The Candidate (1972), The Truman Show (1998), Persona (1966), Ocean's Eleven (2001), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Oxygen (1999), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), Private Property (2006) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Manipulation movies.
Storyline: Brother and sister Viola and Sebastian, who are not only very close but look a great deal alike, are in a shipwreck, and both think the other dead. When she lands in a foreign country, Viola dresses as her brother and adopts the name Cesario, becoming a trusted friend and confidante to the Count Orsino. Orsino is madly in love with the lady Olivia, who is in mourning due to her brother's recent death, which she uses as an excuse to avoid seeing the count, whom she does not love. He sends Cesario to do his wooing, and Olivia falls in love with the disguised maiden. Things get more complicated in this bittersweet Shakespeare comedy when a moronic nobleman, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and a self-important servant, Malvolio, get caught up in the schemes of Olivia's uncle, the obese, alcoholic Sir Toby, who leads each to believe Olivia loves him. As well, Sebastian surfaces in the area, and of course there is Feste, the wise fool, around to keep everything in perspective and to marvel, like we the audience, at the amazing things happening all around.—Gary Dickerson <slug@mail.utexas.edu>
Plot Keywords: twin, brother, duke, lady, uncle, servant, charming ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that's as dangerous as it is enchanting. Jeremy Renner is Carmine Polito, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving's unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down.
Plot Keywords: forger, loan shark, grifter, fbi agent, mayor, wife, wild ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A young Hollywood executive becomes the assistant to a big time movie producer who is the worst boss imaginable: abusive, abrasive and cruel. But soon things turn around when the young executive kidnaps his boss and visits all the cruelties back on him.
Plot Keywords: filmmaker, producer, boss, girlfriend, assistant, engaging, shocking ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Scheming Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy), a bigoted and corrupt policeman, is in line for a promotion and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Enlisted to solve a brutal murder and threatened by the aspirations of his colleagues, including Ray Lennox (Jamie Bell), Bruce sets about ensuring their ruin, right under the nose of unwitting Chief Inspector Toal. As he turns his colleagues against one another by stealing their wives and exposing their secrets, Bruce starts to lose himself in a web of deceit that he can no longer control. His past is slowly catching up with him, and a missing wife, a crippling drug habit and suspicious colleagues start to take their toll on his sanity. The question is: can he keep his grip on reality long enough to disentangle himself from the filth?
Plot Keywords: student, misanthrope, cop, beautiful woman, addict, crooked cop, dark ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Dennis Pitt, now in young adulthood, has been conditionally released from a psychiatric hospital, where he had been institutionalized for an incident that occurred when he was fifteen. Despite the doctors believing he to be rehabilitated in not suffering from the fantasies which dominated his life, Dennis is still required to check in with his case officer, Morton Azenauer, once a week. Azenauer will do whatever he can to help Dennis survive in the outside world. A year following his release, Dennis violates the conditions of his release by moving without telling Azenauer, thus missing his weekly check-ins. He moves to Winslow, Massachusetts where he has gotten a job at Sausenfeld Chemical Co., his boss, Bud Munsch, the company, and his acquaintances in town not aware of his history. In not being truly rehabilitated, Dennis believes the company is part of an alien conspiracy to poison the water supply, including openly discharging chemical waste into the local lake next to the plant. Dennis spends much of his time gathering photographic evidence to support his belief. He also becomes infatuated with seventeen year old high school senior Sue Ann Stepanek upon first sight. In his "investigative" work, Dennis is able to convince Sue Ann that he is a secret agent, she who he co-opts into those investigations as they begin a romantic relationship. However, as Sue Ann deals with what she considers her repressed life, she, in her own slightly off kilter mental state and using her relationship with Dennis, works toward her own agenda, leading to tragic consequences.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: worker, teenager, guard, mother, probation officer, chilling, uneasy ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in business and social standing, some honest, some not quite so. If he can just manage to avoid a certain very predatory woman.—Ken Yousten <kyousten@bev.net>
Plot Keywords: promoter, mother, countess, dance instructor, girl, employer, witty ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Wendell Rohr is a torts lawyer taking on the gun lobby. Rankin Fitch is the jury consultant for the Defendants and between them the battle is for the hearts and minds of the jury. But there is someone on the inside. Nicholas Easter is a juror with a girlfriend, Marlee, on the outside. they have a past ..... and their own agenda.
