The best part about making a movie is that it can literally be whatever you want it to be. That means you can go outside genre norms and really experiment with incorporating multiple kinds of genres into your film, perhaps achieving something no one has ever experienced before.
There aredirectors like Ridley Scottwho have mastered many genres and others who set out to create genre-bending films where you can be laughing in one moment, closing your eyes in the next, or getting completely mind-blown by shocking plot developments. These are the unique genre-bending films that do it best!
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Christopher Nolan
John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Himesh Patel, Clémence Poésy, Michael Caine, Juhan Ulfsak, and Martin Donovan
2020
70%
7.3
VOD
Christopher Nolanhas already created one of his own James Bond-style films in his classic mind-bending way with Tenet. Tenet is a spy thriller with a sci-fi time inversion twist that follows a nameless secret agent protagonist in the CIA (literally called ‘Protagonist’) who must prevent World War 3, while the world around him can move in reverse.
It’s a plot that only Nolan can conjure up to mess with your mind, and the time inversion is extremely well done, even featuring characters speaking in reverse. John David Washington and Robert Pattinson’s performances are both excellent, but the story can be pretty confusing and might take a rewatch to fully grasp.
Bong Joon Ho
Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Anamaria Vartolomei, Daniel Henshall, Patsy Ferran, Holliday Grainger, Michael Monroe, Bronwyn James, Tim Key, Ian Hanmore, and Lloyd Hutchinson
2025
77%
6.9
VOD, HBO Max (After theatrical release)
Another genre-bending Robert Pattinson movie is Mickey 17, written and directed by the Oscar-winning creative genius of Parasite,Bong Joon Ho. Mickey 17 can be described as Snowpiercer set in outer space. There’s political satire, anti-capitalist views, classism, and dark comedy underneath an original sci-fi plot adapted from Edward Ashton’s novel, Mickey7.
The main protagonist Mickey Barnes is an ‘expendable,’ meaning he will die multiple times while working hazardous jobs colonizing an icy planet and keep getting replicated until there are 17 different versions of him; well, incidentally, 18. The man in charge of the operation is Mark Ruffalo’s villainous character, Kenneth Marshall, parodying the likes of dictators.
Tilman Singer
Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, Mila Lieu, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Greta Fernández, Kalin Morrow, and Proschat Madani
2024
79%
5.7
Hulu, Disney+
Cuckoo isa film from Neon, and the way it attempts creature horror is done in a very original and genre-bending way, creating a horror movie experience unlike any you’ve seen. Without giving away the big reveal, there are sci-fi and ornithology elements that blend very interestingly together here.
Cuckoo starts as a family drama, where, after the loss of her mother, the main character, Gretchen, travels with her father, stepmother, and stepsister to a resort in the Bavarian Alps owned by Dan Stevens' Herr König. As Gretchen and her family settle in, she quickly starts getting hunted by a woman with beaming red eyes, and it’s all tied to the greater mystery of what’s going on at that resort.
Kristoffer Borgli
Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Bird, Jessica Clement, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, Amber Midthunder, Dylan Baker, Kate Berlant, Nicholas Braun, and Noah Centineo
2023
91%
6.8
HBO Max
Dream Scenario is one of the most wild and surreal family drama and midlife crisis stories you’ll see. It blends fantasy, sci-fi, psychological horror, dark comedy, and social commentary. And it stars Nicolas Cage as Paul Matthews, an average Joe college professor who starts appearing in everyone’s dreams, and soon becomes the most famous person on the planet.
However, it all falls apart when Paul starts giving people nightmares and the public opinion of him changes drastically, as he suddenly becomes shunned by this inexplicable phenomenon. The plot is like Black Mirror meets David Lynch meets Donnie Darko meets with quite an underrated performance byNicolas Cage.
Yorgos Lanthimos
Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Margaret Qualley, Christopher Abbott, Jerrod Carmichael, Kathryn Hunter, and Vicki Pepperdine
93%
7.8
Amazon Prime Video
The Oscar-winning film by Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things, delivers exactly the kind of weirdness that you should expect from his movies, but in a remarkable way. It’s a fantasy, romance, dark comedy, science-fiction, and feminist coming-of-age tale about a woman discovering the world for the first time, but with her brain being that of her unborn child’s.
