October 16, 2020
We’re back for part two of my thoughts on director David Fincher, ahead of his new movie Mank, premiering soon on Netflix. If you missed part one, where I covered why I like his work so much and the first part of my top ten list (plus some great 1980s music videos!), you can read it here. It was hard to rank these top five movies – to be honest, you could pick any of them at random and argue why it’s his best work. Here is just one person’s opinion.
5. Not For The Faint Of Heart – Seven (1995)
If you thought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had some “challenging” scenes, take a deep breath before you buckle in for Seven, Fincher’s second film and the one that showed us what he could really do as a filmmaker and storyteller. Fincher has a knack for casting actors at the top of their popularity and for Seven, he has Brad Pitt (one of the top movie stars at the time), Morgan Freeman (coming off of The Shawshank Redemption), Gwenyth Paltrow (right before breaking out into a superstar), and in a brilliant move, an uncredited Kevin Spacey as John Doe, the killer who is only in the last portion of the film. It was brilliant to not have Spacey in the credits because if you knew going in that he was in the movie, you’d be wondering when he was going to show up, and then you’d figure out he must be the killer. Instead we get the surprise when Doe takes the detectives through the last horrible act of the film. While I like the mystery aspect of the murders modeled after the seven deadly sins, what resonates for me when I watch this film is how Fincher expertly ties the ugliness of the world to the environment the characters are living in during the film. It’s a large, unnamed city with all of the grime and dirtiness on full display. It feels like it’s raining during every outdoor scene. This one has some gruesome scenes and isn’t one I revisit very often, but it’s a film that I admire a great deal. Not to mention, it forever changed the way we ask the simple question “What’s in the box?”
4. “The First Rule of…” Fight Club (1999)
After the success of Seven and The Game, Fincher would reunite with Pitt and get the keys to a much bigger budget when he adapted the cult novel Fight Club into his fourth feature film. Edward Norton plays “the narrator” who tells the story of how his insomnia and general malaise about his life as an insurance fraud investigator lead him to dramatically change his life, shortly after meeting a soap salesman named Tyler Durden, played by Pitt. When the two move in together, their friendship moves very quickly from an underground fight club, to harmless pranks on people and businesses, to violent anarchy against the establishment. This film is less about the fight club itself, and more a commentary on what our society has become at the end of the twentieth century – where we focus our time, energy and money and how businesses have become the ruling power of our country and what would happen if we could blow the system up and start over. This film features one of the best WTF twist moments towards the end of the film and makes you think twice about what you have been watching up until that moment. Over twenty years later, this film still holds up – it’s an interesting commentary on our country with two of my favorite actors. After rewatching it recently, I found myself wondering what a film like this would look like in today’s society.
3. He Did It Again – Gone Girl (2014)
Think it’s easy to adapt one best-selling novel into a hit movie? How about doing it a second time with a book that was one of those hot novels that everyone was talking about? In the Summer of 2012, it seemed that everywhere you went, you kept hearing “You have to read Gone Girl.” The third novel by author Gillian Flynn was a monster hit and a movie adaptation was a no-brainer. Actually, Reese Witherspoon acquired the rights to the story based on an early manuscript before the novel was even published. She was originally attached to play the lead role of Amy, but the role would go to Rosamund Pike, who was so good in the film, that she received a number of accolades, including an Oscar nomination. Her husband, Nick, was played by Ben Affleck, who was in the midst of an upswing of his career. This was shortly after he won the Best Picture Oscar for Argo. Fincher has said that the media attention that Nick receives in the story reminded him a lot of what Affleck has gone through in his career and he liked the parallel of the actor with the character.
Gone Girl was Fincher’s first film in three years, during which he helped create a little project for Netflix called House of Cards. As much as we take for granted the enormous content available on Netflix right now, it’s only been seven years since House of Cards started the streamer’s model of a binge television series, where an entire season was released at once, a model that is very common today. In addition to serving as a creator of the series, Fincher directed the first two episodes, winning an Emmy for the pilot. This would be the beginning of a strong partnership with Netflix, where Fincher would return to create the series Mindhunter in 2017 and where his new film Mank will premiere in December.
Back to Gone Girl. Once again, we have common themes in Fincher’s work. At the center is a complicated relationship between two characters (in this case Nick and Amy) that we don’t know how to feel about for most of the movie. In choosing to follow the same narrative timeline of the novel (Nick’s timeline, then Amy’s, then the third act where there storylines converge), Fincher faces a high hurdle, but he clears it with ease. It’s one thing to adapt a novel into a film, but when you have a “Holy Shit!” moment halfway through the book (when we realize why Amy “went missing”), you still have to make it compelling for someone who read the novel to enjoy the film. I found myself loving the film, and eagerly awaiting the reveal, even though I knew it was coming.
