David Fincher Ranked

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ranked"-where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of David Fincher-whose latest project "Mank" debuts on Netflix this Friday.

David Fincher's Filmography Ranked:

8.The Game (C)

7.Panic Room (C+)

6.Zodiac (B)

5.Seven (A-)

4.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (A)

3.The Social Network (A)

2.Gone Girl (A)

1.Fight Club (A+)

Top Dog: Fight Club (1999)

I'm not a big reader, but Fight Club is an incredible novel that ranks very high on the shortlist of books I would call my favorites. Fincher's film adaptation pulled off the unthinkable by actually improving upon the spectacular source material. Courtesy of an overload of visceral punk energy and ensemble cast (Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Jared Leto, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier) that fearlessly tackled this complex material that could've easily gone sideways in the hands of less committed performers, Fincher brought the dark wit, rampant mindfuckery and smart commentary on toxic masculinity that drives the novel to life in truly flawless fashion.

Lowlight: The Game (1997)

Gone Girl showed that Fincher could gracefully handle a thriller that is full of salacious, unexpected and borderline insane turns. Whether it was because of his relative inexperience as a narrative filmmaker at the time of its release or just poor writing, his first crack with material of that nature didn't go nearly as well. The Game squanders a strong start that is full of Fincher's signature tension/narrative misdirection with a flurry of convoluted plot twists and a truly awful climactic reveal that cheapens the entire mystery that drives the plot.

Most Underrated: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

English language remakes often get killed on principle in film nerd circles and there have been some cases in recent years (Oldboy, The Upside) where the American versions fell short of the quality of the subtitled original. Then there are instances like with Fincher's version of the Swedish mystery thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo where the quality is the same, if not better as the initial film. Fincher's gift for creating tense, haunting atmospheres made him the perfect director to bring this bleak yet compelling slow burn of a story to a wider audience and the astonishing work Rooney Mara does as Lisbeth Salander-the hacker protagonist with a traumatic past-has a layer of visible emotional anguish beneath the character's stoic intensity that Noomi Rapace's more widely lauded performance simply didn't have. 

Most Overrated: Zodiac (2007)

Zodiac is a smart, well-acted mystery thriller that does a good job of introducing the lore of perhaps the most notorious serial killer in American history to unfamiliar audiences, I'm just not onboard with the increasingly popular take that it's one of the best movies of the past 20 years. Its 157-minute runtime is kind of hard to justify considering the several pockets of narrative dead air that arise throughout and while inevitable considering that the identity of the Zodiac has never been discovered, the ambiguous ending is a letdown after spending 2.5 hours watching people dedicate their lives to figuring out who was responsible for the killings. 

An Entire Paragraph Gushing About Gone Girl:

While truly excellent films tend to emerge at least a few times every year, it's not very often that something floors you to the point where it renders you speechless. The last time this phenomenon occurred to me was a little over six years ago when I saw Gone Girl in theaters on opening night. Making a project that succeeds as a twisty mystery thriller and a wide-ranging satire requires smart writing, confident directing and dynamic acting to pull off and the efforts of the individuals responsible for helping pull off this delicate balancing act can not be undersold. Gillian Flynn's script is immensely detailed and completely unpredictable, Fincher manufactures a feeling of uneasiness that maximizes the effectiveness of the frequent game-changing revelations this story offers up and the acting of everyone from leads Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck down to the small supporting players such as Kim Dickens, Casey Wilson and Tyler Perry couldn't have possibly been any better.