ViewGuide

Created Jan 03, 2009 11:07AM PST • Edited Aug 16, 2021 12:12PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   Let’s talk about Fight Club. A contemporary classic, David Fincher’s surreal masterpiece makes killer use of several cinematic power tools: sophisticated CGI and film processing, faux sophisticated alienation, throbbing music, Brad Pitt. You gotta give this nihilistic triumph grudging credit. It’s as entertaining and intriguing a race to rock bottom as has ever been committed to celluloid. That’s saying something given Hollywood’s obsession with artistic self-destruction.

   The movie demands to be seen twice. Don’t worry. The brilliant story’s even more fun the second time.

   As for this review, I’ve excluded spoilers while trying to deliver thoughts of interest to those who have seen the movie. So read on without worry, all ye Fight Club virgins. The spoiler-free promise is guaranteed. The interest judgment is up to you.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Brad Pitt let’s his id flag fly: an impossibly attractive dude reveling in his own magnetism, every gesture exaggerated, every statement brash.¹ His Tyler Durden is Brad Fucking Pitt the way we’ve always wanted to see him. Now that’s entertainment.

   Edward Norton barely holds a candle as his running buddy, but then who would?

   Helena Bonham Carter smokes as their troublesome girlfriend. A gorgeous actress who’s talent exceeds her looks, HBC peaks as the sport fucking Marla Singer.
   -—————————————————-

   ¹ Freud defined the Id as the part of the personality structure focused on selfishness and instant self-gratification.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Wow! From Ed Norton’s brutally soulless corporate life, through Tyler Durden’s dangerously adolescent egomania, to the sicko support group jones, this movie displays more dysfunction than a barrel of coked up monkeys.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

    David Fincher’s masterpiece. The zooming intro starts the movie in stunning fashion, brilliantly setting the stage for the rush of events to follow.

12. Play Great 4.0

    “I am Jack’s super-ego” and a host of other clever script devices service a brilliantly constructed plot.

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.6

    Sex and drugs and rock n’ roll, thy movie is Fight Club. It’s not all fun and games though. The skyscraper implosion scene hasn’t aged well, sadly dating this as a 20th Century movie.

17. Sex Erotic 2.6

    The IMDb trivia page claims that Pitt and HBC spent three days recording orgasmic sounds for their unseen sex scenes. The results are impressive.

18. Violence Brutal 2.6

19. Rudeness Profane 2.6

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.4

    Suspend disbelief and moral judgment, then watch it a second time. I couldn’t suspend judgment when the movie originally came out, so avoided it until the huge praise it garnered from several trusted Viewguide reviewers drove me to watch it. Then I realized I needed to watch it again before reviewing it. Whew. The whole thing is exhausting in an exhilarating kind of way, kind of like Fight Club.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.7

23. Biological Surreal 2.6

    Fighting for fun loses its charm when teeth get smashed, noses get crushed, and brains get bruised. Do it again next time? I don’t think so.

    As a depiction of psychosis however, the movie might be spot on. Who knows…

24. Physical Glib 1.9