One kind of comformity in favor of another

Rating: 3/10 (1 June 2018)

Like a bro comedy, with less comedy and more bro, bro!
I had this film recommended to me (and quoted) so many times, that I'd begun to think it really must contain some life changing pearls of wisdom. I eventually decided to watch it. Well at least forty minutes or so of it.
The beginning was very intriguing actually. The cynical observations of the protagonist, regarding himself and the cookie cutter life others like him so often fall into, were an intelligent critique of consumerism and materism, if not stale already by now. Perhaps it was more novel at the time the film was released.
David Fincher's directorial style probably had something to do with how it felt like it was going to be a "cool" movie. The fact that Brad Pitt was in it promised the same. I started to fall for it, yet things turned downwards not long after Brad Pitt's character was introduced.
I felt like I'd been swindled. I feel like people who like this movie have been swindled, like someone snapped their fingers and strobed some lights and said, "You will now appreciate the following film". Or maybe ...the things I dislike about the movie are exactly what people like about it. I don't know. It seemed like a joke to me how the movie poses as cerebral and intellectual in the first "act" so to speak but then gravitates towards gratuitous testosterone cult indoctrination that can be found in any other random action flick. Except this one has Brad Pitt, oooh, star power!
And Brad Pitt's character is no philanthropist. He charms his way into the protagonists life and begins to influence him, acts like he possesses the Tao of life, after revealing to him that some of his antisocial hobbies are: inserting pornographic material in the reels of (non R rated) films while working as a movie projector (scene of little girl's crying reaction to giant cock in movie theater is supposed to be humorous), and urinating/spitting/ejaculating into strangers' food while working in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant. Stuff we should all look up to, for sure. I really hope people watching this don't actually think Brad Pitt's character is someone who they'd like to be, but no doubt, many probably do, because the film makes him into almost a patriarchal, however rebellious, figure. Though it's not a true rebellion, because the world is full of tough guys and cowboys and punks who just don't give a fuck, there is absolutely nothing new about it.
So, after criticizing the conformity of men who adopt a life of working in suits and acquiring fancy stuff that advertisements insist they need, the prescription is a new kind of conformity - the old fashion macho male stereotype kind. In other words, don't be a workaholic, don't care about wealth or belongings, care about brute physical strength and drawing some blood! Grrrr, yeah! That's what life is all about! The protoganist forgoes the group therapy he was addicted to previously, in favor of a new group, and a new kind of therapy: he is so desperate to be able to feel something that he needs to get punched in the face, apparently. Sounds like somebody has issues. Good luck with that.
I could not bare to sit through the entire thing. It's a pseudo-intellectual, gender-stereotypical, chest-beating outting aimed at an audience of young men who need something a little more than UFC - overanalyzing the mildly philosophical moments so they can pretend they weren't just under hypnosis from the adrenaline rush they get watching fight scenes. After all, it's named fight club, not think club.