Unsurprisingly, most movie-going audiences don’t want to feel like they should be taking notes. Even for some blockbuster hits, complex storylines and interwoven narratives can spell trouble. Just look at the Marvel Universe, which continually overlaps and tweaks storylines as its primary heroes and villains interact across dozens of films.

The same can even be said for smaller hits, like Game of Thrones and its spinoffs. While many viewers find the richness of the fantasy world to be a highlight, just as many others stop watching because they can’t keep up with the characters, plots, and settings.

Still, that doesn’t mean that complexity is a turn-off for viewers. Instead, many audiences enjoy a challenge—especially a narrative or twist that they haven’t seen before. In other words, it’s not the audience’s responsibility to weed through a complicated production—instead, it’s the job of filmmakers and showrunners to craft stories that are equal parts inventive, straightforward, and richly intricate. 

Let’s cover a few of the top projects that accomplish this.

Rounders, 1998

This film brought together Matt Damon, John Malkovich, and Edward Norton together in a high-stakes underground poker world. Damon’s character has to win back money on behalf of a friend… which involves plenty of high-stakes poker games and all their complexity. In fact, part of Rounders’ allure was its deep dive into poker terms.

Anyone who’s spent time at the poker table, online or in real-life, has likely run into a few distracting terms. Combing through the casino glossary will uncover some baffling lingo, from house edge to shoe to payout table. Despite the complexity of the game and the incorporation of poker terms, director John Dahl nailed his mark. Rounders helped contribute to the boom of online poker in the early 2000s—and has since become a cult classic.

Donnie Darko, 2001

Speaking of cult classics, even the most diehard Donnie Darko fans might struggle to explain exactly what happens in this suburban coming-of-age story. With a star-studded cast at the start of their careers (Jena Malone, Seth Rogen, the Gyllenhaal siblings), the film delighted, intrigued, and baffled thousands.

And, in the end, there’s little description that works for the film. A sleepwalking teen hallucinates a man in a rabbit costume. The man in the rabbit costume insists that the world will end in 28 days. And it does—at least, for the main character Donnie.

Memento, 2000

Y2K must have brought out the zaniest ideas from filmmakers in the US. Nearby Rounders and Donnie Darko, 2000 saw the release of Memento. As the first major project from Christopher Nolan, the film was dark, complicated, and incredibly innovative.

In fact, Memento is hailed as being one of the top-acclaimed projects of the year—and the decade. The film used a non-linear narrative, which is always a risk. However, it perfectly tied the plot together as both timelines meet at the end of the film. In other words, it lays out exactly what happened: a man with amnesia relies on photographs and tattoos to help him piece together the mysterious death of his wife and an attack that nearly killed him

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004

Clearly, some of the greatest and most complex films ever made had star-studded casts. This film includes Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Carrey, and Kate Winslet. Similar to Memento, the film takes place over a non-linear timeline, which leaves viewers to string together the film’s events.
And, similar to Donnie Darko, there’s a highly psychological thread that intertwines the main characters. In other words, viewers aren’t quite sure if they can trust the narrator—did things happen how this character remembers? And what do they remember? By weaving together elements of drama, psychology, and memory, there’s something deeply touching about the mismatched narratives in this film.