Fight Club (David Fincher,1999)USA

Reviewed by Joel Pedersen. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival.

David Fincher — seemingly always needing Brad Pitt to make an Oscar worthy picture — captivates us with his 1999 work Fight Club. Although not meeting the gravity that Pitt portrays as a rookie detective in Se7en, or the uniquely born southerner in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,  Brad Pitt truly makes a mark in his career as the narcisstic, “better half” of Edward Norton’s character Tyler Durden.

Infatuated with a life outside his own, Edward Norton’s character rolls through his life miserable and depressed not knowing his sense of direction.  However a misencounter with a man by the name of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) turns his world upside down. His house blows up and with no where else to go he turns to Tyler for some shelter. Feeling a new sense of freedom from his materalistic belongings, Norton’s character, with the help of Tyler Durden create a mass ring of Fight Clubs that eventually turn into a national phenomenon among men.

Retreating from conventional testerone driven movies, Fight Club may give the impression that this is not a film to take a date to; ironically it is one of the smartest pieces of cinema to date. Given there is a lot of Brad Pitt kicking the crap out of everyone (including himself), Fight Club also poses the questions on the neccessity of our materalistic belongings, whether or not men have instinctual nature to clash against one-another and the effects that a mental state can have on a person’s self confidence/ego.

Fincher behind the curtain steals the show.


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