Mischief. Mayhem. Masterpiece.

Rating: 10/10 (30 September 2001)

Being definitely the best movie of 1999, it is impossible to discover the reason of why this movie received so few awards. When I look at the awards page of "Fight Club", what do I see? That the movie won OFCS awards for best DVD and best DVD awards. Well, I thought that opinions are not to be discussed, but I got to say this one: SHAME ON YOU!!! This movie is one of the best in movie history, I have no doubt, and I can start figuring a why to explain its overlooking by the academy awards and others: it is a violent slap in the face of all the people who think they are safe in their monochordic lives, their credit cards, their stable jobs and their month paychecks, which are used for owning things "which end up owning ourselves". The philosophy of the movie is brutal, and never before seen in a movie made in USA grounds. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt turn out establishing themselves as two of the best actors to ever grace the silver screen, and David Fincher leaves us drooling for his next feature. This movie will stagger even the most coldly hearted, as it depicts the life of a character whose name we don't know (not until the end, that is), who we know just by the name of "Jack", and who lives a more than normal live: shirts, kakis, ties, a desk job, a nice paycheck and his nights spent decorating his house and seeing the tv-shopping. Jack has a problem: he can't sleep. He will find the cure for this problem, but he will also find lots of other things. I can guarantee it, you have never seen anything like this movie, and never miss out the first 30 minutes, which have a frenetic rhythm to go with Jack's first-person point of view of his life before his problems. I thought that "Se7en" was one of my favorite movies. It still is, but it isn't alone. The fact that both movies come from the same director, it means a lot - it means that David Fincher is a powerhouse director who has a lot to give, and from who we may expect great and landmark-ish things from the future. I take my hats off to the whole team: Pitt and Norton are stand-outs, the script is the whole asset of the movie (Chuck Palahniuk's novel (from which the movie is inspired) is a smacking good piece of literature), the Dust Brothers' electronic score is a record to own, Helena Bonham Carter's Marla is as perfect as she could possibly be, the photography, the sound and the editing just make your jaw drop. Never miss out this one, and if you have a DVD player, enjoy even more the experience in a finely-crafted package - at least it won awards for that! One of those movies I would have given an 11. No less.