In addition to Affleck and Pike, we have a very strong supporting cast including (the always wonderful) Carrie Coon as Nick’s sister, Tyler Perry as Nick’s lawyer, and Neal Patrick Harris, as Amy’s old boyfriend. He suffers through one of the more gruesome Fincher scenes, where we also see Pike play Amy at her most cold-hearted. Speaking of that scene, it’s also where we hear the score of the film on full blast. This was the second partnership that Fincher had with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. They would also go on to score The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the upcoming Mank. Whether you have read Gone Girl or not, this is an outstanding film that puts all of Fincher’s best qualities on display.
2. A Close Second Place – The Social Network (2010)
It’s hard to put a near-perfect film and one that is considered the best of the 2010’s decade in second place, but I have a fondness for number one, which we will get to next. Ten years later, the origin story of Facebook and its creator (villain?) Mark Zuckerberg still holds up as a compelling film with all of the elements you’d want from a Hollywood hit. We have a top notch script from Aaron Sorkin (who would win an Oscar for best screenplay), an amazing cast with Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield as his best friend / co-creator Eduardo Saverin, Armie Hammer as the Winklevoss twins, and Justin Timberlake as one-time Facebook executive Sean Parker. Sure, some of the facts in the film are embellished / changed for narrative effect. It is based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, who has a habit of writing similar “shock true stories” of other scandals. If you ever saw the film 21, based on the MIT poker cheating scandal, that was also based on a book by Mezrich. Even if some of the details aren’t 100% accurate, let’s remember that it’s a feature film, not a documentary.
Serving as the narrative device are two lawsuits that Zuckerberg is facing for the ownership of the website (by the Winklevoss twins and another former Harvard student) and for cutting Saverin out of his ownership share in the company. We bounce back and forth between the depositions and the beginnings of Facebook while the former friends were at Harvard, up through the company’s rise in California, including expanded investor ownership. Despite the constant change in timeline, it’s very effective and not confusing at all, a credit to Sorkin’s tight screenplay. This is the classic story of how things can get ugly when close friends go into business together. The tag line for the movie was “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” That was in 2010. Facebook now has over 2.7 billion users. It makes you wonder what a Facebook movie would look like now. Hold that thought.
I’ve mentioned that Fincher is a notorious perfectionist. So is Sorkin. If you ever watched The West Wing, you know that his scripts are famous for rapid fire dialogue and Sorkin was adamant that the actors follow it word by word. Imagine being an actor in The Social Network having to deliver the rapid fire Sorkin dialogue with a perfectionist behind the camera. Remember this iconic opening scene? Word has it that Fincher had Eisenberg and Rooney Mara (playing his girlfriend) do this scene 99 times before he was satisfied! Talk about exhausting – almost like Mara’s comment – “Dating you is like dating a Stairmaster.” The script from Sorkin is full of some fantastic lines – this scene, when Saverin confronts Zuckerberg is one of my favorites. “You better lawyer up asshole, cause I’m not coming back for 30%. I’m coming back for everything.” Garfield is so good in this movie, especially when he stands up to Eisenberg and they go toe to toe.
The end of the Saverin scene also features some great soundtrack work from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, in their first collaboration with Fincher. They would win an Oscar for their score and it’s hard to believe that the one-time leader of Nine Inch Nails would find a second career as a composer, but here we are. The film features a haunting and somber piano refrain (that you can hear at the end of that scene), as well as the scratching sound emphasizing the conflict among the characters. During other portions of the film, we get a pulsing rhythm that mirrors the computing work of our main characters. This is on display in a very effective way during this scene where Zuckerberg hacks the Harvard server to create a crude website comparing Harvard students’ looks. In fact, one of the more iconic scenes in the movie didn’t even get much contribution from Sorkin (as there is little dialogue). While it doesn’t really do much to advance the story, seeing the Winklevoss twins in a rowing competition is a fantastic combination of filmmaking and score. At the risk of linking to clips of the entire movie, I’ll stop here.
But one more thought before we get to number one. In a recent interview promoting his new film The Trial of the Chicago 7 (out today on Netflix), Sorkin commented that he would love to write a sequel to The Social Network, but only if Fincher would direct it. Can you imagine what a Facebook story would look like ten years later? Not only the incredible increase in users, but the impact that the website (and all social media) has had on our lives would be an incredible story. You’re talking about dramatic changes to privacy, antitrust concerns, election interference, Congressional hearings, impacts of social media on mental health, and how our trust in “news” has deteriorated in the last decade. It could be a very compelling story and in the right hands (like Fincher and Sorkin), it could be amazing. If we could only hope.
