My wife and I watched Fight Club for the first time last night. I never realized it was that kinda film. You know, the weird and funny kind. I had always thought of it as a Van Damme film with better actors, but then heard some stuff about it and decided to investigate. What I saw surprised me. It's got great acting, an intersting story, and is chock full of ideas. It's an idea movie. It's got so many ideas the audience has a hard time processing them all. That makes them uncomfortable, and I like movies that make the audience uncomfortable by making them think, as opposed to those who do so by sucking.
The truth is it's a far better film than it has any right to be, and even manages to fit in some good messages in under its umbrella of nihilism: You are not the sum total of your posessions; the way many men live life today is akin to just waiting to die; other things I can't think of right now. And it's really, really well-directed and acted. And when the twist hits...WOO baby. It becomes a Lynchian dual-identity fun fest. Not to give away the ending or anything. I'm not Rosie O' Donnell.
The bad part of all this, just like in director David Fincher's other 90's movies (Se7en and The Game) is that the action onscreen is filmed in such a way as to disolve into bleak unrelenting stylistic dark sameness about 1 1/2 hours in, and as such has a hard time keeping your attention. It's hard to pinpoint, really, why this happens. Fight Club is so bloody, so stylish, so fast-paced, so full of ideas in every single scene, that it becomes tiring to watch at times. You become numb, or exhausted. Of course, it's better to have too many ideas than no ideas at all. And the dark humor helps mute the bleakness anyway.
Fight Club is better (and more ambitious) than those other two movies. It's myriad ideas, flash-cuts, and subliminal fun all combine to make sure that no scene is wasted. The director dives fully into the script, and so do the actors, which makes it fun to watch. The twist at the end makes you want to watch it over again. The only real problem is that it becomes really silly towards the end. Like really silly, with the whole everybody saying "Yes, sir" and stuff. For about 15 minutes it's like a really cheesy silly "They Live"-style horror movie. I half expected Brad Pitt and Edward Norton to start fighting over sunglasses.
Overall, there is so much good about the movie it's impossible not to recommend it. Except to anarchists. They should definitely not see this movie, because they are destined to misinterpret it. For the rest of us, I give it 4 overpriced popcorns out of 5.
The truth is it's a far better film than it has any right to be, and even manages to fit in some good messages in under its umbrella of nihilism: You are not the sum total of your posessions; the way many men live life today is akin to just waiting to die; other things I can't think of right now. And it's really, really well-directed and acted. And when the twist hits...WOO baby. It becomes a Lynchian dual-identity fun fest. Not to give away the ending or anything. I'm not Rosie O' Donnell.
The bad part of all this, just like in director David Fincher's other 90's movies (Se7en and The Game) is that the action onscreen is filmed in such a way as to disolve into bleak unrelenting stylistic dark sameness about 1 1/2 hours in, and as such has a hard time keeping your attention. It's hard to pinpoint, really, why this happens. Fight Club is so bloody, so stylish, so fast-paced, so full of ideas in every single scene, that it becomes tiring to watch at times. You become numb, or exhausted. Of course, it's better to have too many ideas than no ideas at all. And the dark humor helps mute the bleakness anyway.
Fight Club is better (and more ambitious) than those other two movies. It's myriad ideas, flash-cuts, and subliminal fun all combine to make sure that no scene is wasted. The director dives fully into the script, and so do the actors, which makes it fun to watch. The twist at the end makes you want to watch it over again. The only real problem is that it becomes really silly towards the end. Like really silly, with the whole everybody saying "Yes, sir" and stuff. For about 15 minutes it's like a really cheesy silly "They Live"-style horror movie. I half expected Brad Pitt and Edward Norton to start fighting over sunglasses.
Overall, there is so much good about the movie it's impossible not to recommend it. Except to anarchists. They should definitely not see this movie, because they are destined to misinterpret it. For the rest of us, I give it 4 overpriced popcorns out of 5.
posted by Mike Pape @ 11:30 AM
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