Comingsoon.net is venturing into the abstract to determine which main characters are the most unique. Check out our picks in the gallery below!
In 2019, it seems that leads unlikely to rock the boat are all we’re used to seeing on screen. It hasn’t always been like this—before studios were obsessed with IP and brand loyalty and maximum profits for minimal work, there were real producers willing to take real risks on creative projects. Naturally, these projects proved to be pretty unusual with leads that were far from conventional.
Surely there are countless examples, but these five demonstrate just a few of the most exemplary instances of out-of-the-box thinking. It’d be nice to see studios return to this sort of filmmaking soon—with one example coming from as recently as 2016, this shouldn’t be too hard. From animate dead corpses to a Frankenstein-esque creature with real heart, these are five of the most unconventional film leads.
Unconventional leads
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
David Fincher remains one of the most beloved directors of the 21st century, but The Curious Case of Benjamin Button contains what is easily his most bizarre main character ever.
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Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Tim Burton’s mind is a place not many would want to live in for very long—Edward Scissorhands proves to be a heartfelt and memorable excursion for the director, and it remains as unconventional as ever nearly 30 years later.
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Eraserhead (1977)
David Lynch has been dubbed the world’s most beloved Surrealist, and Eraserhead was the first feature he ever made—it follows a bizarre man named Henry as he faces the horrors of fatherhood.
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Swiss Army Man (2016)
Has a movie ever put a multi-faceted dead body as its co-star before Swiss Army Man? Weekend at Bernie’s doesn’t even compare to the things that Daniel Ratcliffe’s character can do.
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Willow (1988)
One of George Lucas’s many side projects in between the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy, Willow stars Warwick Davis as a fearless adventurer in a mythical land.
