Gleefully subversive Fight Club!

Rating: Null/10 (15 October 1999)

It's been twenty-three years since Network's Madman of the Airwaves, Howard Beale (Peter Finch), railed: I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore. Now, David Fincher has found a protagonist even madder--and far more effective--in this masterpiece of subversive comedy. More than a few TVs and other meaningless consumer crap may hit the pavement by the end of the first weekend of its release and at least a few men will stop by the front office Monday morning to resign and retrieve their balls. The film is the nastier cousin of American Beauty, a white-hot nuclear blast at the meaningless materialism and bland security that has ensnared so many of us in cubicles during what might have been the best years of our lives. It's also an affirmation of the barbarian that struggles deep in the soul of every male against the bonds of social conditioning. And it's a spectacular, awesome entertainment. A perfect 10, don't miss it.