Friday, August 28, 2009

5 Off My Head - Forgiving David Fincher

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I was going to start this off by saying that I made no secret of my disdain for David Fincher's last film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button... but I sorta did. I got very sad whenever the topic came up and didn't really want to talk about it. In the run-up to the film's release I was terrifically enthusiastic. I posted everything I could for months on end. And then I saw the movie, and I was... underwhelmed. And I got more underwhelmed with time. And more annoyed the more the media touted the film as something it was not, like good. The Oscar nominations for the film were, honestly, a joke (except for the special effects, of course), and a slap in the face to somebody like me who'd championed Fincher for so long - so he goes and directs a meandering by-the-numbers hollow pretty picture book and suddenly he's embraced by the sods that ignored all his better previous work? That's the message we want to send to challenging filmmakers! Embrace your crappy side! Ugh.

Anyway. Today is David Fincher's 47th birthday. And I need to let go. I need to let go of the pain, the anguish, the hate. I need to remind myself that pre-Button he'd made six straight films that I at the very-least liked (Alien³ is underrated) and at the very-most thought were masterpieces (get back into Zodiac mode, David!). So with that in mind, a remembrance of things good, here are five really - really - random and very brief things from his films that I adore and remind me why he should still be one of my favorite filmmakers.

GOOP in a box

"My god. I haven't been fucked like that since grade school."

Jake in the basement

He's always up for destroying something beautiful

"Slide."
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And now for y'all, a query!

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5 comments:

Unknown said...

First time post, long time lurker. I love Fincher too. I think that ZODIAC is probably his best film to date (altho, FIGHT CLUB comes reeeeal close) but I also really love THE GAME which seems underappreciated but is a damn fine film.

Carl Joseph Papa said...

"Fight Club" all the way. And of all the movies I have seen from him I really did not like Benjamin Button. Panic Room was better...

Carl Joseph Papa said...

oh frack i missed seven. that was my favorite!

Jason Adams said...

It's a tough question because I think Zodiac is his finest film but I can watch Fight Club and Seven over and over and over again.

enriquefeto said...

Thanks for giving voice to what I was thinking. Button was absolutley worthless. Such a disappointment from The Finch. There's this trend with wild directors like Fincher gravitating towards "Oscar" fare in order to get kudos... it just destroys their true ability, it seems.

Fight Club is easily his best film. Epic!

P.S... Panic Room: 0%. That sounds about right.