1. The Masterpiece – Zodiac (2007)
I somehow just wrote over 800 words on the movie that came in second place in my Fincher top ten. Well, as much as I love The Social Network, I am a sucker for a good mystery. Throw in a deep cast trying to find a serial killer, sprinkle it with some 1970s San Francisco scenery, a few chilling murder scenes, and you have Zodiac, Fincher’s chronicle of the hunt for the famous serial killer and one of my all-time favorite films. As I mentioned earlier, Fincher has a habit of pointing out in his films that life is messy and there aren’t necessarily any happy endings. Look at the previous four films we covered this week – you’ve got death, destruction, anarchy, disturbing relationships, and messy breakups. The story of the serial killer that terrorized the Bay Area from the late 1960s to the early 1970s was never officially solved. Fincher chose to use the theory proposed by Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle, who wrote about his experience hunting for the killer in a 1986 book of the same name. While Graysmith had a few theories about the identity of the killer, since he has never been caught, (spoiler alert) we don’t have a neat ending where the killer is captured. This isn’t an Agatha Christie novel where Hercule Poirot gathers everyone together to reveal the identity of the killer. Instead, we get the story of three complicated figures whose lives intersect during the Zodiac’s killing spree.
I’ve mentioned that Fincher’s movies usually feature a relationship at the center of the story. At the center of Zodiac is Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who tries to decipher the Zodiac’s coded messages to his newspaper and two other San Francisco publications. Along the way, Graysmith is mentored by Paul Avery (a writer with the Chronicle played by Robert Downey, Jr., in a strong “pre-Iron Man” performance). Graysmith also interacts with Detective Dave Toschi (played by Mark Ruffalo), who led the investigation into the Zodiac case for over a decade and helps Graysmith in his amateur investigation.
The film is a classic representation of a detective’s struggle to solve a case, layered into a city terrified by what the Zodiac killer might do next. As we watch the desperation (especially by Ruffalo) in trying to find the needle in the haystack that might be their guy, you come to realize that detective work is not glamorous – it’s mind-numbing monotony, going down the hole of numerous theories to find your suspect. When you get close, you might get ruled out by handwriting analysis, fingerprints that don’t match, or conflicting alibis. It’s also fascinating to see how incredibly difficult it was for detective work during this time – forget DNA, there is a scene where two detectives have trouble sharing evidence from different murders with each other because one of them doesn’t have “telefax” yet.
Graysmith eventually zeroes in on a prime suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen, who was also a favorite suspect of Toschi. While the chance of proving their theory in court is a long shot, the film presents the story in such a way that Allen is likely the Zodiac killer, but we may never know. Although, maybe we will. There was a recent HBO documentary series called I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, based on the book of the same name by Michelle McNamara. She was a true-crime author who investigated the Golden State Killer, one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history. Her work helped lead the authorities to catch him, some 30 years after his last murder. Sadly, McNamara died before he was caught and her book was completed by her husband (actor and comedian Patton Oswalt) and her investigative assistants. It’s a really interesting series and reminds us that you never know what science and hard-fought investigations can find.
In addition to the mystery and the strong cast, what I love about Zodiac is the way Fincher (once again) brings the city to life. This is a story about San Francisco, not just the Zodiac investigation. He includes the important details about the killer threatening schoolkids, which terrified parents. He includes snippets of TV and radio broadcasts of concerned journalists and ordinary citizens sharing their fears. And much like he did with Seven, he doesn’t sugarcoat the killing scenes. Whenever I rewatch Zodiac, I still cringe at the scene where he attacks a couple in broad daylight at a lake in Napa County. The screaming of the woman as they are attacked is terrifying. And speaking of terrifying, another memorable scene is where a young mother (played by Ione Skye – any Say Anything fans out there?) is duped into taking a ride with a man who threatens to kill her and her baby. But, there are only a few scenes that are tough to watch – this is truly a story of the elusive search for that “one thing” – the clue, the piece of evidence, the right suspect, that will help them solve the mystery. And who doesn’t love a good mystery?
Thanks for taking the journey through the filmography of David Fincher. I hope you find some joy in watching (or rewatching) his films and look for Mank on Netflix on December 4th. I’ll be back next week to share my thoughts on one of my favorite musicians. Here’s a hint – he has a new album coming out the same day. Until then….