Summary
The beauty of cinema is that you can defy filmmaking conventions and have a product that speaks to the mark you want to leave in your movie, not necessarily one that an audience might approve of. Playing with the idea of time and linearity in a story’s plot is one such way movies can bring about different and refreshing experiences.
Non-linearity in film narrative can mean exploring the movie through constant flashbacks, seeing the film entirely out of order while still having it make sense toward the end, or even playing around with alternate scenarios. While it’s not the most enjoyable structure sometimes, these films pull it off masterfully.
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Orson Welles
Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Ruth Warrick, Everett Sloane, Agnes Moorehead, Dorothy Comingore, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Paul Stewart, William Alland, George Coulouris, and Fortunio Bonanova
1941
99%
8.3
VOD
you may’t begin to discuss films with non-linear narratives without giving a mention to the grandfather of all non-linear films, Citizen Kane. The screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles won an Oscar, the first of many non-linear films to receive such recognition, and it is historically viewed as the best film ever brought to the big screen.
It’s black-and-white, over 80 years old, you either love it or loathe it, but it remains an iconic film that explores the fictional life of Charles Foster Kane, a dying newspaper publishing tycoon whose last word was the enigmatic “Rosebud.” Kane’s life is explored through a series of flashbacks, but the plot is also driven by the quest to figure out the significance behind “Rosebud.”
Jaco Van Dormael
Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, Sarah Polley, Linh-Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Juno Temple, Toby Regbo, Clare Stone, Thomas Byrne, Audrey Giacomini, and Laura Brumagne
2009
66%
7.7
Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, Plex, The Roku Channel, Xumo Play, Fandango at Home
Mr. Nobody is probably the most interesting sci-fi movie to really play around with a non-linear structure. In the beginning, you might find this film a weird and confusing mess, but then the storyline slowly starts to make sense of what it’s trying to convey. Basically, if you ever played abranching narrative game like Until Dawn or Life is Strange, Mr. Nobody is a film that tries to show the alternate life paths and decisions of the main character all at once.
Jared Leto plays Nemo at various stages of his adult life, including the 118-year-old version of himself reflecting on all the directions his life could’ve gone had he either run away with his mom or stayed with his dad, married this girl or that girl, etc. The futuristic premise is also unique and original in that Nemo is the last living mortal while everyone else on Earth has achieved quasi-immortality.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melissa Leo, Clea DuVall, Danny Huston, Paul Calderón, Carly Nahon, Claire Pakis, Denis O’Hare, and Eddie Marsan
2003
80%
7.6
Alejandro G. Iñárritu is well-known for his Oscar-winning films The Revenant and Birdman, but he also has a thematically connected trilogy of films called the Death Trilogy with writer Guillermo Arriaga. Here, multiple perspectives and a non-linear storyline are implemented, and the second film in the trilogy, 21 Grams, is the perfect starting point.
It’s a thriller that follows the lives of three separate characters – Jack, Paul, and Cristina – who all become connected through a tragic accident. One is a mathematics professor with a heart condition played by Sean Penn, another is a born-again ex-con trying to better his life while also grappling with guilt, played by Benicio del Toro, and finally, there’s Naomi Watts' Cristina, a mother and a former addict dealing with loss.
Tom Tykwer
Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Nina Petri, Armin Rohde, Joachim Król, Ludger Pistor, Heino Ferch, Suzanne von Borsody, and Sebastian Schipper
1998
94%
Run Lola Run takes the concept of an intense, adrenaline-filled crime thriller and puts a non-linear butterfly effect spin on things. Lola is pressured for time after her boyfriend, Manni, loses 100,000 Deutsche Marks on a subway train, and she must now help him out of his dire situation. She begins her run to the bank to get help from her father, who’s a teller there, but it doesn’t amount to anything, and then she discovers Manni robbing a store.
Over the course of the film, Lola gets three different tries at successfully acquiring the 100,000 DM her boyfriend needs, with small changes happening at the start of each of her runs that lead to different consequences and outcomes. Will she do it in the end? The final run has a wonderful twist in store that ties things off nicely.
John Crowley
Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield, Grace Delaney, Lee Braithwaite, Douglas Hodge, Adam James, Aoife Hinds, Marama Corlett, Lucy Briers, Heather Craney, Nikhil Parmar, Kerry Godliman, and Niamh Cusack
2024
79%
7
HBO Max
We Live in Timecomes from A24, and it’s a romantic drama and comedy about one couple’s bizarre love-at-first-sight meeting, struggles with conceiving, and ultimately a recurring cancer diagnosis that changes the course of their life. It’s very funny at times and also very emotional, especially if you’ve been personally affected by cancer, and the film cuts around their whirlwind marriage story out of sequence.
