9. Pain And Gain
There's an odd little contradiction at the centre of Pain And Gain, and it goes a little something like this it's a despicable tale told in a screwball style. The subject matter is all sorts of dark and horrible, yet it's portrayal in a vivid, darkly comic style which creates a huge feeling of cognitive dissonance the idea of holding two polar opposite ideas at the same time, despite the fact they so obviously contradict one another. Case in point, Pain And Gain. Beyond all the dark comedy, the absurdity and the hilarious performances and goofy tone, we're smashed around the head with some pretty brutal subject matter involving multiple murders, too much drugs, a litany of violence and some of 2013's most unsympathetic characters. The masterstroke of the film was that it eases you into it slowly, until you can't figure out when you stopped laughing at The Rock's performance and starting grimacing at the onscreen precedings. There's a very visible shift halfway where you feel horribly guilty at laughing earlier, because as Michael Bay keeps telling you, this is all based on true story. Hell, I know subtlety's not his strong point, but usually you can take that 'true story' moniker invariably bedecked across horror films and disregard it. Yet Bay's sledgehammer message rings true despite coming in with a casual disregard for the 'true story' caveat and expecting a darkly comic good time, you come out feeling very, very dirty. After all, most of that stuff actually happened, and just because it's absurd, it doesn't mean it's not horrifying.