Emma Stone is Bella Baxter, an unconventional specimen of a woman reanimated by the experiments of Willem Dafoe’s mad scientist Godwin Baxter. Bella will chart her own course but also starts to lose her innocence when exposed to the injustices around the world. The production design for all the settings is gorgeous, and the ending is unforgettable.
Taika Waititi
Roman Griffin Davis, Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Thomasin McKenzie, Sam Rockwell, Stephen Merchant, Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen, Archie Yates, Luke Brandon Field, and Sam Haygarth
2019
80%
7.9
There’s never been a Holocaust movie quite like Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit. In Jojo Rabbit, you’ll be laughing in one moment and then be hit with a very dark and emotional moment in the next scene. There are episodes of war and loss, and then pure laugh-out-loud situations, like when you see a room of Gestapo agents comically satirizing non-stop Nazi salutes.
Jojo Rabbit follows a child in the Hitler Youth, whose imaginary friend is a parody of Adolf Hitler, played by Taika Waititi. It’s part coming-of-age story, comedic satire, and tragic war movie. A key element of the story is also Jojo’s mom being part of the resistance and hiding a young Jewish girl named Elsa Korr.
Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Lou Beatty Jr., Evan Hengst, Conrad Kemp, Craig Jackson, and Garth Collins
81%
6.5
VOD, Paramount+ (After theatrical release)
Jack Quaid’s follow-up to Companion is a splendid mash-up of genres that really shouldn’t work as well as they do together. Novocaine is a romantic comedy, heist movie, and Christmas movie with gory andgrotesque body horrorand John Wick levels of action. It’s truly one of the most original action comedies in decades.
Quaid plays Nathan Caine, an Assistant Manager at a bank with the rare condition where he can’t feel any pain. He falls in love with a fellow employee at the bank, but their romance is cut short when she’s taken hostage by bank robbers. The writing is very clever and smart, and the action sequences take advantage of Caine’s condition in hilariously creative ways.
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (The Daniels)
Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong, Stephanie Hsu, Tallie Medel, Jenny Slate, Sunita Mani, Harry Shum Jr., and Biff Wiff
2022
94%
Everything Everywhere All at Once is an Oscar-sweepingfilm from A24. The movie is a family drama with themes centering around the immigrant experience, but then introduces a unique and mind-blowing multiversal element, absurdist comedy, as well as paying homage to the martial arts genre.
The movie follows the Wang family as they head to the IRS to submit their tax filing for their family-owned laundromat. Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn Wang tries to hold her family together but deals with a lot of drama and emotional strain. During their appointment, Evelyn enters the multiverse via a Bluetooth headset and must battle random enemies to repair the relationship with her daughter.
Michael Gracey
Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Alison Steadman, Steve Pemberton, Kate Mulvany, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Frazer Hadfield, Jake Simmance, Liam Head, Jesse Hyde, Chase Vollenweider, and Carter J. Murphy
88%
7.6
Paramount+
Better Man is unlike any ordinary musical biopic. It’s one of the most original and genre-bending musical odysseys you’ll have the pleasure of watching about the life of English pop star Robbie Williams. The film flopped at the box office, which is a major shame because Better Man is a highly entertaining, different, and incredibly emotional and touching film.
With Better Man, you have the surreal fantasy elements of Williams as a CGI ape, the psychological elements of his addiction, fame, and his unconsciousness and doubts fighting him (with wonderful visual metaphors), comedy, and drama, along with the jukebox musical aspect. The musical sequences, editing, and transitions alone should’ve seen more Awards recognition.
Ryan Coogler
Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, Omar Benson Miller, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Yao, and Saul Williams
98%
8.2
HBO Max (After theatrical release)
Sinners is a one-of-a-kind ride that’s hard to define as a genre. It’s a dark fairy tale about marginalized communities, a musical experience centered around the blues, led by actor and singer Miles Caton and Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, a dive into Black history in the 1930s Jim Crow South, a crime story of two gangster twin brothers who return home after their work with Al Capone, and a goryvampire horror moviewith steamy romance.
The storytelling and pacing may feel funky in parts, but Sinners is a must-see experience, with moments sure to dazzle, mesmerize, and blow you away. The scenes of Michael B. Jordan as twins Smoke and Stack were simply impressive, as was the incredible ending.