Sometimes the non-linear structure can feel unnecessarily confusing for the film’s heartfelt and beautiful story about family and caring for your loved ones, as you’re trying more to piece together the sequence of events, but it does pay off in its message and powerful reflection on families going through cancer. The stellar performances by Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield should’ve also earned them both Oscar nominations.
Marc Webb
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend, Chloë Grace Moretz, Matthew Gray Gubler, Clark Gregg, Rachel Boston, Minka Kelly, and Patricia Belcher
86%
Hulu, Disney+
A more romantic comedy movie that also touches upon very emotional and relatable themes as well as adopts a non-linear structure is (500) Days Of Summer. As the title suggests, the relationship between Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Tom Hansen and Zooey Deschanel’s Summer Finn will play out over the course of 500 days, but the sequence of events seamlessly flips around the days.
You see the aftermath of how Tom feels when their relationship ends, and then it switches back to the first day that they meet at work when Summer joins as a new assistant. The dialogue is so well-written and enjoyable that all the worries about time-switching melt away with the flow of the narrative and seeing how naturally the characters all interact with one another.
JT Mollner
Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Ed Begley Jr., Barbara Hershey, Madisen Beaty, Steven Michael Quezada, Bianca A. Santos, and Denise Grayson
96%
7.1
Paramount+ with Showtime
Another 2020s film making excellent use of a non-linear narrative is Strange Darling. This is a cat-and-mouse thriller where a non-linear structure works in its favor to keep you guessing as to what’s going on and who the serial killer in the story really is. It stars Smile’s Kyle Gallner as The Demon (which is significant and symbolic later on) and The Lady, played by Reacher’s Willa Fitzgerald.
Strange Darling is told in six chapters shuffled out of order, starting with the third chapter where The Demon is seen hunting after The Lady. Then it shifts to the events in the motel room that led up to this moment. As more and more chapters get revealed, there are plenty of twists right up until the ending scene, where a quick flash of a surreal and disturbing visual helps tie everything together.
Strange Darling also marks the debut of actor Giovanni Ribisi as a cinematographer, who you might know from Ted, Sneaky Pete, Boiler Room, Avatar, and A Million Ways to Die in the West.
David Lynch
Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, Dan Hedaya, Mark Pellegrino, Robert Forster, Brent Briscoe, Rebekah Del Rio, Angelo Badalamenti, Lee Grant, Patrick Fischler, Michael J. Anderson, and Bonnie Aarons
2001
84%
7.9
Paramount+
The late incredible David Lynch has left a lasting mark on cinema and TV, bringing his idiosyncratic characters, concepts, and visions to life that have gone on to influence many filmmakersand game designers. Although Blue Velvet comes in close second, Mulholland Drive is really the definitive David Lynch movie. Its concept of doubles, eerie Hollywood atmosphere, and blend of surreal and non-linear elements are genius.
Mulholland Drive follows the story of Naomi Watts and Laura Harring’s characters, Betty and Rita, the former of whom is trying to make it in Hollywood and the latter suffering from amnesia. As you’d expect from Lynch, it’s trippy, mind-bending, disturbing, and extremely sound and music-focused, including the iconic Club Silencio scene where singer Rebekah Del Rio lip-syncs the pre-recorded track of her original song Llorando.
Michel Gondry
Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Adams, David Cross, Deirdre O’Connell, Debbon Ayer, and Thomas Jay Ryan
2004
92%
iQIYI
Yet another romantic drama film utilizing a non-linear structure,though this time with a sci-fi twist, is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. They play a couple who have gone through a devastating breakup and wish to erase their memories of ever having met each other, which becomes possible through a device from a company known as Lacuna.
However, despite erasing each other from memory, Clementine and Joel still can’t seem to move past each other and fall in love all over again. This premise makes it a perfect opportunity for events to play out non-linearly, as it’s all based on the various cycles of Clementine and Joel’s tumultuous relationship shown out of order.
The screenplay won an Oscar and was written by Charlie Kaufman, who’s also the writer of Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and Synecdoche, New York.
Christopher Nolan
Guy Pearce, Joe Pantoliano, Carrie-Anne Moss, Mark Boone Junior, Stephen Tobolowsky, Harriet Sansom Harris, Callum Keith Rennie, and Larry Holden
2000
8.4
Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Tubi, Plex, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, The CW
Christopher Nolan is a director who loves to experimentwith time and linearity, whether it be in Tenet, where things move in reverse, or in Interstellar, where the past and present collide through space. Memento starring Guy Pearce is definitely his most complex non-linear movie to grasp, though still a suspenseful wonder to watch. The film is famous for moving in reverse chronological order.
There are black-and-white scenes intercut between color scenes, with the color scenes depicting events happening in reverse order and the black-and-white portion being the chronological portion. This is all purposely done to capture the main protagonist’s anterograde amnesia, where you’re unable to form new memories. Even more fascinating iswatching Nolan explain the whole timeline of the film on YouTube.
