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Well, I've always thought Fincher was overrated and I still stand by that, but even with that qualification, I will never again be able to say that the man's resume is without at least one legitmately great film. Gone Girl was fucking fantastic. I've gotten the sense in watching Fincher's films that he really depends on his scripts. I don't think he has a single writing bone in his body, so if the script sucks, he's not going to be able to do anything about it because he's all about visuals and mood and emotion. The reason Gone Girl is so great is because it was based on a novel and the author adapted her book herself. That kind of safety net allows Fincher to work at a much higher level; give him strong material, and he'll make the shit come alive. All through high school I read books like Gone Girl voraciously, so I knew all of the beats of this one before they came, but that didn't hurt my experience because I was so impressed with Fincher's filmmaking. When I thought I'd be a filmmaker and would read three or four books a week for screenplay material, the kind of adaptations I hoped I'd be able to make were on the level of Gone Girl.
In my history of Fincher viewing, I can't recall ever really feeling any extratextual inspiration, but Gone Girl was pure Hitchcock but through Fincher's visual filter. In terms of managing the beats, it was part Suspicion and part Vertigo, and he balanced the parts masterfully. He allowed just enough doubt in the first half to make it compelling and have me running through my mental checklist of facts every five minutes, and then when he made the switch, he didn't flaunt his prestidigitation but simply went on with his storytelling with Hitchcock's surehandedness and diligence.
I also loved all of the performances. Even that piece of shit Tyler Perry was great. I was afraid I'd hate the movie when I saw his name in the credits, but I loved him ("You two are the most fucked up people I know" :icon_chee). The story itself felt was far-fetched, but it worked well enough on the surface level to not hinder how superbly it worked thematically. The darkness of that portrait of marriage had a blackness that was extremely compelling but, interestingly, it never really crossed over into the type of bitter comedy that Hitchcock would've found irresistable. Fincher told this story without finding any humor in the situation; he treated his demented heroine the way Otto Preminger treated Jean Simmons in Angel Face, and I felt as bad for Affleck in Gone Girl as I did for Mitchum in Angel Face, only Affleck played that character so fucking well in the way he figured out enough to not only know his wife's game but also to know that, by the end, he had no more moves to make. The board was hers and he knew it.
Man, that's the kind of movie that gets in your head and stays there. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was also a very strong effort, but it didn't feel like Fincher connected with those people, that world, and that story the way he did Gone Girl. It felt more like a chore on his part than a genuine inspiration. Again, since the script was strong, it worked very well, but at no point was I marveling at the cinematography or really digging the mood or anything. Just seemed like he was letting the script drive everything, falling back on his Se7en shit when he needed to make it "thrillery," and that was a wrap for him. I know that's making it sound like I'm really apathetic and I don't want to make it seem like I wasn't interested in the movie or didn't enjoy it while I was watching. It just never reached the level of Zodiac and was absolutely nowhere near Gone Girl.
I think I'm still staying with Interstellar and Nightcrawler as my one-two punch for 2014, but with Gone Girl, I've found the third film for my pedestal. Awesome, awesome movie. I have to give it up to Fincher for that one.
I saw it when it came out on DVD, and from then to when I rewatched it last night, I only remembered two scenes: That basement scene and the scene with Lynch at the end. I'm glad I rewatched it because my fondness for it definitely went up and I'll remember it much better now, but those two scenes are still the standouts. That basement scene was weird as fuck. He was so sure it was that one dude (forgot his name) then he finds out the handwriting match isn't that dude but the guy two feet in front of him. I was thrown by that the first time and it still throws me. Was the match just a fuck up and this guy just happens to be creepy as fuck or is this dude a legit possible Zodiac? And hearing footsteps above. What the fuck was happening in that scene? I can't tell if Fincher was trying to portray Gyllenhaal's obsession as tearing his mind apart and making him paranoid or if that guy deserved suspicion.
And then that last scene with Lynch, I just love it. I didn't remember it from the first time, but when Gyllenhaal says that line about having to stand in front of someone, look them in the eye, and know they're the Zodiac, and then that's exactly what he does with Lynch, I just love that. Fincher handled that brilliantly.
I think my Fincher rankings would go like this:
Gone Girl
Zodiac
*The Social Network
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Game
Fight Club
Se7en
*Apologies to Fincher, but this one's really only this high because of Sorkin, who dominated that film.
And then I've seen Alien 3 and Panic Room but I don't remember them well enough to accurately rank them. Even so, I highly doubt they'd end up any higher than Fight Club.
You were closer with Mad Max. I actually did like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Except I want that, I want to know the pulse of this thread. I always do my own little audience surveys. I know you guys and your sensibilities, I know my friends' and family's sensibilities, I'd gauge the sensibilities of the people I'd work with. I always do my best to get a sense of people's standards so that, when they'd talk about a movie, I'd have a scale for their opinions against which I could match my own.
And with shit like True Detective and Mad Max, it's important I know what the majority opinion is, not so I have a target for my opinion but so I know the context in which I'm watching something.
Plus, at the end of the day, if a movie needs the benefit of weird mindgame trickery and hide-and-seek expectation tactics, then it can't be that great. Is it fun to have a movie sneak up on you, to find hidden gems, to have your expectations surpassed? Of course. But when we're dealing with giant cultural events like Breaking Bad or your own example of The Godfather, that context cannot (nor should it) be swept under the rug.
