who we are and who we want to be

Rating: 10/10 (19 November 2003)

This is personally one of the most unbelievable film experiences I've had. The impact was so great that the few flaws are meaningless. Fincher is currently one of the top few directors to watch. The movie starts with taking you through the gun barrel and shows you Norton and Pitt's ending confrontation. We find out that Norton is the narrator who takes us back in time to tell us the story which explains the final scene. You the viewer get to watch Norton's story and you unknowingly watch: 1. Norton play his usual passive self 2. Norton play his imagined self 3. Norton watching his imagined self (Pitt). Everything runs against short term expectations and for the first 100 minutes the camera shows a confusing yet so engaging story.
Next, we have significant sub-plots that even intelligent people seem to forget:

Society cannot function without low-middle class workers.

Everyone strives to have the nicest material possessions which mean nothing for our survival.

We have this obsession with climbing an institutional societal pole and its our way of comparing ourselves to others. It's a big reason for low self-confidence and stress. Fight Club shows how ridiculous that notion is.

Men naturally have an itch to fight (usually mentally). What a great setting for the story to move around.

Most humans are two beings, who they are and who they want to be: as we find out later, Tyler Durden has the rare courage to run with who he wants to be.

Pitt, Carter, and especially Norton were unreal. Norton was truly multidimensional and Pitt was so cool he didn't even seem real. Fincher's translation transported me into his world and I love the lighting in his movies. I have never been hit so hard with a twist that I almost watched the movie twice in a row.
4 out of 4. If you don't understand why, work on your film vocabulary.