The Reel Rejects - FIGHT CLUB (1999) MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

After years of anticipation & with David Fincher's The Killer streaming on Netflix, John gives us his First Time Watching the classic piece of subversive, '90s cinema, FIGHT CLUB - starring Brad Pitt ...(Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Edward Norton (The Incredible Hulk, Birdman), & Helena Bonham Carter (Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) along with appearances from Jared Leto (Morbius), Meat Loaf (Bat Out of Hell), Holt McCallany (Mindhunter), and MORE!! Reacting to all the best scenes & most iconic moments, including The First Rule of Fight Club,I Want You To Hit Me, Chemical Burn, Jack's Smirking Revenge, Letting Yourself Become Tyler Durden, Tyler Durden Philosophy of LIfe, and beyond. Did this live up to the legacy?? Join me for some Mischief, Mayhem, & SOAP!!! Fight Club Full Movie Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Aparrel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad: Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG On INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:55 I remember seeing the picture of Brad Pitt in the calendar section of the newspaper. We're being very compelled by that image. And since then, the mystique has only built. I can only imagine what the actual experience of watching the movie will be like at this point. But we're going to break that illusion in just a moment. It's time for David Finch's Fight Club based on the novel by Chuck Palanick Pollanuck. Now, however you say that, leave a like for cinematic adaptations of novels. Leave a like for what I am sure is going to be a completely inspiring and aspirational
Starting point is 00:02:28 motion picture. Be sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell to get notified every time one of these movie reactions comes your way or could come your way. And as always, big thanks to Prepper for helping us edit down these highlights. It is tough work. And if you would like to see everything
Starting point is 00:02:44 that doesn't make these reaction highlight reels, you want to get the full fight club experience alongside me. Come on over to patreon.com slash the real rejects where you can sync up with your own copy. We also got a ton of other shows and movies over there with highlights and watch alongs included. Without further ado, my friends, get yourself some reject merch.
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Starting point is 00:03:31 Oh, who. Oh, where is your mind? This is down in some deep dark hole somewhere. Narrator, they call him. And they even spliced a fun little image in for us at the very end. Wow, dude. I'm going to need a minute to press. process this.
Starting point is 00:04:02 It's good, though, because like after so many years of, again, having this movie, you know, built up and its, you know, status continuing to grow and shift as society continues to grow and shift, like, you know, this certainly was a substantial meal, something to chew on, you know, I would have been fascinated to have experienced this at the time in which it, you know, was originated, but also from the here and now, fascinating. experience. Uh, I love this powder blue text for the credits here. Why, why don't we take a second? I'm gonna, I'm gonna just, you know, process this for a hot mo. And, uh, let's, let's, let's hear from our, uh, video sponsors today. Completely infitting with this motion picture. Thank you to Shopify for sponsoring, which is what we use for our merch store and is our game changing partner in e-com. So whether you're launching a passion project or scaling to new heights, Shopify is the e-commerce powerhouse guiding you at every step. From creating your first online store to opening physical locations, Shopify makes it seamless.
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Starting point is 00:07:24 That's ExpressVPN.com slash rejects. So how to ExpressVPN.com slash rejects to learn more. Thank you again. Oh, my goodness. Okay. God, man, finally. Like, this movie has been looming over me since it came out way back in the day. I wasn't kidding.
Starting point is 00:07:44 Like, this in Blade, I feel like came out around the same time. And we're both movies where, like, I saw the poster in the, you know, newspaper section where they had all the movies and I, like, would cut it. out and be like oh man i don't know what this is uh but i want to see it you know mischief mayhem and soap it grabbed me good marketing and uh i can't imagine what i would have gotten out of this if i'd watched it at the time of release obviously i think i think i've kind of at least from my vantage point here in this moment i feel like i've caught this at the right time in my life because obviously i mean you know this is a movie that's been hot hotly debated over time and
Starting point is 00:08:24 And certainly, you know, whenever you see memes online of like the quintessential, if you idolize this character, you're missing the point starter package figures. You know, you often see Tyler Durden included among them. And for good reason. I mean, this is, it's a fascinating sort of Roershack test, I guess I would call it, because, yeah, this is, it reminds me certainly of, oh, God, what was the other movie that came to mind? Just as we're American Psycho, certainly, where like there's a certain amount of people who really kind of buy in wholeheartedly to the power fantasy that that movie presents and the perspective of its lead character. And granted here, you know, the lead character is, you know, a duel is a split personality, essentially. But, you know, Jack and Tyler are cut of the same cloth. They're two sides of the same mind.
