"This is Jack's Post-Modern Masterpiece" - Fight Club (1999): Blu-ray

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2012)

Who would have thought it? Marla Singer is the sanest, most honest person in the entire piece. Even through all her hypochondria and emotional rollercoasterism, she puts the cracked combination of Tyler Durden and "Cornelius/Rupert/Everyman" in its place. Revisiting David Fincher's fascinating post-modern masterwork Fight Club on Blu-ray for its 10th anniversary reveals a wealth of these kinds of previously undiscovered gems. What about Chloe, the dying woman so desperate for a last act roll in the hay that she advertises her various pleasure devices during her support group? There's Raymond K. Hessel, the freaked out liquor store clerk who becomes Tyler's first (of supposedly many) "human sacrifices" and, Lou, the faux Mafioso who gets a 'mouthful' of Fight Club's foul purpose. And of course, there's Robert Paulson, the big softy with "bitch tits" who ends up representing the most powerful of Project Mayhem's many ubiquitous symbols.
Far beyond Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, who play the rebel yell yin yang of a split personality with revolutionary leanings better than any single actor ever could, and a director so in tune with the material that it seems to be flowing directly out of his own Id, it's great to see this adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's perturbing novel get the afterthought critical respect it so richly deserved (and yet missed) the first time. Yes, Messageboard Nation loves to rewrite the history books on all their favorite films, and to read their various rants on the subject, you'd swear this was 1999's most heavily praised and commercially successful film. In truth, the controversial nature of Fight Club's material - which many saw as a celebration of mindless violence and individual brutality - saw it as one of the decade's most divisive efforts. Only in hindsight did it become the black-eyed Mona Lisa.