Though it received a mixed response from critics and audiences upon its release, Fight Club is now considered one of the most influential movies of the 1990s. the movie also cemented David Fincher as one of the most visionary directors working in Hollywood. But people might ask themselves if this is really Fincher’s best film.
Fight Club is Fincher’s highest-ranked film on IMDb, but it’s impossible to ignore some of the other brilliant films he’s made. Fincher’s distinct style and varied filmography is filled with acclaimed classics and overlooked gems. While Fight Club could be his best, there are worth alternatives worth considering.
10 Fight Club: Tyler Durden
At the center of Fight Club is one of the most iconic movie characters of all time. Tyler Durden is introduced near the end of the first act and instantly becomes someone we can’t take out eyes off of.
His calm yet sinister world view is hypnotic. He is like some kind of destructive guru looking to upend the world. Brad Pitt gives one of his best performances as Durden, commanding the screen in every scene. He is a totally original character who will go down in film history.
9 Alternative: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008)
Fincher teamed with Brad Pitt again for the epic romance film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Pitt plays the titular man with a rare condition that causes him to age backward. The film tracks his journey and the woman (Cate Blanchett) he meets along the way.
The film marked Fincher’s first Oscar nomination for Best Director and Best Picture. Though some have dismissed it as a melodramatic, Fincher paints a beautiful decades-spanning story that delivers an emotional punch.
8 Fight Club: Dark Humor
It is clear from watching Fincher’s other films that he is a man with a very dark sense of humor. While it works to varying degrees in his other work, this is probably the best use of that distinct side of Fincher’s voice.
The movie is unapologetically dark and brutal, but Fincher plays into the absurdity of the story as well. Moments of dialogue and instances of shocking violence elicit laughs because Fincher understands how to balance the conflicting tones better than most filmmakers.
7 Alternative: Gone Girl (2014)
Returning to the thriller genre, Fincher adapted the popular novel Gone Girl for the big screen. Ben Affleck plays a man in a troubled marriage who finds himself the prime suspect when his wife suddenly goes missing.
Fincher’s directing style pairs wonderfully with screenwriter Gillian Flynn’s engrossing mystery. Affleck gives one of his best performances in the lead role and Rosamund Pike is excellent as his wife. It is the kind of movie that just gets better as more layers of the story are peeled back.
6 Fight Club: The Premise
At the center of the movie is a simple idea – men escape their overbearing life and embrace chaos by fighting each other. It is such a unique idea but it immediately grabs the audience’s attention. There is no other movie that has the personality of this movie and it all comes from that premise.
The idea of a “fight club” resonates with a lot of fans of the movie. Some see it as an actual path of salvation, others see it as a critic of society, while others see the endless metaphors it could be speaking to. All of this comes from a brilliant and original idea.
5 Alternative: Se7en (1995)
After a disappointing debut with Alien 3, Fincher showed off his true talents with the dark, gruesome and compelling crime thriller Se7en. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman play two detectives on the case of a serial killer who murders people based on the Seven Deadly Sins.
The disturbing script is elevated even further by Fincher’s ability to create an unrelentingly dark world. The story is gripping even as it is hard to watch and it all leads to an ending that remains one of the most impactful in film history.
4 Fight Club: The Twist
A good twist can really sell a movie to audiences and Fight Club has a very good twist. As soon as it becomes clear what’s going on, the viewer’s mind is blown and the entire story gets recontextualized.
The twist also makes the movie endlessly enjoyable to rewatch. Fans want to show their friends and see their reaction when the revelation comes. They want to go back and find all the clues that pointed to the surprise. It is one more thing that solidifies the movie in the minds of the audience.
3 Alternative: Zodiac (2007)
Fincher revisited the serial killer genre, this time tackling a real-life killer. Zodiac is an in-depth look at the Zodiac Killer whose murders in the San Francisco area in the 1970s have still gone unsolved. The movie focuses on the police and journalists investigating the crimes.
Certainly, one of Fincher’s most underrated works, it is a completely engrossing examination of these infamous murders. Fincher handles the massive story flawlessly while injecting an effective sense of humor.
2 Fight Club: The Ending
Some movies can never get past the impact of the twist. They deliver a revelation that leaves audiences completely shocked, but then they still have to end the movie. Fight Club actually reveals its twist at the beginning of the third act yet still manages to deliver an unforgettable ending.
The confrontation of the Narrator and Tyler comes to an explosive end but that final shot of them looking out over the city as bombs go off and buildings crumble with “Where is My Mind” playing over it all remains an iconic movie moment.
1 Alternative: The Social Network (2010)
A movie about Facebook sounded lame to many people when it was announced by Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin crafted a brilliant modern masterpiece with The Social Network. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg, the man whose creation of the social networking platform earned him a lot of enemies.
The movie has been hailed as many as the best film of the 2010s and it’s not hard to see why. Fincher brings an epic scale to the storytelling and Sorkin’s script is sharp, funny, and energetic from beginning to end. All these years later, it feels like an important and timely Shakespearean tale.
