I am glad that David Fincher only makes films now that have a great screenplay. That used to not be the case when he made Fight Club and Panic Room. He has come a long way since then. I am happy to say that this is easily one of his best.
The film starts off with Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) waking up on his five year anniversary to his wife Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike). He is stressed and decides to start off his character development by going to "The Bar" that he and his twin sister own. He takes a few shots of whiskey while reminiscing the past with his twin sister (Carrie Coon) wishing his life could be more stable. He eventually travels back to his house he woke up in, only to see a broken glass coffee table tipped over and that his wife has suddenly disappeared. He calls the police and immediately enters a Detective (Kim Dickens) and a Police Officer (Patrick Fugit) to investigate the home of Nick's to come up with a scenario in what could have happened.
Gillian Flynn (who also wrote the novel) knows not to waste the audiences time in getting straight down to the plot everyone came to see, but without leaving any details unexplained. It quickly escalates when the detective and her team of investigators find more clues that leads them to list Nick as a suspect of possibly killing his wife. The news quickly makes assumptions from whatever clues the police disclose, and end up pointing fingers at Nick, trying to make it seem like he's definitely guilty. That's where Fincher's middle fingers are pretty much pointed at the media from his director's chair. He's taking talk shows from Fox News and other unreliable resources and exposing them for their quick assumptions to a scenario they know nothing about. That leads to Nick eventually having to hire a famous expensive lawyer (played surprisingly well by Tyler Perry) to help defend him against the media by trying to play out the "nice and innocent" in his character to get the public on his side to avoid possible arrest and possible sentence. Meanwhile, Nick is ALSO trying to investigate clues of his own on the disappearance of his wife while trying to avoid the police detectives to see if he can prove his own innocence. All that struggle he goes through is what makes the movie fun and exciting from start to finish.
I've only given you 30% of the plot by the way, because the rest I can't even talk about. The writing and direction is so clever at moving the story along so fast that the twists in this movie will hit you when you don't see them coming. There are LOTS of characters in this movie that I can't even talk about because it could possibly spoil the movie for you. I will say though that Neil Patrick Harris' character is very important to the story and isn't just some brief cameo like you see in a lot of movies. David Fincher uses every actor only as much as is necessary to the plot. Not to mention, EVERY actor in this movie is phenomenal. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are major contenders for awards season as much as Gillian Flynn's brilliant but gut wrenching script. Two more performances to keep an eye on as well are Carrie Coon and Kim Dickens especially.
David Fincher gets better and better EVERY time he does a new project. He challenges himself with the tone he decides to go with and the actors he decides to cast. It's safe to say that this is easily his darkest movie by far; not to mention most plot twist driven as well. This is the kind of movie I look for when I hear about an upcoming David Fincher project. He makes this two and a half hour movie seem like only 90 minutes. He doesn't waste a single bit of detail description in the foreground or background of his shots. He of course already knows to do so when he hires his same cinematographer, editor, sound editor and music orchestrator. This is easily one of the best films he's ever done and I'm happy to recommend it to everyone I know with this article and rating below.