We shouldn't be cultivating Rip Van Winkle type viewers like this:
[YT]iqTjb3JEHLU[/YT]
No worries, your post was completely coherent :wink:
Now here, you had me worrying for your health. . .
. . .but this post reassured me.
In my history of Fincher viewing, I can't recall ever really feeling any extratextual inspiration, but Gone Girl was pure Hitchcock but through Fincher's visual filter. In terms of managing the beats, it was part Suspicion and part Vertigo, and he balanced the parts masterfully. He allowed just enough doubt in the first half to make it compelling and have me running through my mental checklist of facts every five minutes, and then when he made the switch, he didn't flaunt his prestidigitation but simply went on with his storytelling with Hitchcock's surehandedness and diligence.
I also loved all of the performances. Even that piece of shit Tyler Perry was great. I was afraid I'd hate the movie when I saw his name in the credits, but I loved him ("You two are the most fucked up people I know" :icon_chee). The story itself felt was far-fetched, but it worked well enough on the surface level to not hinder how superbly it worked thematically. The darkness of that portrait of marriage had a blackness that was extremely compelling but, interestingly, it never really crossed over into the type of bitter comedy that Hitchcock would've found irresistable. Fincher told this story without finding any humor in the situation; he treated his demented heroine the way Otto Preminger treated Jean Simmons in Angel Face, and I felt as bad for Affleck in Gone Girl as I did for Mitchum in Angel Face, only Affleck played that character so fucking well in the way he figured out enough to not only know his wife's game but also to know that, by the end, he had no more moves to make. The board was hers and he knew it.
Man, that's the kind of movie that gets in your head and stays there. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was also a very strong effort, but it didn't feel like Fincher connected with those people, that world, and that story the way he did Gone Girl. It felt more like a chore on his part than a genuine inspiration. Again, since the script was strong, it worked very well, but at no point was I marveling at the cinematography or really digging the mood or anything. Just seemed like he was letting the script drive everything, falling back on his Se7en shit when he needed to make it "thrillery," and that was a wrap for him. I know that's making it sound like I'm really apathetic and I don't want to make it seem like I wasn't interested in the movie or didn't enjoy it while I was watching. It just never reached the level of Zodiac and was absolutely nowhere near Gone Girl.
I think I'm still staying with Interstellar and Nightcrawler as my one-two punch for 2014, but with Gone Girl, I've found the third film for my pedestal. Awesome, awesome movie. I have to give it up to Fincher for that one.
I saw it when it came out on DVD, and from then to when I rewatched it last night, I only remembered two scenes: That basement scene and the scene with Lynch at the end. I'm glad I rewatched it because my fondness for it definitely went up and I'll remember it much better now, but those two scenes are still the standouts. That basement scene was weird as fuck. He was so sure it was that one dude (forgot his name) then he finds out the handwriting match isn't that dude but the guy two feet in front of him. I was thrown by that the first time and it still throws me. Was the match just a fuck up and this guy just happens to be creepy as fuck or is this dude a legit possible Zodiac? And hearing footsteps above. What the fuck was happening in that scene? I can't tell if Fincher was trying to portray Gyllenhaal's obsession as tearing his mind apart and making him paranoid or if that guy deserved suspicion.
And then that last scene with Lynch, I just love it. I didn't remember it from the first time, but when Gyllenhaal says that line about having to stand in front of someone, look them in the eye, and know they're the Zodiac, and then that's exactly what he does with Lynch, I just love that. Fincher handled that brilliantly.
I think my Fincher rankings would go like this:
Gone Girl
Zodiac
*The Social Network
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Game
Fight Club
Se7en
*Apologies to Fincher, but this one's really only this high because of Sorkin, who dominated that film.
And then I've seen Alien 3 and Panic Room but I don't remember them well enough to accurately rank them. Even so, I highly doubt they'd end up any higher than Fight Club.
You were closer with Mad Max. I actually did like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Except I want that, I want to know the pulse of this thread. I always do my own little audience surveys. I know you guys and your sensibilities, I know my friends' and family's sensibilities, I'd gauge the sensibilities of the people I'd work with. I always do my best to get a sense of people's standards so that, when they'd talk about a movie, I'd have a scale for their opinions against which I could match my own.
And with shit like True Detective and Mad Max, it's important I know what the majority opinion is, not so I have a target for my opinion but so I know the context in which I'm watching something.
Plus, at the end of the day, if a movie needs the benefit of weird mindgame trickery and hide-and-seek expectation tactics, then it can't be that great. Is it fun to have a movie sneak up on you, to find hidden gems, to have your expectations surpassed? Of course. But when we're dealing with giant cultural events like Breaking Bad or your own example of The Godfather, that context cannot (nor should it) be swept under the rug.
We shouldn't be cultivating Rip Van Winkle type viewers like this:
[YT]iqTjb3JEHLU[/YT]
No worries, your post was completely coherent :wink:
Now here, you had me worrying for your health. . .
. . .but this post reassured me.
). Ricky, you've talked a lot about Fincher's eye, and his visual sensibilities are really flawless in this one. Back in the day, mise en sc
