Enemy (2013)

It's a film that obviously wants you to think about it, but not a story which bears close scrutiny. There's barely a story, honestly, the film is 98% atmosphere and timbre. The way that he's set up and three distinct, concurrent versions of the movie within itself is great. A structural feat. But there are nodes, there are going to be intersections, there have to be intersections, where one version must be favored over another.

Ultimately, take a movie like Primer. One the first viewing of that movie it is largely incomprehensible. You need a flowchart to understand the plot but it is ultimately comprehensible. That is a also a real feat of structure, that structure mimicing the subject matter. With this one... and it's because of three scenes where those story nodes happened and he refused to favor... ultimately it's incomprehensible. "Chaos is understanding unordered" is a very good opening quote, but he failed to meet that obligation.

If the final scene had ended in anything except a sigh... I'd actually be insulted. But it makes me think that he's aware that this is, ultimately, indulgent gibberish. And I'm sure the spider-bodysnatcher theory has got to be one of his favorites.

You wait that entire movie for that sigh. The movie ends with a jump scare. That's fucking wonderful.

But I can't imagine watching it again. Ultimately it's just hollow. But then again, he's painting the picture of a hollow man. I guess that's how he manages to turn what would otherwise be extreme weakness into an advantage.

The problem is that the review seems to cherrypick, even so. And don't get me wrong, I agree with him. But. For example, that reviewer says, "How would actor jake know where to find history jake? It doesn't matter, because..."

Except we're directly shown a scene where it explained to us EXACTLY how actor jake found history jake, a scene which mirrors the previous one. It is literal. And this is a movie where no image, symbol, sound, or inflection is accidental or wasted. But he's gonna waste an entire scene? To pad out the runtime? No, to misdirect. But the purpose is only to misdirect. He refuses to choose. That's one of the nodes I was talking about. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Except it does matter because he's gone out of his way to show us that it matters. Either every frame matters or none of it does.

That's not the fault of the reviewer, but you do have to gloss over what happened in order to make a coherent point about what happened in those three places where the writer/director is just being an intentionally obtuse dick. It's just not perfect is all. And i'm angry as hell about it.

That sigh man. It made the entire movie for me. The entire fucking movie can be explained with that sigh. And I think that's just great.

They all live unknowingly in a totalitarian regime controlled by gigantic space spiders. That's the reason the private club with the lady stepping on spiders was so taboo/lewd for everyone, even if it was just subconsciously. The plot with the doubles is just one of the many irrelevant stories occurring in a city controlled by gigantic space spiders.