5. Sound of Noise
Movies love their formulas. If something has been successful, studios do not rest until that formula has been pounded into the earth, and then the earth has been set on fire, and then the ground salted and then burned a couple more times for good measure. Its often easy to guess the entire plot of a movie just based on the trailer. The Underdog sports movie. The rise-and-fall of a criminal. The hell-and-back war story. Which is why its so much fun when a great filmmaker comes along and completely usurps the basic structure and style of a formula in order to sneak a much more bizarre and complex narrative into a film. Like Nolan using the style of a team heist movie to create a meditation on the impact of memory and dreams on the human soul, or how Tarantino took the men on a mission trope and deconstructed it to serve his own unique voice and perspective. Sound of Noise is another such film. The plot involves a gang of highly-skilled criminals, each with a unique specialty, executing a string of escalating crimes while an intense cop rushes to stop them. Except that, instead of a band of thieves trying to rob a bank or steal a painting, this particular gang is made up of rogue percussionists, anarchist drummers seeking to spread dissent and upset the status quo by turning the mundane objects and events of urban life into a symphony. The human body, construction equipment, shredded money, water, and much, much more are converted into instruments. What sets Sound of Noise apart is its total conviction to its own premise. The film treats music as the most important, powerful force in the world, with classical music filling in the role of the omnipresent authority figure against which the rogue drummers are rebelling. Goofy? Sure. But the film never blinks from that, or from the belief that music, any music, can change the world. The climax of the film is a stand-up-and-cheer moment of artistic triumph, a finale in which an outcast, lonely character uses music to rewrite the world.