5 Movies That Aren’t Actually About Animals
I would hope that in the year 2023, most movie fans are sophisticated enough to understand that a movie’s title shouldn’t be taken literally. But these 5 movies with animals in their titles are more misleading than most!
The Whale – There’s a double meaning in the title of Darren Aronofsky’s drama about a morbidly obese man named Charlie (Brendan Fraser), but I won’t spoil that for you. All you really need to know is that Fraser won the Actor in a Leading Role Oscar for his performance and that The Whale is one of the best movies I saw last year. Fraser deserved that Oscar, and his co-star Hong Chau—who played Charlie’s nurse and best friend—deserved her nomination in one of the most competitive categories (Actress in a Supporting Role). In the film, Charlie knows his time on this earth is nearing an end, and all he hopes for is to be forgiven by his daughter (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink, who frankly deserved an Oscar nom as well) before he goes. But she’s not going to let him off easy after what he did (which I also won’t spoil!).
The Killing of a Sacred Deer – This is a supremely screwed-up movie—and there’s no Bambi (or Bambi’s mom!) in sight. As in, don’t watch it if you tend to have nightmares. No matter how brave or unfazed you normally are by things that go down on the screen, your sense of dread will reach a nearly unbearable breaking point as director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster) reveals the connection between successful heart surgeon Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell), a mysterious boy (The Banshees of Inisherin’s Barry Keoghan), and the freaky things that begin happening to Steven’s family members (like Nicole Kidman).
The Butterfly Effect – Ashton Kutcher stars in this 2004 psychological thriller that explores what would happen if you were to go back in time and change something you did. The Back to the Future franchise was built around this same conundrum, of course, but this movie heightens the tension by ignoring any funny things that might transpire from time travel and instead focusing on everything that could go wrong. Needless to say, there are no colorful butterflies bursting from cocoons.
Big Fish – In this spectacular and surreal fantasy from the marvelous mind of director Tim Burton, Billy Crudup plays a journalist who goes home to visit his dying father (Albert Finney) to learn once and for all if there was any speck of truth in any of the tall tales his dad used to tell him as a kid. One of those tall tales has to do with a humongous catfish, sure, but suffice it to say that that creature is not what this movie revolves around!
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – Newsflash: Michelle Yeoh has always been a badass. More than 2 decades before she won the Actress in a Leading Role Oscar this year for Everything Everywhere All At Once, Yeoh starred in Ang Lee’s masterpiece set in the 19th century during the Qing Dynasty in China. After a warrior (Chow Yun-Fat) asks her character to keep his sword, “Green Destiny,” safe, Yeoh must chase after the thief (Zhang Ziyi) who steals it. But alas, there are no tigers or dragons in sight. See why this action-packed martial-arts extravaganza was nominated for 13 Oscars, including Best Picture (which it lost to Gladiator) in the 2001 ceremony!