intellectual pretension

His films like *The Social Network* and *Gone Girl* dissect how intelligence and manipulation intersect, exposing the vanity beneath intellectual facades.

Works such as *The Killing of a Sacred Deer* and *Poor Things* deconstruct artificial intellectualism and expose the absurdity of pretentious systems of thought.

Films like *Inherent Vice* and *There Will Be Blood* examine how charismatic figures weaponize pseudo-intellectual rhetoric to justify greed and control.