Top 20 Meta Movies
#20: “Being John Malkovich” (1999)
Top 10 Meta Movies
Only Charlie Kaufman could write a movie as brilliantly gonzo as this one. The story follows Craig Schwartz, a file clerk whose life changes after discovering a portal into John Malkovich’s mind. As the title suggests, the people who traverse this portal are able to “become” John Malkovich for a brief period. The movie is chock full of wonderful appearances from A-list actors, and Malkovich stars as a somewhat warped version of himself. The script not only asks important existential questions, it also pokes fun at Malkovich’s supposed lack of fame, as nobody can properly recall a film of his. Thanks to this movie, we don’t think anyone will have that problem in real life.
#19: “Existenz” (1999)
Forget the goofy spelling of the title - “Existenz” is quite an effective showing from the master of body horror, David Cronenberg. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a video game designer named Allegra who is hunted by killers inside her own VR game. As she’s the mind behind the game, Allegra is constantly making observations about its machinations and creations. In this way, the script itself is also discussing what the film is doing. It’s a very strange story that may take multiple viewings to understand. But when it all clicks, it becomes clear that “Existenz” is one of Cronenberg’s smartest movies.
#18: “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001)
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With this movie, it seemed like Kevin Smith was poking fun at the mega Hollywood machine, which he had become well-entrenched in since “Clerks.” The titular duo learn that Miramax Films plans to release a “Bluntman and Chronic” movie. To receive their due royalties, they embark on a trip to Hollywood. The movie is filled with references, many of which are to Smith’s past works, as it takes place in his so-called “View Askewniverse.” It’s also intentionally pandering to fan service, as Jay and Silent Bob were quite popular in Smith’s other movies. The film even features the pair taking on their critics, almost as if to get a leg up on its own critical reception.
#17: “Blazing Saddles” (1974)
Mel Brooks is one of the all-time greatest movie directors, and a master of the meta comedy. Many people love the wickedly smart “Spaceballs,” and for good reason. But his masterpiece is arguably “Blazing Saddles.” The recipient of three Oscar nominations and now conserved in the National Film Registry, it’s one of the greatest parodies ever made. The film expertly pokes fun at Westerns and gets extremely meta in the final act. The characters do away with the fourth wall as they fight, eventually flocking to the streets of Burbank before taking the action to Grauman's Chinese Theatre. What happens from there is a bit of pure movie-making magic, and it showcases Brooks’ boundless imagination.
#16: “Birdman” (2014)
Regarded as one of the best films of 2014, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Birdman” was also among the most clever. In many ways, it’s a reflection on the entertainment industry and those that populate it - including its own stars. For one thing, Michael Keaton portrays an actor who was once popular for bringing a fictional superhero to life but is now past his prime. We wouldn’t call the old Batman “washed up,” but he had certainly fallen off by the time “Birdman” was released. Furthermore, some people have drawn parallels between Edward Norton’s difficult character and the actor’s reputation as a “perfectionist.” And finally, there’s the whole play-within-a-movie thing, which touches upon the creative process and the personal meanings behind certain story elements.
#15: “Shaun of the Dead” (2004)
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Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg love them some self-aware flicks. While “Hot Fuzz” hilariously sends up the buddy cop genre, “Shaun of the Dead” does something similar with zombies. A comedy with loving knowledge of the genre, it works astoundingly well as a straightforward zombie movie and a hilarious deconstruction. For one thing, characters discuss the bizarre behavior of the undead, initially not realizing what they’re actually dealing with. And in a great gag, Shaun tells Ed not to use the word “zombie” - a hilarious nod to how the creatures are seldom actually called “zombies” in movies. “Shaun of the Dead” might not be far off when it comes to depicting what would actually happen if regular people were faced with a zombie outbreak.
#14: “The Truman Show” (1998)
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Written by Andrew Niccol, “The Truman Show” is a fascinating movie about the very practice of watching television. At the time, it was known for being one of Jim Carrey’s first “serious” bits of acting. And the Oscar-nominated directing and writing gave him a lot to play with. Carrey is Truman Burbank, a guy who eventually realizes that he is the subject of a TV show and that everyone around him - even his wife - are actually actors. The entire movie is about the creative process; the director, the stars, and even the set designers who keep things looking realistic. It’s also about the process of consuming television - specifically manufactured reality TV, where the “stars” are real people being observed for entertainment.
