Seven Through the Looking Glass

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 1999)

On many levels, Fight Club defies description. It appears to carry on a trend in 1999 film-making which emphasizes the surreal, and the alienated life of the average prole. Think "Matrix" or "American Beauty". There are commonalities here.
The film starts off emphatically within the narrator's head: we not only hear his words as he thinks them, but we see his visualization of the world as he sees it. Just how far does this go? I'm not telling......
Fight Club does not extol or glorify violence in any form. In fact, at the end of the film, there is a body count of exactly one, and this was a sort-of accidental death. The film's central point is: how do individuals, particularly male individuals, socialized into a set of expectations regarding how they fit into society(and how society is supposed to reward them), deal with the crushing disappointment of their own insignificance and metaphoric imasculation? It is a question one still asks coming out of the theatre.
This is a great addition to David Fincher's resume. I don't think the film is as tight script-wise as "Seven", but the film has more to say than anything else Fincher has done in the past. It is a dystopic vision. But then, we have a dystopic world.
Enjoy!