Aarcflick

 Movies where it’s revealed that the entire plot was happening in the protagonist’s head the whole time can either be very accurate or not. Yes, yes, I know that Albus Dumbledore told Harry Potter that even though their conversation was happening in the latter’s head, that didn’t make it any less real. However, using that as a plot twist always makes the whole exercise a little cheap, and the only way to avoid that feeling is to suck the audience into the narrative to such an extent that the last-minute attempt to recontextualize events doesn’t even matter.  For example, there’s The Wizard of Oz, which is such a magical movie that the knowledge that it was all a dream is almost irrelevant. Stay, Ghost Stories, Donnie Darko, and Identity all make more sense when you find out that it was all imagined by someone. The same can be said for The Lighthouse and Shutter Island. In the case of Pan’s Labyrinth, every element of that magical world takes on a touch of melancholy when you u...