****
It has been awhile since my last post. That's typical late August and all of September. Is it school that's delaying my blogging? No. Consider the fact that every year, most good movies don't start being released until October or late September where Summer blockbusters are at a close and so Oscar season can finally start up. We have been lucky to get a few late September releases here and there like Prisoners or Rush last year, or Moneyball especially three years ago, but nothing for this year unfortunately. Either way it is October and what's the first major contender? Well it's Gone Girl of course, directed by the man who Ben Affleck admits does his job better than anyone else which is the stated reason why he wanted to work with him on Gone Girl and delay directing another film of his own. Can I blame Affleck for that decision? Absolutely not! I have been a fan of David Fincher since the early 2000s when I first checked out Panic Room on DVD and saw something more unique than the average flicks I watched regularly. I couldn't tell what it was at first, but I was heavily intrigued by the camera placement and sound editing at my first viewing of the "Fincher flick". It made me focus more on the technical side of filmmaking than the actual plot of what was going on in the movie. That point on, it made me want to check out more of what this guy had directed to see if I could catch any similarities in his "technical style". How did my adventure go from there? You will be addressed that answer piece by piece as I go through my rankings of every David Fincher film before I do my review on Gone Girl; which is one of my most anticipated of the year. I'm not including the movie Alien 3 on this list because David Fincher had a falling out with the producers and walked away from post production immediately when they finished filming; so out of respect for Fincher and his fans I will not be including that on this list. Without further due, here are my rankings (with explanations why obviously):
8. Fight Club
*SPOILERS AHEAD POSSIBLY*
There's a reason why it says "worst to best" on the title of this post. I hate this movie a lot and I get a lot of crap from fans of this movie all the time. Just for the record, I have rewatched this movie six times and it only gets worse every time I try and give this movie a second chance. I'm sure you're asking why I think it's bad. Is it the direction? Absolutely fucking not. The direction and team of sound mixers and editors are what saves this movie from getting a zero star rating in my review of this. The reason why is because it's one of the most illogical presentations I have ever witnessed when it comes to the kind of characters they show off in this movie. I could not identify with any single one of them or the world they live in (or would want to live in). This is all personal preference obviously, but there are still reasons in my mind as to why I think it is illogical and cruel mannered. The movie is trying to show off characters that have problems "obviously", and the way they can "therapeutically" solve it is by starting a Fight Club (which they're not allowed to talk about "obviously"). The fight club isn't well developed emotionally for the average viewer, but it some how is for our main characters because it "feels right". It of course later leads to anarchy and wanting to blow up buildings with BARELY ANY explanation as to why in their actions or dialogue. I know it's trying to address that it shouldn't matter because they're crazy, but what could you possibly GET from this movie? We already know people in the world are crazy. I am aware that the "technological presentation" inside the mind of a psychopath was new and groundbreaking beyond belief at the time. I am aware that it's just a movie and that we're not supposed to learn something from Fight Club. I do however find it illogical that the script writer never went with the ending of the book to show that our main character (known as The Narrator in the film) was in a mental hospital the whole time (like John Nash in A Beautiful Mind). Instead what we get is a very loose ending of our main character killing off his "crazy self" without investigating why and acting like everything is finally okay even though there are fucking skyscrapers being blown up they he is aware he caused. I don't find it entertaining at all as I do annoying as hell. Am I glad that the people behind this film for production and post-production got jobs after this movie? Of course. The only person behind this movie I can personally be mad at is Jim Uhls who wrote the screenplay for this. I am happy that he never went anywhere big after this except for the movie Jumper (which did terrible by the way, lol). I do wish I could relate to the rest of the world when it comes to liking this movie, but instead can only relate to the 1999 box office results for this movie's release. I'd rather be watching Star Wars Episode 1, which is saying something. :(
7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The good news is that I give this movie three and a half stars out of four, which means that every other film on this list (including this one) has a high recommendation. I also won't be going on as much about each other movie as I did about Fight Club, which is ironically the most talked about movie. Anyways, on and about Benjamin Button. Why is it ranked down this low? In all honesty, it's probably the least "David Fincher like" film among everything he's made. I don't exactly know why a guy who enjoys making movies about serial killers and other crazy unique minds would sign on to make a movie that takes place in the south and is slow paced. It's kind of funny that the Academy finally gave David Fincher his first Oscar nomination for a movie that's nothing at all for what he's known for. Did Fincher prove to be a guy who could direct more genres than he thought? Well... sort of. Like Fight Club, the script is sort of to blame. Fincher had his mind on the visuals more than he could on the story because there wasn't much anyone could add to the characters in this type of story or environment. Visually it's fantastic and entertaining nonetheless, but it could've been better if the storytelling had been more unique and original. I still laugh that it's a David Fincher movie, but I still enjoy this every time I watch it, especially Julia Ormond's performance which I thought was the most overlooked among everything this film should've been nominated for.
6. Panic Room
Probably the most cliched that Fincher's ever directed, but still very well made nonetheless. This film is interesting enough though that I became more focused on the bad guys plot and intentions more than our main protagonist. Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker give great performances in this as well as Kristen Stewart's. It's also kind of funny that among all directors to cast an eventually annoying celebrity in one of their films, it's David Fincher. She isn't the reason at all actually why this movie is ranked at only number 6. I can only go back to the script like the previous movies listed. Just remember that David Fincher wasn't as well known as he is now, so the scripts were more limited to what he could choose to direct. Either way, this was the film after all that made me discover Fincher's unique direction. It's just a shame that only this and Se7en were the only movies of his that I could enjoy at that time.
