I am Jack's need for multiple comments

Rating: 10/10 (23 April 2002)

I recently saw Panic Room, which was so commercial it brought up an old question. A question which I thought was interesting enough to write a second Fight Club comment about (trust me, it's the first and only time).
So why does a movie attacking consumerism contain the flashiest style you've ever seen? Why is it so spectacular? For the same reason it's loaded with advertising messages (check all those Starbucks cups!). It's not hypocrisy, it's irony. To get the movie's messages to a large audience, it has to be flashy and spectacular, because else we probably wouldn't be watching. We are all part of the same hypocrisy, especially the filmmakers (didn't anybody see the irony in casting pretty-boy Brad Pitt, having him criticize the Calvin Klein-ideal of a man only to show off his hard abs a couple of scenes later?). The film is counter-culture but all counter-culture is part of the culture it's rebelling against. To deny that, to deny this film was made to make money; that would've been hypocritical. What it does instead, is realise the inherent problem in adapting a book into an art form that is almost by definition commercial (you can't afford to make movies nobody's willing to pay to see) and play into that. It exaggerates Hollywood conventions to a level where it's kind of ridiculous. It doesn't attack the stylistics themselves but our preoccupation with seeing them (much like it doesn't attack personal property but consumerism instead - there's a significant difference). It gives us what we want (exactly the same goes for the movie's ending) but in a way that's so over the top you can't help but look at it with a big smile on out faces.
And big smiles is what this film is after as much as contemplation. Fight Club is not some heavy study of today's society and it certainly doesn't provide all the answers to the questions it poses. It's a comedy and a smart one too, because it realises sometimes merely highlighting the questions is enough. Fight Club is not fascist, not hypocritical and not the answer (as another commenter already pointed out; if you liked it, you're probably part of the problem). Fight Club just is.
Rating: (still) 10/10