneven messiness of the movie is more a reflection of its chaotic setting—that being Hollywood was in a state of upheaval—than any creative miscalculation. It’s an honest recreation of Hollywood’s abundance and flamboyance in all its glory and recklessness, presenting a party scene of grandeur and style that masks a litany of complex and vain characters struggling to navigate the transition from silent films to “talkies.”
1
‘Fight Club’ (1999)
The definitive emblem of misunderstood classics, Fight Club is an anti-consumerist critique of toxic masculinity in the modern world that also happens to be adored by some who find the prospect of assembling a group of people to partake in a fight club particularly rousing. It is fascinating to ponder who should bear the blame for this. Did David Fincher implement too much style in his story, conjuring an allure that could conceal the true essence of the film? Or should Fincher be commended for the subtlety of his messaging, and the blame be placed on the “alpha males” whose critical evaluation skills may be lacking?
Granted, Fight Club does walk an exceptionally fine line between the glorification of violence and masculine brutality and using it as a vessel to explore ideas of alienation, capitalist greed, and anti-establishment rage. The depiction of Tyler Durdin (Brad Pitt) as an effortlessly cool character is another aspect at play, as it serves a purpose in the narrative, given his link to the Narrator (Edward Norton), but also intensifies the air of stylized male fantasy surrounding themes of violence. In essence, Fight Club is often misunderstood as being a celebration of the very things it dismantles, making for a complex viewing experience that has been misinterpreted by many viewers over the years.
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