A story about an emotionless man who changes his life after meeting a man named Tyler and a woman named Marla

Rating: 10/10 (28 September 2017)

Fight Club Review
Fight Club is a bizarre film. It has a weird sense of pacing, the plot is extremely lucid and seemly has no overarching goal, the main character is extremely off-putting and doesn't even have a name, and many other elements of the film are strangely put together. Fight Club is an extremely experimental film that tries to break a majority of the set-rules of cinema, but does this leave it a shallow stylistic mess? Absolutely not! Despite its very odd presentation Fight Club is an extremely brilliant film, that holds a tremendous amount of depth.
Fight Club is a black-noir film, which means the story is narrated from the point of view of the main character. Being a black-noir film is also carries a few noir flavored troupes, being that the movie has a mysterious atmosphere, contains many twists and turns, depicts a cynical view of the modern world, and of course contains a whole lot of gritty violence and sex! What I found funny about this film is how it can shift from being dark and violent, to hilariously immature, to deep and intellectual. I love these types of juxtapositions sense they do a great job of keeping the audience off kilter.
An aspect I love about Fight Club is the excessive amount of theming and symbolism used. Almost every object, location, or person represents an important aspect of the character or of an overall theme. (Spoiler warning!) For example when the main characters fancy apartment is a representation of his personality. The apartment has all of the essential things for living and looks very presentable, but it has nothing with sentimental value and looks as if no one has even been living there. The main character focuses on being presentable and having the appearance of a whole person, but in reality lacks substance and emotional attachments. This metaphor is pushed further when the main characters house is burned down and he describes seeing his destroyed fridge as "embarrassing, fridge full of condiments and with no food". This further represents the idea that main character is the same way, full of ornamentation and with no substance. (Spoiler end). Personally I'm a sucker for clever symbolism and theming as it adds a deeper meaning to the actions of each character and of each scene. I wouldn't say it's any substitute for a good plot, but it definitely adds to the overall quality of the film, especially when it's done as subtle as this film.
The cinematography of this film is spot on! Each scene's lighting and camera angle is manipulated in such a way that it forces the viewer to feel a plethora of emotions. Many fight scenes brilliantly use the lighting to only show the highlights of the characters bodies, and keeps their faces in the dark. This is done to intensify each blow that dealt between fighters and to help portray just how gruesome it is. Many scenes are filmed indoors and are set-up with a very claustrophobic feeling. This is to heightened the theme of entrapment that a majority of the characters feel within their lives. There are many other cinematography ticks used throughout the film, some being extremely connected to the films major plot twist. To catch some of these subtle foreshadows sprinkled throughout the film, I highly suggest watching the film multiple times to try.
The last thing to talk about is the plot. I've been avoiding touching this since this film is best watched with as little information as possible. The key things I want to address is despite the film seemingly like it has little main goal or plot, there is a rather hidden main point of the film. The film overall is a story about a man who meets a man named Tyler and a woman named Marla, and it shows how the friendships he made with the two ultimately push the main character to change his life, for better or for worse. The film breaks a lot of rules about narrative progression but it still feels like a solid and well thought out story that's definitely worth a watch!
Overall Fight Club is a fantastic story with a lot of depth and I definitely recommend it to those who enjoy thrillers, and mysteries.