Top 5 David Fincher Films (According to IMDB… and me…)

Fincher is a genius. There, I said it. Yes, I might have started this supposedly unbiased article with an opinion, however, it is a fact that he one of the most celebrated film directors working out of Hollywood today, David Fincher is one of the great masters of the craft. Love them or loath them, everyone will have watched at least one of his movies at some point.

All of these films, I personally, have watched at least three times each. Some, perhaps, even double that.

5. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, 2011, (7.8)

“Lie still. I’ve never done this before… and there will be blood.”

A remake of the Swedish version, and based on the first novel of the book series by Steig Larsson, Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo is a departure from the tonally lighter continental piece. I am not a fan of English language remakes for the sake of audiences who can’t be bothered to read subtitles, but when the source material is given to a superior filmmaker, it’s a whole different ballgame. Suffice to say, in my opinion, Fincher smashed it. (That said, the 2011 version also has 7.8 on Imdb, so there is no empirical foundation to support that!)

It is a moody and gripping descent into the post-war neo-liberalism of Sweden, and one families dark secrets hidden within it. There is plenty of themes to play with here, as well as three character arcs running intricately alongside one another. Despite having a typically long running time, Fincher deftly navigates a complex plot that includes murder investigation, pseudo-religious fervour, sexual abuse and corporate espionage without it become tiresome, overloaded or slow. Dragon Tattoo’s violent scenes are brutal, but are presented with restraint, and balanced by a soft, gooey central theme that all anyone really wants is to be loved or accepted for who they are. It’s stunningly shot by regular Fincher collaborator, Director of Photography Jeff Cronenwerth, and features the duo’s preferred colour pallets of muted grey, greens and blues. The haunting soundscape is provided by the uber-talents of Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross, complimenting the cinematography with heavy synth and ambient elements that create a real sense of unease throughout. Daniel Craig stars as a dour, world-weary, Mikael Blomkvist, opposite an unrecognizable Rooney Mara as the enigmatic Lisbeth Salander. In The Social Network (7.7), Mara played Mark Zuckerberg’s (ex) girlfriend, and was so determined to impress Fincher with her Salander audition, that she cut her hair and had multiple piercings installed. It worked, and she gives a powerhouse performance as the intelligent and emotionally complex yet withdrawn investigative researcher.

Dragon Tattoo is a proper detective story that even Raymond Chandler would be proud of, perfectly balanced by strong characters on their own journeys and a surprising, startling conclusion.

4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008 (7.8)

“I was thinkin’ how nothing’ lasts, and what a shame that is.”

It could be argued that Benjamin Button is an anomaly in the filmography of Fincher, at least on the face of it. In many ways, it feels like it might have been a project more befitting someone like Zemeckis or Spielberg. Its high-concept premise and comparatively gentle presentation seem more their wheelhouse, but this is actually Fincher (in true Fincher fashion), f**king with you.

Benjamin is born old, with all the ailments of an 80-year-old man seeing out his final few days. The doctor doesn’t expect him to last the night. However, under the boundless and unconditional love of his adoptive mother, Queenie, and brought up in the unique environment of an Old Peoples Home, Benjamin does indeed live, and in so doing, actually grows younger.

Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Button seems to be a recklessly optimistic, epic tale of love, loss and the meaning of life. The meaning of life? What the hell? Did Fincher’s balls suddenly shrivel up? You might be asking, will he be directing another sodding Disney live-action remake next?

The answer is no; he’s just catfishing you. This is not a twisty thriller with edge-of-seat plot revelations, so I don’t need to dance around spoilers too much, but I can tell you that all is not what it seems. Button turns the concept of life and death on its head, literally, by taking it from the sobering perspective of someone witnessing the process of moving through the world in the opposite direction to all those around him. As a child he’s broken, ill and frail, surrounded by old people whose passing he bears witness to at an alarming rate. Benjamin grows younger and stronger, his loved one's age, fall into decrepitude and eventually, inevitably, pass on. This is all very miserable, so it is evened out by the presence of Daisy, a girl aged within a few years of him. They have an immediate connection and float in and out of one another's lives, each going in the opposite direction throughout the film. I won’t say too much here, but the Fincher plays out the love story perfectly, betraying a softer side to a director often criticized for being too ‘clinical’.

