5. Arlington Road (1999)
Oh, man: Arlington Road is a movie so desperate to appear meaningful and intelligent that it genuinely forgets what it's trying to be meaningful or intelligent about. The plot concerns a passionate college professor who becomes convinced that his next door neighbours are plotting something terrible. Whereas half of this movie channels a brilliant kind of Rear Window-ness, the other half loses itself in one of the most absurdly contrived plots (and plot twists) ever put on celluloid. You can actually feel the awkward agony as the director tries to piece it all together. It's a shame, given that - for the most part - this movie is driven by a great Jeff Bridges performance, and some interesting ideas. Thing is, Arlington Road spends so much time building up its story and imbuing the narrative with morality-aligned speeches and moments of pseudo bullsh*t that it needs to really needs to justify its excesses in order to come through at the end with any real point. It doesn't. Arlington Road ends up exploiting us for no reason because it has nothing to say - so much work for so little pay-off. An exhausting movie if ever there were one.