Adaptation. (2002), Synecdoche, New York (2008), The Player (1992), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), The Boss of It All (2006), Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Real Life (1979) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Self-referential movies.
Storyline: While his latest movie Being John Malkovich (1999) is in production, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is hired by Valerie Thomas to adapt Susan Orlean's non-fiction book "The Orchid Thief" for the screen. Thomas bought the movie rights before Orlean wrote the book, when it was only an article in The New Yorker. The book details the story of rare orchid hunter John Laroche, whose passion for orchids and horticulture made Orlean discover passion and beauty for the first time in her life. Charlie wants to be faithful to the book in his adaptation, but despite Laroche himself being an interesting character in his own right, Charlie is having difficulty finding enough material in Laroche to fill a movie, while equally not having enough to say cinematically about the beauty of orchids. At the same time, Charlie is going through other issues in his life. His insecurity as a person doesn't allow him to act upon his feelings for Amelia Kavan, who is interested in him as a man. And Charlie's twin ...
Plot Keywords: metafilm, self-referential, identity crisis, psychological drama, black comedy, existentialism, twins ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. Fresh off of a successful production of Death of a Salesman, he has traded in the suburban blue-hairs and regional theater of Schenectady for the cultured audiences and bright footlights of Broadway. Armed with a MacArthur grant and determined to create a piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can put his whole self, he gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in Manhattan's theater district. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a small mock-up of the city outside. As the city inside the warehouse grows, Caden's own life veers wildly off the tracks. The shadow of his ex-wife Adele, a celebrated painter who left him years ago for Germany's art scene, sneers at him from every corner. Somewhere in Berlin, his daughter Olive is growing up under the questionable guidance of Adele's friend, Maria. He's helplessly driving his marriage to actress ...
Plot Keywords: existentialism, surrealism, psychological drama, metafilm, identity crisis, artistic creation, passage of time ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Events in the life of a Hollywood studio executive, unfold with the same unrealistic positive coincidences, ultimately culminating to a "happy ending", much like the movie scripts, with which he works day in and out, after he accidentally murders someone.
Plot Keywords: black comedy, hollywood, satire, murder, mystery, film industry, screenplay ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A petty thief posing as an actor is brought to Los Angeles for an unlikely audition and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation along with his high school dream girl and a detective who's been training him for his upcoming role...
Plot Keywords: black comedy, crime, mystery, action, detective, satire, los angeles ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: For years, company director Ravn (Peter Gantzler) leads his staff to believe that the head of the firm is an absentee director named Svend. Now Ravn wants to sell out to Finnur (Fridrik Thór Fridriksson), but Finnur will deal only with Svend. Ravn hires Kristoffer (Jens Albinus), an actor, to portray Svend so the deal can go through, but complications arise when Kristoffer must extend the performance.
Plot Keywords: comedy, satire, workplace, danish film, absurd, black comedy, power struggle ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Branding, advertising and product placement provide the funds for a movie that covers those same topics.
Plot Keywords: documentary, satire, media, consumerism, transparency, self-referential, humor ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A struggling screenwriter (Colin Farrell) inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his friends (Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell) kidnap a gangster's (Woody Harrelson) beloved Shih Tzu.