To this end, Fincher made some interesting decisions when it came to his production team. He dropped the Reznor/Ross team in favour of a softer, more classical approach from Alexandre Desplat (The Kings Speech, Philomena), and kicked DoP bezzie Cronowerth to the curb. The replacement in the form of Claudio Miranda, who had previously only worked on McConaughey/Jessica-Parker Rom-Com and music videos, gives the cinematography a romanticism previously unseen in Fincher’s work. It’s gorgeous and vivid, yet has those muted tones one unconsciously associates with the director.

Pitt is on top form a usual, very much becoming an antidote to previous Fincher archetypes, and Cate Blanchett and Taraji P. Henson are both captivating in their portrayal as the women who deeply influence Benjamin in his lifelong journey.

It’s a long film, but then it does span the entire life of someone. It has that strange blend of slow-burn and snappiness that defines Fincher's work, somehow taking heavy themes worthy of Terrence Malick and making them considerably more accessible, even enjoyable. Button is the story of optimism versus fatalism, and the beauty and tragedy found in both.

3. Gone Girl, 2014 (8.1)

“Hello, handsome. Crepe?”

Gone Girl is a mature, slow-burn thriller from the warped mind of novelist and screenwriter Gillian Flynn, whom adapted her own work into an even better screenplay (I’ve read the book; it’s just as stunning!). Ben Affleck, an actor with whom I had a bit of downer previously, completely won me over with his performance here, and Rosamund Pike is absolutely spellbinding as Amy, the Girl who has… Gone.

DoP Cronenwerth, and musicians Reznor and Ross make up the ultimate team once more, between them steadily helping Fincher ramp up the tension, scene by scene, until an almost exact mid-point switch. Here is almost like watching a second movie, where everything is beautifully turned on its head and even for those who might be finding the pace lethargic, are suddenly and inescapably gripped. The third act is rife with mounting stakes and twists, until a surprising finale that will leave your head spinning and you screaming at the screen.

Fincher once again sets trends, with studios jumping on his bandwagon (covered in the next section), and snapping up other Gillian Flynn titles and throwing money at them. Unfortunately, they are rushed, flawed and inferior. Not even the acting might of Charlize Theron and Amy Adams can save Dark Places and Sharp Objects respectively, despite their excellent source material. Flynn did not adapt her own work with either of these, as she did with Gone Girl. (In addition to this and Dragon Tattoo, an armada or films and books suddenly appeared over the horizon with the word ‘Girl’ featured heavily).

Gone Girl does what it does superbly. Fincher and Flynn make a powerhouse storytelling couple, taking a universal social standard such as the institution of marriage and subverting, perverting and corrupting it into something worryingly familiar. It’s bold and uncompromising, taking pots shots at more than just the nature of relationships, but at the presence of power of the media in our lives, and how easily we judge others, despite our own private shortcomings.

In fact, the only thing truly missing is Neil Patrick Harris’ pining ex-lover not declaring that the challenge of winning Amy back, is accepted.

2. Se7en, 1995 (8.6)

“What’s in the b-ahhhhh-x!?’

This might be the film that defined what a modern, hard-boiled, serial-killer-chasing thriller should be. Morgan Freeman went on to play Alex Cross in Kiss the Girls (’97) and Along Came a Spider (‘01), with greedy studios clearly inspired by the success of Se7en. Brad Pitt too, having now proven he can do gritty as well as attractive, optimistic and naïve, would later land another Fincher part that would make his housewife fans baulk, then swoon in a different way.

Se7en itself is slick, fast-paced and supremely gory. It tells the story of grizzled but friendly detective Somerset (Freeman) and tenacious transfer Mills (Pitt) perusing a killer offing people based on one of the 7-deadly-sins, inspired by the victims own ‘flawed’ lives. With every successive murder, each more horrendous than the last, you find yourself stopping yourself from leaning closer to the screen through fear of what might be revealed next. They range from downright creepy through shiveringly icky to gurning exclamations of O-M-G.

Once again, Fincher builds the tension and raises the stakes until a giving us a finale scene that resulted in the world being unable to watch another person open a square package without uttering those four immortal words.

