September 17: Fight Club

Fight Club

The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. David Fincher’s stylized adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk book is a darkly comic and intoxicatingly energetic screen thunderbolt, a visually striking, critically polarizing, and often misunderstood exploration of modern-day man, mischief, madness, mayhem and soap. Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter turn in powerful performances, while the Dust Brothers provide a propulsive score.

“An outrageous mixture of brilliant technique, puerile philosophizing, trenchant satire and sensory overload, Fight Club is the most incendiary movie to come out of Hollywood in a long time. It’s a mess, but one worth fighting about.” – David Ansen, Newsweek

“Shot in a convulsive, stream-of-unconsciousness style, with disruptive subliminals, freeze frames and fantasy cutaways, the film does everything short of rattling your seat to get a reaction. You can call that irresponsible. Or you can call it the only essential Hollywood film of 1999.” – Time Out