Plot Keywords: lawyer, juror, girlfriend, consultant, judge, widow, intricate ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Bridget Gregory has a lot going for her: she's beautiful, she's intelligent, she's married to a doctor. But all of this isn't enough, as her husband Clay finds out. After she persuaded him to sell medicinal cocaine to some drugdealers, she takes off with the money, almost a million dollars, and goes undercover in a mid-American smalltown. Because Clay has to pay off a loan shark who'll otherwise damage him severely, he keeps sending detectives after her, trying to retrieve the money. When Bridget meets Mike Swale, a naive local who is blinded by her beauty and directness, she devises an elaborate, almost diabolical scheme to get rid of Clay once and for all.
Plot Keywords: femme fatale, doctor, divorcée, drug dealer, private investigator, husband, brutal ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Volpone, an elderly Venetian, connives with his money-crazed servant to convince his greedy friends that he is dying, knowing that each will try to curry favor with him in order to be named his heir. He is inundated with valuable gifts, and soon finds himself entangled deeper and deeper in a web of lies.—frankfob2@yahoo.com
Plot Keywords: wealthy man, servant, enemy, schemer, miser, friend, amusing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Lilith is a about a mysterious young woman in an elite sanitarium in Maryland, who seems to weave a magical spell all around her. A restless, but sincere young man with an equally obscure past is seemingly drawn into her web. As time passes, their relationship deepens and intensifies, and the differences between them begin to blur, leading to a shocking, but oddly logical conclusion.—Rhea Worrell <rworrel@ibm.net>
Plot Keywords: therapist, mental patient, beautiful woman, doctor, disturbing, tense, new england ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Steven Shorter is the ultimate British music star. His music is listened to by everyone from pre-teens to grandparents. He has no trace of public bad habits or drug involvement. Everyone in Britain loves him. His handlers begin to use his popularity for projects like increasing the consumption of apples after a bumper crop as an aid to farmers. The handlers decide that Steven should support God and Country next. This leads to, among other things, a rock version of "Onward Christian Soldiers," and the inclusion of a Nazi salute to make it clear (to the viewer) how far the British population will be taken for love of God and Country under Steven's guidance. Steven is very plastic in his direction, shifting as his handlers point him toward new projects until he meets Vanessa Ritchie, an artist who makes him look at what's happening.—John Vogel {jlvogel@comcast.net}
Plot Keywords: rock star, fan, artist, handler, government official, dark, amusing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Martha has run away from an abusive hippie-like cult where she was living as Marcy May for two years. She turns to her sister and brother-in-law who take her in and want to help her. The problem is Martha is having a hard time separating dreams from reality and when haunting memories of her past keep resurfacing, she may need more help than anyone is able to give her.
Plot Keywords: cult member, sister, brother-in-law, cult leader, runaway, suspenseful, thrilling ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Nicolas, a handsome, young waiter, is befriended by Frédéric Delamont, a wealthy middle-aged businessman. Delamont, a man of power, influence and strictly refined tastes, is immediately smitten by Nicolas' charm. Lonely and phobic, Delamont offers Nicolas a lucrative job as his personal food taster. In spite of their differences, a close friendship begins to emerge between the two men. However, their bond of trust and admiration soon spirals downward into a dangerous game of deceit and obsession for which neither is prepared.—Attitude Films
Plot Keywords: waiter, tycoon, girlfriend, doctor, chauffeur, judge, creepy ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Rural England, 1865. Katherine is stifled by her loveless marriage to a bitter man twice her age, whose family are cold and unforgiving. When she embarks on a passionate affair with a young worker on her husband's estate, a force is unleashed inside her, so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Plot Keywords: lord, adulterer, maid, father, bride, servant, tense ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.—Sujit R. Varma
Plot Keywords: criminal, tycoon, politician, criminal investigator, judge, chilling, brutal ...
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