Most movies have us rooting for the protagonist. But, for some others, it is a little more complicated than just that. There are films where you can never tell who is telling the truth, and who is spinning a story. Does the storyteller deserve our trust? We’ll have to keep watching to know. Platform brings you a list of films with unreliable narrators who will keep you second-guessing every scene, and wondering who to really trust.
Birdman
In Birdman, a fading actor best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected. Birdman has an unreliable narrator because the film unfolds through Riggan Thomson, the protagonist’s fractured perspective, blurring the line between reality and his delusions of grandeur. His apparent superpowers and the ambiguous ending leave viewers uncertain whether they are witnessing truth, fantasy, or a complete breakdown of his mind.
Gone Girl
Gone Girl thrives on the art of deception, with both Nick and Amy presenting versions of the truth that are deliberately distorted. Amy’s diary entries and Nick’s public facade manipulate the characters around them and also the audience, leaving us unsure whose perspective can be trusted. While most of what we see on screen are actual events, the way they’re framed, through lies, omissions, and emotional manipulation, makes us question whether we’re watching truth or carefully constructed fiction. The unreliability lies less in fabricated visuals and more in the contrast between what is shown and what the characters claim it means.
Rashomon
Rashomon presents the same crime through four conflicting testimonies: from the bandit, the wife, the murdered husband (via a medium), and the woodcutter. Each version is shaped by vanity, self-interest, or shame, making it impossible to separate fact from fabrication. The film’s unreliable narration lies in this deliberate clash of perspectives: truth is fractured, and what we see is never an objective account but a reflection of each character’s need to protect themselves or their pride.
Life of Pi
Life of Pi is also an experimentation with an unreliable narrator: the protagonist, Pi, eventually offers a second, more plausible version of events, revealing that the fantastical animal story was a metaphorical retelling of a traumatic human tragedy, where the animals represented the real, albeit brutal, human passengers on the ship. Pi alters the truth not out of malice, but to shield himself and others from the horrific reality of cannibalism and murder, presenting a more palatable, albeit fictional, narrative.
American Psycho
American Psycho is filtered entirely through Patrick Bateman’s narcissistic and fractured perspective, where reality blurs with delusion. His inconsistencies, distortions, and obsessive focus on image make it impossible to know which events are real and which are fantasies, turning him into an unreliable narrator whose version of the world can never be fully trusted. Luca Guadagnino, whose previous features include Queer and Challengers, is working on a new on-screen adaptation of American Psycho, and is currently in early stages of production.
Fight Club
Fight Club follows an unnamed narrator whose dissatisfaction with consumer culture leads him to form a secret underground fight club with the charismatic Tyler Durden. Fight Club uses the unreliable narrator in a different way: the narrator can't be trusted, but he's not trying to actively mislead us, he simply isn't sure of the truth himself so he tries to tell us his story.
Memento
Memento follows Leonard Shelby, a man with short-term memory loss who obsessively hunts his wife’s killer using tattoos, photos, and notes as a system to ‘anchor’ the truth. But because Leonard’s memory constantly resets and even his notes can be manipulated, his account of events is fractured and contradictory, making him an unreliable narrator whose version of reality may be a self-deception.
Words Neeraja Srinivasan
Date 4-9-2025