#13: “This Is the End” (2013)
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It doesn’t get much more meta than “This Is the End.” The hilarious apocalyptic movie from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg follows the vain celebrities of Rogen’s inner circle while they deal with the end of the world. The actors technically play themselves, but with fake over the top, nonsensical personas. They even use real issues and developments as starting points for commentary or jokes. For example, Rogen and Jay Baruchel fight over the different paths they took, and Jonah Hill can’t help but mention his appearance in “Moneyball.” The film is also filled with appearances from notable celebrities, including Rihanna, Paul Rudd, and Emma Watson. It’s a hilarious offering that allows Rogen and his friends to mock themselves for 100+ joyful minutes.
#12: “The Cabin in the Woods” (2011)
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Drew Goddard’s meta comedy has its finger firmly on the pulse of the horror genre. It honors decades worth of tropes, character and villain types, and death styles, all while telling a highly unique story. A small crew of youth get stuck in and around the titular cabin in the woods, which is completely controlled by an underground facility. The lab employees place wagers on how their subjects will die and by whose hands, and they control the inhabitants’ behaviors through various invasive means. All the genre’s classic elements are satirized, and it culminates in a bloody climax that will not be forgotten any time soon.
#11: “I'm Still Here” (2010)
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A surreal work of experimentation, “I’m Still Here” is arguably one of Joaquin Phoenix’s strangest films. Serving as a mockumentary, it stars Phoenix as himself as he leaves acting behind to become a rapper. It’s a hilarious premise, and the actor certainly milked it for all it was worth. In fact, he took the concept beyond the movie itself and seemingly applied it to real life. In the meta-ist of all meta moves, Phoenix adopted his character’s persona for talk show appearances and other press stints, leading many to wonder if he was okay. But there was no need to be worried, it was all just a bit of fun.
#10: “Tropic Thunder” (2008)
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We love when Hollywood mocks itself, and “Tropic Thunder” is arguably one of the best and funniest examples. It works as a straightforward action movie. It works as an affectionate spoof of war films. And it works as a metafictional comment on the entertainment industry and the celebrities who inhabit it. Talk about having layers! The story is about the painful process of making a movie and dealing with egotistical actors that make the operation difficult. It certainly seemed like the writers – which included director Ben Stiller – had a lot of thoughts about the dramatic undertaking of filmmaking. They let them all out in hilarious fashion with “Tropic Thunder.”
#9: “Stranger than Fiction” (2006)
This movie shares much in common with “The Truman Show.” Like it, “Stranger than Fiction” is about a man who learns that he is nothing but a character in a story. And like “The Truman Show,” it stars a comedic actor in a serious role. Will Ferrell is lonely IRS employee Harold Crick, who can suddenly hear his experiences being narrated. The narrator’s voice belongs to novel writer Karen Eiffel, who it appears has created Harold as a character and now plans on killing him off. It’s a fascinating movie that comments on the storytelling process by using its protagonist as a character in a tale.
#8: “Funny Games” (1997)
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Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games” is arguably one of the most fearless works ever made. Its violent content has disturbed many, and it blatantly plays with the conventions of film. We expect movies to begin and end in a straightforward manner, and we collectively pretend that what we’re watching is real. But some movies say “no, I’m not going to do that,” and “Funny Games” is one of them. In the controversial climax, one of the villains literally rewinds the movie to prevent the death of his sadistic partner. They then use this new, alternate timeline to kill the surviving protagonists. It was an incredibly gutsy move from Haneke, and its merits are still being debated and analyzed.
#7: “Shadow of the Vampire” (2000)
Just one year after the release of “Being John Malkovich,” we got to see the titular actor in another brilliantly self-reflective movie. “Shadow of the Vampire” depicts well-known silent film “Nosferatu”’s creation. Malkovich plays the director, F. W. Murnau, and the fantastic Willem Dafoe plays Max Schreck, the actor who famously portrayed Count Orlok. But it’s not that simple. This is a fictional re-telling of a historic event, and it adds a fun little twist to the proceedings. You see, Max Schreck is really a vampire, and he starts killing his fellow actors and filmmakers. It honors the history of a classic movie, it serves as a vampire film, and it’s a brilliant satire about the movie-making process.
