A thrilling work of absolute cinematic genius

Rating: 9/10 (11 December 2018)

I've been excited to watch The Usual Suspects for a while now, and it did not disappoint at all. Any complaints of plot holes or confusing things that don't make sense to the viewer I think are absolute bullshit - everything that happens in the movie is very clearly laid out, you just have to know that Verbal is an unreliable narrator. As soon as they started discussing and Verbal began to be questioned about Soze, I was convinced that he was Verbal. How would Verbal get out alive and be the only survivor if he wasn't? It's likely we already know Soze given his reputation and influence on the group, and with Verbal as the only survivor, it just makes sense to be him, especially thinking about the opening scene with Keaton being killed. His limp is a great cover as well, and he was always the guy planning everything. I did think the bit at the end with all his names and stories coming from the board behind him was brilliant and adds to his covering of his tracks. I didn't think there was any ambiguity in the plot - Verbal has always been Keyser Soze, and orchestrated this to tie up loose ends.
While the intelligence of the twist is indisputable and the success of the movie certainly comes from this misdirection from Verbal, it's tough for me to decide whether this is truly an all-time great or just a really good movie. The point of the movie is to draw you in and show you the brilliance of Verbal, and it literally could not have done a better job of that (aside from maybe offering more red herrings or making it less obvious, but it seems like it tricked almost everyone who watched it, so maybe I just came in looking for it). You don't really connect or deeply understand the other characters beyond a very simple, flat personality. The plot is definitely complex and fascinating to unravel, and it is exciting throughout. Even when I saw the ending coming the whole time, I was still so excited and gulping down every detail of each scene, and Spacey's performance is truly brilliant. I think I'm leaning towards it being a 10 because it's so satisfying and electric, and succeeds to such a great degree in developing this complex thread which unravels to show Verbal's character, but may change it to a 9 due to the lack of strong secondary elements beyond the brilliant plot orchestrated by Verbal and, to some degree, its predictability to me. Either way, a brilliant movie that must be seen.