Starting point is 00:09:20 and yeah it's it's the humanity or what's what's left of the humanity this like stunted kind of neutral human presence in jack being you know sort of further and further corrupted by you know this persona he dreamed up to you know realize what he sees as being his full potential and the way in which i found it fascinating you know because this is one of those movies that has that twist and i feel like it's hard it joins a pantheon or it joined a pantheon of you know movies that have some sort of, yeah, alternate personality motif either meant to, you know, shock us with a twist or I think here more directly just sort of comment, like, I think there are two uses often of this twist. Either it will be to get, you know, a shock in on you and, you know, really pull the rug out and kind of try and dazzle you with cleverness. Or I think, you know, this is an example of a movie where, like, it is a surprise, certainly. It is a twist. twist. But I feel like it is more of a thematic element. And even though part of the fun I would imagine would be going back and rewatching the film and sort of noting where and how Tyler appears
Starting point is 00:10:32 around other people and what their interactions are like and, you know, when you trade, you know, the figurative, you know, visual representation for who is really talking in any given moment, you know, it's like, I'm sure you'll be switching out like they're like they acknowledge. Sometimes Jack is like on the periphery to sort of spectating and is sort of, um, you know, much further from the spotlight as he just lets Tyler take control and, you know, and lets him grandstand and, and really soaks in just the full, complete indulgence of being Tyler, maybe with, with one toe still in reality. Then there are the times where, yeah, he's blacking out and becoming entirely Tyler. And granted, we don't really see a heck of a lot of Tyler on his own. But it is fascinating, too,
Starting point is 00:11:18 because yeah like just thinking back again like this is one of those movies where you start to talk about it you start to kind of think about and break it down and especially the way we shoot these you know here in real time part of me is like oh man there's going to be so much more that probably would come from a second examination or just further rumination and whatnot but yeah i thought this made really interesting use of a motif like that and yeah as a means of commenting on you know the kind of position that we meet this guy in or at least the perspective of that is extolled through his narrations and his sort of declining mental state as the movie goes on. This guy who, you know, it's funny. He, what is it? Because American Psychos, Brett Eastonel is, right? And then this is Chuck Pollanick,
Starting point is 00:12:03 American Psycho author. Yes, okay, yeah, Brett Eastonels. So, like, it's interesting that these should come from a similar moment in time for both literature and cinema because, like, these do feel very akin to one another in a sense because you have this protagonist who's living this yuppie, you know, cataloged successful kind of life where he's got the condo and he's got all his furniture needs taken care of and he spends
Starting point is 00:12:32 time, you know, meticulously orchestrating and stressing over material things stuff. And his life has become this sort of empty cycle of clocking into work where he doesn't feel very autonomous or empowered, you know, he feels obviously the enwee that comes with being just a cog in a repeating cycle in a society that prioritizes productivity and efficiency while also, you know, sort of creating these wasteful frameworks in order to achieve that, at least some of the time certainly is illustrated by moments in this movie like when they're having that little meeting and the guy takes a break to be like, you know, efficiency is the top priority as we go through the motions of this presentation.
