By admin 
David Fincher is one of our greatest modern directors, and I would put him right up there Quentin Tarantinothe Coen brothers, and (my personal favorite), Paul Thomas Anderson.
He has made so many great films that it is difficult to choose his best. My colleague, Alexandra Ramos, has even spoken out The social network as being her personal favorite of his.
However, when it comes to Fincher, there can only be one number one movie for me. Released early in the director’s career, I’m pretty sure Fight club (with that twist!) will always be my favorite David Fincher film, and here’s why.
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)
It truly represents a time and place better than any of his other films. Yes, even more than the social network
Believe it or not, though Fight club came out 25 years ago. That’s right. It’s part of that very exclusive film club that came out in 1999, the same year as The Matrix, The sixth senseAnd The talented Mr. Ripley (Which I wish someone had told me how good it was all those years ago).
However, none of the aforementioned films (except maybe The Matrix) really represents the atmosphere of the late 90s, early 2000s for me. Nowadays, Fight club is seen as an excellent film, an important film. But I still remember the brutal attitude people had towards it at the time.
My friends, who were all in high school at the time, watched the movie and completely missed the point. We formed a fight club in my friend’s basement and warned each other not to tell anyone else about our new club… only to immediately tell other people about our new club.
But can you blame us? Just like in the movie, the idea of masculinity changed. Calvin Klein ads featured images of men in their underwear, and we slowly but surely left the muscular men of the early 1990s behind for something much more…urban? Maybe even introspective?
Even though the film criticized that reflexive attitude towards this shift, none of us really understood it at the time, and I feel like Fincher encapsulated the zeitgeist better than any of his other films. And I have even more than that The social networkwhich is often considered Fincher’s most impulsive film, because of its central focus the genesis of Facebook.
Considering how much social media has changed since 2010 The social network first debuted, I feel Fight club really represents a time and a place more than any of Fincher’s other films. It’s always alive for me in the late nineties.
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)
It is Fincher at his most playful, which you don’t often see in his work
In our list of the best horror films of all timewe posted David Fincher’s Se7enat number three, beating out horror classics like Jaws, Strangerand even The exorcist. And keep in mind that Se7en is not often categorized as a horror movie, but rather as a crime thriller film. That’s just how damn dark the movie is!
But Fincher just has a tendency to go dark. Zodiacif you can believe it, is even darker than Se7enand most of his films, out The girl with the dragon tattoo Unpleasant Gone girllean more into the darkness. Of course, movies like The social networkAnd The killer certainly use elements of humor, but I really feel like Fincher never achieved the pure playful puckishness that he has with Fight club.
Tyler Durden, for all his anarchic tendencies, is also pretty funny. He always has a grin on his face, and many people (especially young people like me at the time) interpreted this as cool. As we all know now, Tyler is just a projection of our narrator, but our narrator is actually quite funny himself in a funny way.
This seeps into the overall tone of the film, which feels whimsical even amid all the darkness. That way, Fight club still feels like Fincher’s most accessible film, and at least in my opinion, his best.
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)
It also highlights perhaps Brad Pitt and Edward Norton’s best performances of their entire careers
Speaking of Tyler Durden and our narrator, I don’t think this movie would be anywhere near as effective if it weren’t for him. Brad Pitt And Edward Nortonrespectively.
You have to remember it. It was 1999 and Brad Pitt wasn’t the 60-year-old (but still popular) Oscar winner he is today.
No, at the time, with his six-pack abs and super ’90s haircut, he was a perfect image of what the “ideal man” should be (which, as I said before, kind of takes the film out of the closet. Brad Pitt looked very much like ‘the ideal man’, despite Norton’s character criticized that whole sculpted body–while at the same time shaping his entire personality around it).
And Norton plays the perfect schlub turned badass. His transformation is subtle, but effective. Even more than the one in American History Xwhere he plays a neo-Nazi. Honestly, as a huge fan of both actors, I have to say that Fight club are both their best performances, and by a wide margin.
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)
It is one of the few adaptations that is arguably superior to the book, which is also excellent
You know, for a while I read every novel by Chuck Palahniuk (who himself is gay).
I stopped by Damnbut I was an avid reader for over a decade. Still, I think Fight club is probably my second favorite novel of his (My First Being Survivor).
That said, I think Fincher’s adaptation is one of the few examples of a movie that is superior to the book.
The wry tone is certainly present in the novel, but I think it is magnified in the film. So is Norton pitch perfect casting for the main character, and I think he is even better in the film than his character in the book, who feels unnecessarily distant at times. I also really like how the events play out in the movie because I think the pacing is better.
So I feel like the movie version of in every way Fight club is better than the book. In fact, it’s one of the few cases where I would tell people to just watch the movie if they don’t have time to read the novel.
(Image credit: Disney+)
It has only become more respected and revered since it first came out
Finally, even though most of Fincher’s films have a long shelf life, I’m still looking forward to them Fight club is the only film of his that has become the most respected.
And I think this is because it was grossly misinterpreted when it first came out, as I said before. Fight club is a story that was way ahead of its time, and it took years for people to finally catch up.
I compare it a bit with joker. A lot of people thought Arthur Fleck was cool, which I don’t think was the director’s intention. In fact, I think Todd Phillips was a bit irritated by this response, which is probably why he pivoted so much with the sequel, Joker: Folie a Deux.
Now I personally don’t believe in it Folie a Deux will be reassessed in ten years as a masterpiece, but Fight club has certainly been elevated to that status, and rightly so!
And that’s the list, my fellow soap lovers. For more news on all things David Fincher, be sure to stop by here.