Bryan Singer’s now-classic crime drama bent, twisted, snapped and finally (literally) blew up the rules for genre storytelling, narrative structure, ensemble acting and, of course, twist endings, almost single-handedly creating a new genre: the “meta-thriller,” which creates an almost interactive atmosphere as it seemingly dares its audience to keep up with it. This devious and devilish story about five ne’er-do-wells brought together to pull off a job for the elusive, legendary master criminal Keyser Soze (a name now firmly imprinted in our pop culture consciousness) can still mess with your head like few other films can — indeed, the true brilliance of this flick (and, make no mistake, it is brilliant) is how much time you spend afterwards discussing it with your friends as you try to put all the pieces together. There are so many twists, turns, red herrings, false endings and just general surprises in this thing that you might not know what to do with yourself other than just buckle up and take a ride like no other — you also get a star-making performance by Kevin Spacey as Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint, a small-time con man and the story’s decidedly unreliable narrator.
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New On Netflix: The Usual Suspects