A Filmmaker's Guide to the Ten Best Films With Narcissists

'Narcissism' in the English Dictionary is defined as:

"An excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one's physical appearance."

In regular terms, it is the belief that you are better than other people for whatever reason.

Other words used in place of 'narcissism' are words such as: vanity, self-admiration, conceit, self-absorption, egomania and many others.

In recent times, narcissism has been used in our daily lives to describe the ever-growing social media culture and yet, has actually been around for decades and decades in music (such as Madonna's "Vogue") and on screen and literature (such as "American Psycho"). So why is it mentioned more and more today? Well, we're going to have a small explanation of it before we start our list...

Narcissism is being mentioned more and more today since there is a high consumerist culture which dares us to critique ourselves. We critique what we have in monetary value - we buy more to have more than the other person. We become obsessed with the bigger idea of ourselves as an item relative to money. We critique what we have in appearance. We are forced to confront that we are not perfect, we buy make-up and cosmetic surgery procedures, body-building pills and energy drinks. We concentrate on ourselves as a part of a whole, focusing on what to do to make ourselves better in that sense. When we think we've achieved it, we show off our achievement unknowing that nobody else actually sees it. We critique our sense of self in relativity to the planet. We are forced to confront the real world and go out, have lots of friends on Facebook, make ourselves seem more and more popular so that we feel we have importance and legacy. When we have more than the other person, we feel a sense similar to narcissism that we are finally better than someone else.

This alongside the way in which directors, writers etc. are constantly producing art to critique and comically satirise these common themes makes them evermore prevelant in our culture and time - we laugh at the very thing we are doing ourselves. Distasteful and unbelievable as it is, it is true. Through this satirisation, we only increase our own self-awareness. With self-awareness normally comes learning, but with the concentration of consumerism through a lifestyle advertised to us constantly, we fail to learn and our self-awareness turns into self-obsession and eventually - egomania.

Through all of this, we get the sense that whilst we want to be better; maybe we keep saying we're vegan or gluten-free, maybe we body-build or apply a generous helping of visually stunning make-up, or maybe we have an expensive watch that does everything in the world but tell us the time of day - we seem to make excuses that it's better for the planet, or it's healthier, more beautiful, more convenient for what we do. In fact, it's a sense of narcissism. These things aren't actually more of anything, people had gotten along fine without them in times gone by. We are actually saying 'this is better for this reason and because (I have one/do something/ am able) that makes me better than you because you do not..." It's a solid act of narcissism so critical that we don't even see it happening.

Through this critical lens, directors like David Fincher, Charlie Kaufman, The Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Neil Jordan, Eli Roth and many more, in however many or little ways have explored narcissism. Writers such as Harper Lee, Stephen King, Truman Capote and David Foster Wallace seem to give us great situations to adapt from literature on to our screens with possibly "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Capote being the best example out of them. With this so prevelant and constantly building, we are reaching breaking point and forced to confront the very thing we have been constantly rebuilding, constantly re-inventing and constantly afraid of: ourselves.

So, now we've had a small explanation of how this is relative to our own modern times, we're going to go through the ten best films about narcissism that I found were especially intriguing. There may be some surprises on this list for you and some you may question on whether they are really about narcissism or not.

The Ten Best Films With Narcissists:

10. Jerry Maguire (1996)

9. Alfie (2004)

8. To Die For (1995)

7. Iron Man (2008)

6. Phantom Thread (2017)

5. American Psycho (2000)

4. The Social Network (2010)

3. Wall Street (1987)

2. There Will Be Blood (2007)

More Mentions!

The Great Gatsby (2012)

The Crucible (1996)

The Game (1997)

1. Citizen Kane (1941)