Y’all had a much different reaction than me to Zodiac. That movie fucked with me. Not a fun warm blanket re-watch incredible, but disturbing and messed with my sleep for weeks.
1. The Social Network 2. Zodiac 3. Se7en 4. Gone Girl 5. Fight Club 6. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 7. The Killer 8. Panic Room 9. Mank 10. Benjamin Button 11. Alien 3 Still haven’t seen The Game. It has been deeply rewarding revisiting most of these for Blank Check’s coverage of Fincher. Highly recommend that pod to anyone that likes his movies. The Killer episode drops in 2 weeks
this was fine. i was never bored, and the Florida scene was great, as mentioned already. gave myself a few days before really deciding on it and then realized i hadn’t thought about it once since it ended, which isn’t a great review on its own. some of the camera work felt distinctly un-fincher, i’m sure there’s reasoning for that i just can’t determine what it is. ending felt like it was written to meet an approaching deadline. fincher is a technical master, hands down, and it’s worth a watch. i don’t see myself revisiting it in the future, though.
There Will Be Blood No Country For Old Men Secret Sunshine Zodiac Hot Rod also remains one of my favorite comedies and I’m sure there’s a few I am missing but yeah, 2007 was great.
I made this list a while back on Letterboxd, but I generally agree with it. 1. There Will Be Blood 2. Syndromes and a Century 3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days 4. I'm Not There 5. Zodiac 6. No Country for Old Men 7. Regular Loves 8. 12:08 East of Bucharest 9. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone 10. Offside
I consider 2007 to be my "1999" since I was actually old enough to be at the movies every week unlike in 99 when I only saw kids movies during that actual year
2007 was my awakening year. I had watched some offbeat stuff in high school, but I was really bored and decided to go see No Country for Old Men. I hadn't really seen a movie that intense or powerful. From there I really dove in going to the movies every week and getting a Netflix account. I actually didn't like Zodiac the first time I saw it. I thought it was boring and overrated. It made much more of an impression on me years later.
Rewatched this at home after seeing it in theaters a couple weeks ago. Still one of my favorites of the year. While the plot is such basic genre stuff, it works so well for me because of the humor. It works as a thriller and as a black comedy about a loser control freak who keeps fucking up while promising himself and the audience that he's got it all figured out. I love the last act where Fassbender's stalking Tilda Swinton and is genuinely perplexed that someone in his line of work is living an enjoyable lifestyle ("amongst the normies"). People are lumping it in with the sigma bro incel category but it's way more of a parody of that character than it's getting credit for.
Also, re: The Smiths -- Having the killer just assassinate someone to How Soon is Now? would be a lame "cool movie" move; having the killer listen to 15 Smiths songs throughout the course of the movie is incredible and hilarious
I saw it as less about sigma bro incels and more taking aim at hustle culture and obnoxious linkedin "my tips to success" type guys (though I imagine there is a good amount of overlap in the two groups). Our protagonist is always giving advice on how to stay on top or knowledge about his profession, but his actions show that he is full of shit. We typically see him in the context of gig economy and tech bros, staking out at a failed WeWork, ordering from amazon, talking about storage unit auctions, etc. His actions reflect the ultimate desire of the ruling class - get the workers to compete with each other so they can remain unharmed. He kills all his peers, but when it comes time to pull the trigger on someone who pulls the strings, he lets them off with a warning.
Yup the assassin in the context of the gig economy stuff was brilliant. One thing I noticed on rewatch was the difference between how Tilda Swinton and the billionaire client react when the killer shows up. Swinton sees him and immediately realizes who he is, what he's gonna do, and the fact that she's doomed. The billionaire is so unaccustomed to actually experiencing consequences that he takes forever to realize the armed man in his apartment is related to the murder he paid for a few weeks ago. That line at the end is crucial where Fassbender's like "...you seriously have no idea why I'm here?" Early in the movie he talks about how he doesn't know or care to know about the clients or their goals; He finally meets one, and it's just this billionaire doofus who caused this whole movie to happen and yet forgot about it like you'd forget what you had for dinner a month ago.