The most important cultural text in cinema.

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2001)

This is without doubt a phenominal movie that should change everything in, not just cinema, but the world. The whole film is a prophecy that reaches out to society, flailing in consumerism. The direction is perfect, subtle and uber-cool. Pitt and Norton both give career bests. Finally, Chuck Palanuk provides a source of unparallelled genius throughout. The first time you watch this movie, you enjoy it. It appears to be all good fun and the twist at the end is pretty stupifying. Then, maybe a few months later, you pick it up again (now well aware of who Tyler Durden is) and you realise that this truly is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. Not only are you over the initial spectacle of the whole thing and thus able to experience it at a deeper level, but the way Durden's schizophrenia is incorporated throughout the entire narrative makes you wonder how you didn't spot it before.
Now watch it a third time for true enlightenment. Gradually, as you here the dulcet tones of the Pixies once again, you realise everything makes sense now. That desire, that missing feeling you have felt since you were a kid, is suddenly satisfied, or at least identified. From this point on you can watch this movie again and again, and never get bored.
I think that Fight Club should have been shown twice in a row at the cinema, because that is the real experience. You look once and then you look again and it doesn't get worse, it gets better. In my opinion the same was true with The Usual Suspects and Memento. Both had shock endings, but when you have got over the gimmick of a twist you can really start to appreciate a classic like this.