Ambitious, intriguing, flawed

Rating: 7/10 (1 August 2005)

In an environment where so many movies seem to have been formulated entirely by the marketing department, a movie that even tries to tell a story and express fairly sophisticated ideas is already above average, even if it doesn't do everything right.
'Fight Club' contains some fun social satire, mocking corporate doublespeak and the culture of 'recovery.' It also contains a portrait of a kind of fascism that is quite reminiscent of the followers of Mussolini, with their anti-rationalism and their cult of action and virility. The movie has a sense of humor on occasion, and a central puzzle that keeps the viewer scrambling to put the pieces together.
On the other hand, it also glorifies the culture of violence that it purports to critique. The commentary track on the DVD shows that the filmmakers are blind to this: did they ask themselves whether their scathing attack on "frat boys who take themselves too seriously and shave their heads" was actually presented in such a way as to appeal to said frat boys? Are the endless scenes of men beating each other up necessary to make a point? I quickly started to find them tedious, and began to wonder for whose benefit they were being offered.