A dark, atmospheric, crazy film.

Rating: 9/10 (25 November 2000)

Fight club is mind blowing the first time you watch it. Walking out of the cinema after watching it was a strange experience, a comedown to reality. And watching it for the second time brings across the cleverness of the film. The first viewing is emotionally stimulating and further viewings are intellectually stimulating in my view. Here's why:

The film has a great atmosphere-this comes across from
i-the dark locations filmed in
ii-the excellent soundtrack which is deep and unintrusive, almost subliminal.
iii-the central place given to the 'darker' sides of human nature.
In this context however, the darker sides of human nature are one result of our consumption driven society, stereotyped in the film. It is necessary to experience these sides of our nature to escape from this to a future free of inclinations created solely from our environment. Or this is how the film comes across to me.
The film's message is powerful but I can't help thinking that it goes too far the other way in its exploration of a cliche. It has similarities to American Psycho. (Bret Easton Ellis praised the book if I remember rightly) But in both these films/book the characterisation of a material possessio n frenzy seems over the top, although it is more of a satire in American Psycho.
The film is effective in portraying how we are, to an extent, a product of our society and its conventions and our possessions but I take the view with films that they also bring us away from reality. Films form part of the experiences we are constructed of and we need to look critically at what the film is trying to make us feel.
The film is amazing on the second viewing because its cleverness really comes across. Without giving anything away, I thought it wouldn't be coherent when watching it again after knowing the ending. However it does work, requiring only a fairly small amount of suspension of disbelief.

Fight club deserves a nine, it was the best film of the year, if not longer.