Plot Keywords: black comedy, crime, violence, absurd, mystery, multi-narrative, anti-hero ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A pushy, narcissistic filmmaker persuades a Phoenix family to let him and his crew film their everyday lives, in the manner of the ground-breaking PBS series "An American Family". However, instead of remaining unobtrusive and letting the family be themselves, he can't keep himself from trying to control every facet of their lives "for the good of the show".—frankfob2@yahoo.com
Plot Keywords: mockumentary, comedy, satire, 1970s, american film, directorial debut, media satire ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: French filmmaker René Vidal was once a renowned director, but most see his career on a quick downward slide based on his last several films. In Paris, he is just starting to film his latest movie, a remake of Les vampires (1915), and has hired Hong Kong based Chinese actress Maggie Cheung as the title lead, "Irma Vep" (an anagram for "vampire"), despite she knowing no French and she not being an obvious choice to most. Maggie has never worked with Vidal before and knows little about his movies, but many of his primarily French crew are part of his regular stable. As such, Maggie may become isolated among the cast and crew, unless there are those who bring her into their English conversations, they who may have somewhat ulterior motives in doing so. There are also factions within the cast and crew, who, based on their history, have a poisoned sense of what is going on. With Vidal, he is dealing with some personal issues while he tries to regain his film making form. He may transfer his thoughts of Irma Vep to Maggie, who he hired because he too sees her as strong and sexy like the skin-tight latex clad Irma. And Maggie may take her research for the comic bookish character to an extreme.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: french cinema, black comedy, metafilm, art film, independent film, cultural clash, female protagonist ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Young filmmakers (Rafer Weigel, Eric McCormack) trying to hawk a movie titled "Bradykillers" about a serial killer who goes after victims Marcia, Jan, and Cindy meet their screen idol, William Shatner. Shatner, appearing as himself, has fun poking fun at his own image. The two young men, who idolize him and in their fantasies have seen him as a shadowy fairy godfather figure, are alarmed at the reality of the middle-aged non-Captain Kirk man that they meet. However, their relationship helps anchor the two more into reality.—John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>
Plot Keywords: science fiction, comedy, independent film, coming of age, pop culture, friendship, midlife crisis ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Two actors, as their make up is applied, talk about the size of their parts. Then into the film: Laurence Sterne's unfilmable novel, Tristram Shandy, a fictive autobiography wherein the narrator, interrupted constantly, takes the entire story to be born. The film tracks between "Shandy" and behind the scenes. Size matters: parts, egos, shoes, noses. The lead's girlfriend, with their infant son, is up from London for the night, wanting sex; interruptions are constant. Scenes are shot, re-shot, and discarded. The purpose of the project is elusive. Fathers and sons; men and women; cocks and bulls. Life is amorphous, too full and too rich to be captured in one narrative.
Plot Keywords: comedy, metafilm, british film, postmodern, literary adaptation, absurdist, self-referential ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Running in from seemingly nowhere, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith & Peter Tork - better known collectively as The Monkees - disrupt a bridge opening ceremony. From where and why did they come to disrupt the proceedings? They were filming a series of vignettes in several different genres, including a wild west sequence, a desert war sequence, a Confederate war sequence, and a science fiction sequence. They disagree with much of what is happening around them, and try to figure out how to escape the oppression they feel - symbolized by a big black box in which they are seemingly imprisoned - by the forces around. That oppression is often shown in the form of "The Big Victor Mature".—Huggo
Plot Keywords: psychedelic, experimental, musical, comedy, surreal, counterculture, metafilm ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When Max (Taissa Farmiga) and her friends reluctantly attend a tribute screening of an infamous '80s slasher film that starred Max's late mother (Malin Akerman), they are accidentally sucked into the silver screen. They soon realize they are trapped inside the cult classic movie and must team up with the fictional and ill-fated "Camp Bloodbath" counselors, including Max's mom as the shy scream queen, to battle the film's machete-wielding, masked killer. With the body count rising in scene after iconic scene, who will be THE FINAL GIRLS left standing and live to escape this film?
Plot Keywords: horror, comedy, teen, gore, slasher, mother-daughter relationship, time loop ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: All Jay Baruchel expected coming to LA was a fun time with Seth Rogen with all the wild partying to have both by themselves and at James Franco's housewarming party. Suddenly, the Rapture hits and the Biblical Apocalypse has begun. Now, Jay and Seth are desperately sheltering in James' house for rescue along with a few other friends. Together, they must band together to attempt to survive the end of the world, only for Jay to find that they are all too dumb and superficial to do it until they discover the only way out.
Plot Keywords: comedy, fantasy, horror, apocalypse, hollywood, self-referential, humor ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A man believes his life is a movie watched by an audience only he can see.
Plot Keywords: comedy, action, superhero, fantasy, humor, adventure, satire ...
Movie Details Click Here !