Movies that deal with Manipulation?

Brid Hegarty

Can anyone recommend something along these lines? For example 'Training Day' or 'Matchstick Men'

silverharp

Nightcrawler was the film that popped into my head

Hello 2D Person Below

Whiplash

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582802/

Brid Hegarty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117875543#Comment_117875543

Oh yes. That was a good one. That poor 'intern' was manipulated.

Did you smash it

The usual suspects or seven

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058208291/movies-that-deal-with-manipulation

Danny Boyle’s ‘Trance’, and Chris Nolan’s ‘Memento’. Also that Will Smith movie ‘Focus’ has a lot of elements of it.

A different type of manipulation, but the recent Invisible Man is pretty much built around extreme gaslighting.

FortuneChip

Most mass-produced romantic comedies.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117880437#Comment_117880437

Not just comedies

Passengers

Spoiler Warning

Aurora Lane: He woke me up! He took away my life!

Gus Mancuso: I know, and I'm sorry, but there's work I'd like...

Aurora Lane: It's murder!

Gus Mancuso: You're right, Aurora.

[Deleted User]

The Manchurian Candidate

Brid Hegarty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117880196#Comment_117880196

Yeah I haven't seen 'Invisible Man' or 'Trance'. Momento is one of those movies that no matter how hard you think about it, there's no way of figuring it out. There's too many of those already; whether it be 'American Psycho', 'Basic Instinct'.

What was it again with the ending of Momento? If I remember right he ends up killing the wrong guy just so that he can trick himself into thinking that he finally got revenge. He knows his memory is only 2 minutes or so, so that way he can lie to himself.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117882008#Comment_117882008

Yeah, it's been a wee while since i've seen it myself, but it's something along those lines. And other people take advantage of his 'gold-fishing' to manipulate him to their own ends too.

Invisible Man was really brilliant, absolutely blew me away to be honest - a really great reinvention of the idea to explore something much more interesting and important. Elisabeth Moss is incredible in it too. Horror movies never tend to get nominations for things, but I'd have definitely had her performance up for best actress Oscar.

JP Liz V1

Dangerous Liaisons and Cruel Intentions

Brid Hegarty

'Disclosure' is another one, starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. Very under-rated.

S.M.B.

Compliance is a gruelling 90 minutes of multiple levels of manipulation from what I remember.

Brid Hegarty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117880765#Comment_117880765

Is it? I mean I guess brain washing could be considered manipulation but it's not the sort of manipulation that we encounter on a daily basis. I tried watching it (2002 version), but it's too far fetched for me... even if it is based on real events.

bodhrandude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117885295#Comment_117885295

Agree, its absolutely shocking, worth seeing and based on a true story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliance_%28film%29

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117916880#Comment_117916880

Watch the original made during the cold war. Much, much better. The remake is just a cash grab trading on the name.

growleaves

The Servant

Brid Hegarty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117931366#Comment_117931366

Yeah, that fake cop applied what you could call the 'yes ladder'. Terrible music though in the scene where the manager went to her car!

bodhrandude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117934676#Comment_117934676

And of course Aunt Lydia from Handmaid's Tale in a completely different role.

TaSeThat

Have to say The Assistant. Cracking movie but you can see parallel situations with Hollywood's allegations for the last couple of years. A brilliant under-the-radar-movie but not for everyone as it is a slow burner.

Brid Hegarty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117875594#Comment_117875594

Definitely worth a watch. It was a good movie but it had a disappointing ending in that the drummer never saw the light. Up until the very end the drummer still cared about whether the teacher approved of him or not. The movie never presented a proper argument against the justification that abusive instructor gave for giving his abuse. I can only imagine so many people watched the movie and agreed with the instructor's point of view.

It's hard to know what we're supposed to take from the very last scene. What's the moral of the story? That you can't do an awesome drums solo unless your hands bleed? Or that no matter how much you practice drums, you'll still never be able to wing a song that you haven't played before? All those hours of solitude and he can't take a stab at a song that he hasn't seen before? And why would the instructor set up the drummer to look like a fool on stage, by presenting a different song... and risk ruining his own reputation? In that last scene for all we know the instructor only pretends to be pleased so that he'll stop with the crazy antics on stage. And the audience never applauded the (very very long) drums solo. All it was to me anyway was a load of noise.

Brid Hegarty

'Body Heat' with William Hurt and 'Birthday Girl' with Nicole Kidman. Both movies deal with men being manipulated through seduction.

Tefral

MR Brooks. Great Movie

CatFromHue

Its a few years old now but Primal Fear with Ed Norton and Richard Gere is one

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117985865#Comment_117985865

Impressive debut from Norton

Did you smash it

Snowtown is another movie, based on a true story, dealing with master manipulation.

It’s a true story of Australian’s worst ever serial killer.

Brid Hegarty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117985865#Comment_117985865

I remember considering watching that before. The advert didn't really seem to suggest that there was too much manipulation going on! Who's manipulating who in it?

Double Indemnity. Barbara Stanwyck really does Fred MacMurray up like a kipper .. Strangers On A Train another good one - Farley Granger's guileness and naive character never had much of a chance up against the captivating psycho played by Robert Walker.

[Deleted User]

The Perfection, not sure if it's still on Netflix but it's definitely worth a watch. Gone Girl was very good too I thought. Both have good female characters, bit of a twist to the normal narrative, mix of psychological horror with a bit of gore too.

Pacific Heights with Michael Keaton as the antagonist , and Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith as the victims... Great performance from Keaton, and his character is a right manipulating sob who's completely in control of all the chaos - until the Hollywood denouement 😂