Movie Review: Fight Club (1999)

The third David Fincher review gets me talking about a movie that contains one of the most memorable movie endings of all time. Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter as the main characters in this movie. The movie follows Norton as he plays a guy who basically has lost all interest in his life. His life is shown as consisting of catalog items and boring co-workers and bosses. This guy is pretty much having a midlife chrises.. Then he meets Helena Bonham Carter. She's interesting because she is pretty much going through the same thing that Edward Norton's character is. Norton then also meets Tyler Durden. If I'm not spelling that right, please forgive this. Tyler is played by Brad Pitt and he is literally the very thing that makes this film work. There are a lot of things that make this film work, but without Tyler we wouldn't have been introduced to such a memorable role in a movie then we are. Tyler and Edward Norton's character (Norton's character lacks such things as a name) begin working together to produce soap. They also come together to make something called Fight Club. The idea is this organization where people beat each other to a pulp in order to rid themselves of certain stress. Fight Club itself escalates to a level where we see characters fighting each other who don't even have all that much stress. What makes this movie so unique and interesting is that it tries really hard to be cool. Everything in the film is cool: The visuals, editing, characters. All of those things are cool things. That's why this movie was really so well received, it's just a cool experience to go into. Now I want to spoil the end, but won't because it is one of the most memorable movie endings in cinema history. So due us all a favor and see this movie. I will say one thing that could be changed in the film. That's the style over substance theory. This movie has lots of style visually. It's a complex film partly because we have to follow the cuts in between scenes. However, there are several parts in this movie that the story isn't engaging as it was when introduced. It's a cool idea to think about, but it slows down and stops keeping your attention. That's why I think this movie only was given two stars. It replaces the look over what's on the inside. A good movie will have a good story first and then look good. Not the other way around. Overall, Fight Club is a visually stunning David Fincher film and made it's mark in hollywood by having an ending that was just as controversially received as the violence in the movie. Two stars.