The world of serial killers presented in Se7en is one Fincher would return to fifteen years later with Zodiac, and then later producing (and partly directing) the Netflix series Mindhunter.

There was a sequel planned called 8ight, about the further adventures of Freeman's character, that thankfully went the same way as the bizarre Gladiator 2. Fortunately, the franchise died there, without 9ine and 10en being inflicted upon us, with an inevitable prequel trilogy, 1ne, 2wo… you get the idea.

As a stand-alone film Se7en is as close to perfect as a moody, rain-drenched, modern noir thriller can be. My only advice is don’t watch it right before bed.

1. Fight Club, 1999 (8.8)

“You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.”

There was no doubt that Fight Club should sit at number one here. It ticks every Fincher box. Dark, slick, dry and satirical, with brutal observational humour and bone-shattering violence in spades, but is not the punch-em-up that the title suggests. It is not the tale of an underground boxing ring and the bloody shenanigans the little tykes of the titular group get up to. Yes, there is a some of this, but Fight Club is more. Oh, so much more. I need to tread carefully here, as to not give up any spoilers. I mean, I must consider the First Rule, after all.

Edward Norton, at his wiry, anxiety-ridden, squirmy best, plays an insurance investigator paid to worm his company out of expensive payouts. He spends his days alone looking at the terrifying results of fatal accidents and his nights ordering furniture and attending group therapy sessions. It is his meeting with Brad Pitts soap salesman that his life gets that little bit more exciting.

At the core of Fight Club is anarchism. The act of rebelling against the status quo, rejecting the norm, going left when everyone else is going right. The same could be said of Fincher’s decision to make this film after the success of Se7en, and arguably Pitt’s too. At a time when numerous possibilities had opened up, both made the conscious choice to step away from the safe options and instead create some new, original and stunningly controversial.

Watching Fight Club is like your eyes eating warm honey with an electric current running through it. It spanks along with a snappy yet monosyllabic voice-over, driven forward by an ear-shattering, head-banging score by the Dust Brothers (this style may later inspire Fincher’s collaboration with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), and before you know it, it’s all kicking off with Norton and Pitt knocking ten bells out of each other amidst Meatloaf’s rampant hormones and the cloud left by Helena Bonham-Carter’s cigarettes.

As usual, it’s superbly shot, featuring the first team-up with Cronenwerth, with Fincher building on the visual style laid out by Se7en DoP, Darius Khonji, and building the foundations on which, Social Network, Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl would later be created.

The film was greeted with raised eyebrows from critics and trepidation from box office audiences, but rapidly became not only one of the best films of ’99 alongside The Matrix and American Beauty, but a timeless cult classic. It was, in time, so well received that even Chuck Palahniuk, author of the book on which the film was based on, is quoted as saying that it is better than his version. Just prior to writing this article, I have myself secured the 10th anniversary edition on Blueray (which make THAT itself already 10 years old… damn, I’m old…), with plans to rewatch for the umpteenth time this weekend.

In my humble opinion, Fight Club is absolutely the most worthy of winners here. Even if you watch it and are either appalled by its graphic violence or as a Jeff Bezos enthusiast, saddened by the vilification of rampant neo-liberalism and consumerism, I can at least guarantee one thing:

You’ll never look at soap the same way again.

FOOTNOTE

As a confirmed cinephile refusing rehabilitation, trying to choose between the sensory masterpieces of David Fincher is impossible. I certainly have my firm favourites, and so by logic, my least preferred. This does not mean that I can put them in any kind of order, and to do so would be a matter of opinion that might shift depending on my mood. The only objective method of listing them is to rely on the cold calculations of the IMDB voting algorithm. The first three films were easy, but then I had a 3-way tie for 4th and 5th, so I stacked them in order of which ones received the high number of 10/10 votes, which seemed to be the fairest way.

I chose IMDB because it is my preferred source of film information, but did refer to another much-used site for comparison, Rotten Tomatoes. Interestingly, this source paints a slightly different picture. 5. Se7en, 4. Dragon Tattoo, 3. Gone Girl, 2. Zodiac, 1. Social Network.

Obviously, I decide to ignore this fake news. I mean, how can Fight Club not even make the list? So, in order to stick with the 2020 trend of information usage, occasionally facts need tweaking to better suit your opinion.