Joe Soria

Twitter – @airosah

Letterboxd – https://letterboxd.com/airosah/

Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable. 
-Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman), Se7en 

The eve of a new David Fincher release seems to be an ideal time to reflect and celebrate the career of one of Hollywood’s most consistent and influential filmmaking voices of the past 30 years. 

His upcoming release Mank appears to be a departure for him –  his most personal and realistic, shot like it was made in the 40s based on a script from his father who has since passed away, and probably a limited amount of murder/death.

FINCHER RULES

I felt like destroying something beautiful. 
-Jack (Edward Norton), Fight Club

Just like Fight Club has rules, so do Mr. Fincher’s films adhere to a set of guidelines worth covering.

Commercial from the start Fincher did his time with a decade plus of music videos artists as varied as Madonna to Ry Cooder to The Wallflowers (Sixth Avenue Heartache) but once he made it to Hollywood he was a go big or go home type director. No small scale, micro budget indies here. Just star studded, mid to high budget beautifully shot films.

His work is carefully considered with precise execution, often choosing tougher projects with subject matters that he can properly realize. Quality and consistency are Fincher cornerstones. His discerning eye of interesting, dark material makes him trusted by film lovers of all breeds.  He is no slowpoke but propensity for larger projects and attention to detail may clarify his limited output of 3 films per decade compared to other big Hollywood directors in his strata.

Dirty up movie stars Take beautiful movie stars and beat them up a bit, make them “uglier,” or distressed as if they haven’t slept in weeks. Scarring, bruises and bandages recommended. See: Mara, Pitt, Pike, Gyllenhaal et al. 

Run time not a limitation The actors may talk and move fast with flashy edits, but Fincher is not afraid to linger and his film’s runtimes more often than not top the two-and-a-half hour mark.

Make it dark then turn down the lights some more Shadows and washed out color palettes are a must. Yellowy, aged, decrepit are a plus. Basically, it always looks like a winter night all the time, or is raining etc. constantly ala Se7en.

Make it heavy, brutal and violent From the depressing prison of Alien³ to the dark alleys and crime scenes in Seven’s unnamed town, the dimly lit basement and shithole living spaces of Fight Club or the gloomy winter Nordic landscapes of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Fincher sure has a type… of preferred scenery.

Don’t forget the voyeurism Fincher being an avid Hitchcock fan clarifies the connective tissue of his oeuvre even more. The amount of watching people from dark areas and thinking about doing bad things to people or figuring who is doing bad things to whom is another hallmark of his. It’s all a mystery that leads down a deep dark hole.

Haunting, bleak, denuded scores Whether it is the Dust Brothers, Reznor/Ross etc.  the scores of his film are a character unto themselves providing their own sinister layer.

Impeccable music choices I dare you to try getting “Hurdy Gurdy Man” out of your head after watching Zodiac. And Fight Club might have one of the top all-time climactic needle drops in film history with the Pixies’ “Where is My Mind?”

FINCHER TIERS

You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.
-Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), The Social Network

Numbered ranking is hard and an exercise of how you feel at the moment. Tiers are where things really sit. But having a nice round number of ten allowed me to rewatch all of these films in full in a 2-3 week period to get fully immersed in the filmography. COVID is good for something.

Seeing as Fincher likes his characters dazed, hazy, beat up and knocked down it only seems natural to split these tiers into alcohol levels at a bar that you should not be visiting right now.

TOP SHELF

The Social Network

Se7en

Fight Club

Zodiac

I mentioned my distaste for ranking but when it comes to the number one choice it is The Social Network and then the rest. Make the rules, break the rules. (High school me would still offer to battle present day me in the alley in defense of the greatness of Tyler Durden.)

This propulsive, quippy, cutting apocryphal origin myth is so good on so many levels. Watch Fincher take his best script (an Aaron Sorkin opus that hums), assemble a cast of burgeoning stars – Jesse Eisenberg, Arnie Hammer, Rooney Mara, Rashida Jones and Andrew Garfield, an unreal Justin Timberlake performance, scored to perfection with his first Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross collaboration (potentially score of the decade) and put all the pieces together in the most scene to scene engaging film he has ever made.

Don’t fish eat other fish? The marlins and the trout!
-Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), The Social Network

An important clarification, The Social Network is not the story about a web platform full of family photos, garbage and vitriol. In fact, the key to the whole story is exclusivity and coolness. When The Social Network was released ten years ago, it was THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Revolutionary but not necessarily genius. Fuckin A Addictive and integral to daily life for netizens. A decade later it is a much reviled, debated abomination filled to the brim with confusion and resentment. The funny thing is that the film actually predicted the downfall of what people liked about it in this movie. Once everyone can join and there is advertising it would become uncool. And boy did it ever. That and because of your uncle.

The Social Network is like a fine wine that gets better with age. It was a timely document that is even more prescient and pointed in hindsight as the capturing of a moment that can’t be replicated – an exploration of the Silicon Valley creation myth at its heyday right after the dotcom bubble. The early days of the humble geeky, fun internet are gone. And unlike the other tech origin tales, this is an east coast elite Ivy league snipe-fest, big money infighting at its peak.

A film full of typing and depositions and drinking beer feels like the most action packed film Fincher has ever done. Between the energy of the initial all-nighter coding explainer, the internship contest and that beautiful interstitial UK rowing contest, Fincher shows that he can make anything thrilling. In fact, that is what makes this film so truly impressive a feat –  without spilling a globule of blood, this is as violent and searing a movie as he’s ever made. The perfect weaving of all of Fincher’s favorite themes, motifs, and characters coming in right at two hours of no fluff. 

