3. The Wrestler
The Wrestler operates as something akin to the anti-Rocky, where Darren Aronofsky makes it halfway through the archetypal second coming/reformed character story before violently smashing it over the head with the reality of the situation. That reality goes a little something like this Randy Robinson's unable to shake off what put him on skid row in the first place, and ends up alienating his daughter, ruins his chances with his love interest and gets fired from his deli counter job in spectacular fashion. Alongside this, we learn he's got a dodgy heart which should keep him out of a wrestling ring, the one place he's ever felt at home. This is made doubly sad by the fact that he's got a lucrative bout coming up which celebrates the 20th anniversary of his fight against the controversially-titled Ayatollah, so he can't even relive the days where everything was right for him. Of course, by the time the bout rocks up, Randy's had life knock the stuffing out of him so hard that he throws a screw-it and enters the ring anyhow. Naturally, it goes as you might think our protagonist's heart starts giving up the ghost within minutes, to the extent that even his long-retired opponent recommends they should cut the match short. Yet Randy refuses, climbing the turnbuckle to deliver his aerial finisher, a move so ambitious that it's probably going to put paid to our protagonist, right then and there. But we don't get to see that instead, Aronofsky lathers on the ambiguity, cutting out just as Randy leaps from the turnbuckle under the glare of the ring lights. I don't know why he did this I guess it works poetically, but it's clear he's going to have a cardiac arrest. Remember, the director makes it clear that he could barely pull off a regular wrestling move before without his ticker packing up, so I'm willing to bet that if he smacks into the ring canvas with force, he's going into the great beyond. Yet by adding mystery to the equation, you could almost argue that it takes away from the oddly uplifting tragedy of it all. Instead of leaving us with final Randy's Pyrrhic victory, the dramatic oomph is lessened by all this speculation of whether he survived his fall, even when it's obvious he didn't.