Dark City (1998)

Dark City came out a year before The Matrix and explores a lot of the same ideas: a man discovers that the world he lives in isn't what it seems. Here it's always night, and every midnight mysterious beings stop time and rearrange the city and everyone's memories. It's visually stunning, and even stranger than The Matrix. The science is weak - the strangers' powers are basically magic. But the idea that our memories are unreliable and can be changed? That part is actually well supported by real research. Watch it alongside The Matrix and compare.