10 Great Movies With Plots That Make Your Head Hurt

7. Synecdoche, New York

Writer Charlie Kaufman has baffled audiences on a number occasions before his directorial debut Synecdoche, New York was released. His collaborations with Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, both served up intricate and freewheeling meta-plots which blurred the line between fantasy and reality, fact and fiction. It came as no surprise to his fans that Synecdoche, New York took things one - or several - steps further. Revolving around the life of theatre director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the line between reality and fiction blurs as he attempts to put on a production which increases in scope and ambition to the point where it mimics then dwarfs the world outside the warehouse in which is is set. Characters merge, actors and their doppelgangers become interchangeable and waking life and dreams confound the quest for meaning. A play within a play - or a movie within a movie, perhaps - Synecdoche, New York requires multiple viewings in order to tease out even a basic understanding. As an exploration of the creative process it's quite rightly been compared to Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 - it's every bit as surreal and ambitious.