#6: “22 Jump Street” (2014)
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We thought “21 Jump Street” was meta, but we hadn’t seen anything yet. “22 Jump Street” did everything that its predecessor did but ramped it all up. Like the first, it spoofed both school and buddy cop movies. And like the first, it constantly laughs at its own existence. Whereas the 2012 movie made fun of its identity as a needless reboot of an old franchise, this one makes fun of its identity as a sequel. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are some of the smartest and funniest modern filmmakers around, and “22 Jump Street” is a hilarious metafictional wink at the nature of sequels. But seriously, when is “29 Jump Street: Sunday School” with Seth Rogen coming?
#5: “Sunset Boulevard” (1950)
Aside from being one of the greatest noirs ever made, Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” is also a fantastic bit of metafiction. Many Hollywood bigwigs make cameos as themselves, including Cecil B. DeMille, Sidney Skolsky, and Buster Keaton. The story is also about the ruthless world of Hollywood and the general skeeziness within it - especially back then. But the most meta of all is the inclusion of Gloria Swanson. She plays an aging and irrelevant silent film star named Norma Desmond who is struggling in the era of sound films. This was a genius bit of casting, as Swanson herself was a forgotten silent film star who had a harder time during the sound era. The exquisite performance earned Swanson her third and final Oscar nomination.
#4: “Adaptation” (2002)
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For “Adaptation,” screenwriter Charlie Kaufman reunited with director Spike Jonze following their highly acclaimed flick “Being John Malkovich.” A metafictional film about Kaufman’s own life, “Adaptation” concerns the time he tried bringing Susan Orlean's “The Orchid Thief” to the big screen. Kaufman writes himself as the main character, and both he and his fictional twin are brought to life by Nicolas Cage. Meryl Streep also stars as Orlean. The movie genuinely weaves in parts of “The Orchid Thief” while integrating Kaufman into the story and speaking about the screenwriting process in self-aware ways. Are you confused? Well, good – that’s the point.
#3: “Last Action Hero” (1993)
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This movie came out in 1993, when the ‘80s were still relatively fresh in peoples’ minds. That decade was arguably among Hollywood’s most extravagant and bombastic ones - at least when it comes to action flicks. And here was one of the biggest stars of said decade, Arnold Schwarzenegger, poking fun at it all. Schwarzenegger plays Jack Slater, a popular – and fictional – action character. Young Danny Madigan lives in the real world – that is, until he finds himself in Slater’s universe. The movie is full of biting satire that parodies the genre, and more than a few jokes are directly made at Schwarzenegger’s expense. “Last Action Hero” is a nod to ‘80s action cinema that also happens to laugh at it.
#2: “Deadpool” (2016)
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It’s easy to see why “Deadpool” became such a phenomenon (you know, aside from Ryan Reynolds’s charisma). At a time when some people were getting a little tired of superhero flicks, it swooped in, ready to ridicule the whole thing. Deadpool himself often speaks directly to the audience, and his snarky personality is perfectly satirical. The movie playfully parodies the genre’s countless tropes and directly references its most prominent releases. This includes a cute little gag about getting the actors and timelines of “X-Men” mixed up. It’s like Deadpool is aware that he is a character within a movie, and he’s fully on board with lampooning the world that he inhabits.
#1: “Scream” franchise (1996-)
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There are self-reflective movies, and then there are the “Scream” movies. Every single one of them is metafictional to some degree, and every single one parodies the conventions of their respective entries. “Scream” dismantles the slasher genre, while “Scream 2” references the tropes of horror sequels (and even makes fun of itself as an inferior entry). “Scream 3”, for its part, talks about trilogies and wrapping up long-running storylines. Then there’s “Scream 4”, which is all about new eras and characters. And 2022’s “Scream” spoofs the exhausting nature of legacy sequels. Basically, every installment has something fun and original to say about the horror genre, and each is written with heaping amounts of self-awareness. There’s simply no other series like it.