5. Se7en
Speaking of Se7en, the main reason why this is ranked higher than the other movies on this list is because... you guessed it; the script is damn amazing and original. It was so original in fact that the studio desperately tried numerous times to change the genius twist ending, written beautifully by Andrew Kevin Walker. Fincher as well as actors Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman all threatened to walk away from the movie if the studio went with a different ending. Thankfully they got their wish, as well as the audience did for some brilliant mind-bending entertainment. One hell of a directional debut for Fincher showing off his REAL visual storytelling skills while NOT under deep pressure by studios expecting a big money making sequel off a shitty script *cough* Alien 3 *clears throat*. Anyways, moving on...
4. Zodiac
This was the one that I believe made David Fincher the man he is today. When it comes to a movie like Zodiac, EVERY DETAIL has to be accurate. David Fincher was the perfect guy to make that happen. I can easily assume how challenging it is to make a film based on real characters events, and to make an EXACT replica of those events on screen. If you do your research on the Zodiac events, you'll find pretty much the exact details that are presented in the movie. The movie is over two and a half hours, but with everything happening, it feels like less than two. Most true events told on screen usually feel longer. That's why I love this film so much.
Side note: this movie I believe has the most polite role that Jake Gyllenhaal's ever played. Just very interesting to me knowing it's a David Fincher film about cops and investigators vs. serial killer.
3. The Game
This I know some readers will have issues with. I know you're asking why this among all his films is my number three and my hatred of Fight Club continues to show it's rage at the bottom (or top) of this list. I guess all I can say is because I was VERY entertained by the twists the script and direction had as well as our main character, who is not to root for exactly, learns something about himself at the end of this movie. Michael Douglas gives one of his best performances in this movie that I think he could've been nominated if it weren't that mind-bending thriller type of film for the Academy. I know a lot of people had problems with the ending to this movie (including David Fincher even), but I loved every bit of it. I guess it shows that certain movies can come off as illogical to certain viewers. That happened with the main audience for this movie, but with Fight Club for me. At least I'm on Roger Ebert's side if you read his reviews for The Game and Fight Club. :)
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
I can also see why many fans would be against this movie as well being ranked this high on the list. The reason for me because it's a remake done only one year after the original and yet it's better than the original in every way possible which I thought wasn't possible. Remakes like this don't ever happen. They never happen this quickly, and they never find better techniques to tell the story. Some how, David Fincher managed to accomplish that goal. It's also quite amazing how Fincher's casting director, Laray Mayfield saw potential in Rooney Mara who'd had a very small role in The Social Network as well as other films as the innocent preppy school girl who all the sudden went through one of the biggest transformations ever by getting real piercings and went fully nude for this kind of role she plays in this movie. At least it was worth it in the end when her name was announced on the morning of Oscar nominations. It shows that David Fincher gets better at every film he does.
1. The Social Network
To me, this is a no brainer. This is really the only film where every area of filmmaking and storytelling is at its perfection. Aaron Sorkin's script is as flawless as David Fincher's direction. I was absolutely amazed when I first saw this because my mind was pretty skeptical at first when I found out that Aaron Sorkin was working with David Fincher on a drama without violence or insane people. I had already seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, so I knew that Fincher could do drama, but with Aaron Sorkin? The only hope I had at that point was it could be like Zodiac's dialogue, only faster and possibly wittier. Thankfully I got my wish. The other reason why it's Fincher's best movie by far is because I believe it's his best character study. It comes off like a modern Citizen Kane set in our world and generation. The character of Mark Zuckerberg is played wonderfully by Jesse Eisenberg in the best condescending manner one could hope for the character that he portrays. It's interesting because he wasn't allowed to do any major research on Mark Zuckerberg because Sorkin and Fincher didn't want the whole biographical mind of Zuckerberg to interfere with the story that had already been written. The movie only uses Zuckerberg's image and occupation to tell a story that works for the message of the film as well as character they (including Eisenberg) come up with. I don't know if David Fincher could ever top this film. Him and Sorkin go together like bread and butter that it makes me wish they had begun working together sooner.
Side note: If it weren't for Christopher Nolan's Inception, Fincher would've EASILY had my Best Director mention of that year. It is truly his best work by far.
I hope you enjoyed reading this list and would love to know your rankings as well. Feel free to share. :)
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