Se7en gets a nod for setting the formula and the Brad Pitt breakout. A grimy, Hitchcockian story that amps up the gore and the voyeurism, and brings in that perfect, iconic, final twist. The early excellence showcase that for most would be hard to exceed.

You wouldn’t happen to have any animal crackers, would you?
– Dave Toschi, Zodiac

Zodiac expands the world of the one week timeline of Se7en into an exhaustive decades-long true crime tale, multi-perspective period piece featuring three amazing co-lead performances in Downey, Ruffalo, and Gyllenhaal.

Fight Club – This one creeps in from its importance to my film culture youth and did hold up on a rewatch. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are at the peak of their powers and get a script worthy of their talents. Some of it does feel a bit dated 20 years later, like the slomo intro sequence and sex scene but they were also a real filmmaking trend starter that lasted for years.

What does hold up? Many of the things that felt revolutionary like the anti-consumerist vamps and the whole segment of pretending to have diseases to get comforted (still funny). The performances from the headliners (Pitt, Norton, Helena Bonham Carter) as well as peak Meatloaf. The scenes of Norton’s dreary office, his single serving friends and his awful road trips to car collision sites. And lastly, the need for a place to feel included and to get out that negative energy building up inside of you. (As long as you are not hurting someone who isn’t expecting it, blowing off steam in a productive manner can be healthy.)

MID SHELF

The Game

Gone Girl

The Game is a high quality puzzle box film where Fincher succeeds in modernizing the Hitchcockian potboiler. Probably the most overlooked Fincher film, it doesn’t have the pomp and circumstance of the top tier choices, but what it does perfectly is utilize Michael Douglas as the counterweight to his Gordon Gekko role. The character is also amazingly wealthy but without the smarm living in predictable manner with silence and solitude. 

This era of Douglas was full of interesting choices that mostly hit the mark – Basic Instinct, Falling Down, Disclosure, The American President, Wonder Boys, and Traffic. Still, The Game is missing a supreme distinctive quality to catapult it to the top level. 

Why should I die? I’m not the asshole.
– Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), Gone Girl

Gone Girl is a well made adaptation of a popular Gillian Flynn novel. Rosemund Pike has the best role and performance of her career leading this kidnapping story remix. Ben Affleck is passable as her husband under the microscope of the law. And a quick shout out for a heat check performance from Tyler Perry as the high priced attorney working the case. Overall, this is an interesting film with a great performance at its center that I never took a huge shine too. 

If you are in the mood for a dark thriller, this pair are a good double feature with as solid twists as any. If you haven’t seen ‘em, they will go down smooth enough.

WELL / REPLACEMENT LEVEL

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Alien³

Panic Room

Being a fan of the original books and the Swedish film series, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo seemed like the series made for Fincher. But something didn’t quite click. Maybe it was the disconnected attempt at Nordic accents played by a bevy of Brits and Americans (Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara and Robin Wright). Maybe it was just the explicit brutality and the abusiveness which is direct from the book. It has style and energy but falls flat overall in execution and cohesiveness.

Panic Room is the most straightforward, Hitcockian work of Fincher’s career and it suffers as what is often the shlockiest. With a decent concept and script, it takes a lot of his preferred themes and motifs but ends up their weakest most watered down version. Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, and a very young Kristin Stewart put in admirable work but overall it just doesn’t fire on all cylinders at any point. 

It’s like a lion. Sticks close to the zebras.
-Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Alien³

In an interview with The Guardian in 2009, Fincher stated in regards to Alien³, “No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me.” I’ll say it is not the best of the series but it is passable for a debut and showcased some of what he could do visually, so still worth a look for that.

SWILL

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Before my rewatch of Benjamin Button, I thought my memories of the film might have been harshly negative. Nope, it was just as incomprehensible as ever.

Brad Pitt stars in this alternative New Orleans-based version of Forrest Gump. Instead of sitting on a bench and talking about a box of chocolates though, Mr. Button is born old only and ages in reverse. Cate Blanchett, one of the world’s other greatest film actors, spends most of the movie quivering and old in a hospital bed thinking about old/young Brad Pitt. Oh yeah and it just so happens that is also the day of Hurricane Katrina? As the kids say, WTF?

I hope you enjoy my clock.
-Monsieur Gateau (Elias Koteas), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Who am I to try and stop someone like Fincher to step outside their comfort zone? Oscar bait, special effects, big budget, passion project sorta jazz. Fincher’s chance to escape the dark corners of a room full of murder and blood. But I can imagine he could have done anything he wanted, this choice just seems off and the results are just as off.

One interesting thing that this film has going for it is what I can see as the only war scene he has ever filmed. At sea, nonetheless. And it is quite amazing. If it weren’t for pretty much every other scene, this would be an interesting film. As a close to three hour slog of grandpa Pitt, this one is a true eternal never-rewatch if there ever was one.

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So there you have it, 10 films over 30 years summed up in a few pages. Some worth savoring and some worth ignoring. Early reviews indicate that Mank is definitely a return to form for Fincher (and maybe his first real Oscar bait) but only time will tell. Happily, we won’t have to wait too long.

I did leave out the Netflix TV work but I will pour one out for the excellent Mindhunter overseen and sometimes directed by Fincher. If you are looking for something excellently creepy to watch this winter, you could do much much worse.