Starting point is 00:13:15 And so, like, it's a fun thought experiment, and I can see why, again, much like an American Psycho or a Joker or something like that, how you might have, again, it's easy to probably look upon this and have it, what am I trying to say? It's like, there's not as clear of a prescribed, I guess, message, only in that I would imagine that this is the kind of work that especially... kind of peers back into the reader, and I can certainly see how some people would feel gravitated toward and enticed by Tyler Durdens' whole philosophy, and I can understand the sort of, again, feeling of anger and sort of rage with no direction or no, like, proper outlet,
Starting point is 00:14:05 and, yeah, just the resentment and, I don't know, the sort of decay that can put on your soul as your of further and further consumed by, you know, the bullshit of modern living. And, you know, you don't feel very in control of or very powerful in your circumstances, perhaps. You know, these are two guys who are living in the illusion of that. And certainly American Psycho, you know, looks at it more from the top, whereas this is looking at it more from the bottom. You know, it's like you have the white collar, yuppie guy, an American Psycho, with that kind of specific anui and detachment and disregard for human humanity in particular. And then here, you know, you're looking up as, you know, from the perspective of the marginalized and the forgotten,
Starting point is 00:14:52 not in terms of maybe, you know, there are various ways in which, you know, you can find yourself in that position. This way is looking at it from, you know, the sort of the middle class rat race kind of perspective where it's like, yeah, you're just one of a number of faceless cogs in a big machine and it doesn't really care about you and it just incentivizes you to keep consuming and to keep fretting about things that don't really matter when meaningful experience lies right outside and just outside the track that society sort of prescribes to you and then you know you basically watches these characters these people who gravitate toward the fight club you know find their uh means of sort of yeah stripping all that away you know down
Starting point is 00:15:36 to the bone sort of orchestrating this weird hyper-physical ego death. And like it's a fascinating thing and I think that it earns its contentious and also, you know, a well-regarded place in, you know, both cinema and I'm sure literary
Starting point is 00:15:52 history in that, yeah, like there are a lot of people who probably take the wrong message from this and who probably do just idolize Tyler wholesale. And it's tricky because it's like certain of those philosophies kind of make sense. You know, it's like at least some of the baselines of, again, you know, not being so consumed by material items and, yeah, having a cookie cutter life because that's what society tells you to do if, you know, you're missing out on, you know, there's so many things that we, yeah, get wrapped up in and that feel so important and so, you know, sort of life altering or shaping or whatever it is, so pertinent. And they really aren't. And there are so many things that feel like rules in society that really aren't.
Starting point is 00:16:35 But this is kind of taking the frustration that comes with, again, that lack of control and that lack of, you know, feeling that you're unique and valuable and all that stuff. And it's taking it to like the furthest possible opposite extent where by the end they're making their own faceless, you know, little, you know, this militia of sorts. But that is basically all kind of trickling down from the orders of one guy and this one ideology and nobody has names. everyone's kind of faceless, they all dress the same, and nobody asks questions, and they're all just sort of like 100% all in on this ideology. And it's, you know, it's just an equal opposite, you know, sort of corrosive system that they create. And then you're watching as Jack, you know, is sort of in the middle of all this, being pulled from, yeah, the ennui and the malaise that come with the rat race of society into this feral state of, yeah, like, squatting in this old building and making soaps and learning how to homemake bombs and then you know literally taking to the streets and committing acts of terror and trying to physically destroy these things that keep us again complacent and distracted by so many things that are unimportant by comparison to you know the things in life that really make us want to you know
Starting point is 00:17:57 live and reach our best potential and so it's like you're watching all this mayhem again and this this you know sort of wild unbridled you know corrosive id on display basically it's just following like the most base animal instincts the most it's making a collective but out of like this individualist uh kind of i don't know it's weird it's there's an interesting sort of individual but then the group is also an individual because of how homogenized everything is and we are a monolith you know nobody talks about this thing outside of the moments in which we uh you know meet up and And that even, too, like, there are lots of great clues throughout to the Tyler Twist, I think, just, just, again, thinking back on this first watch with, like, the flickers where he shows up, or are certain choice moments of dialogue that are certainly going to elude me now. But, but, yeah, just like different ways in which they kind of draw attention to and foreshadow the twist, I think, are kind of fun and interesting.
Starting point is 00:18:56 As well as, as in this moment, I'm reminded of the line where he basically says, like, you know, fight club this this thing we do doesn't exist it only exists when we meet up to do this and uh and yeah just like little cheeky uh nods in the dialogue like that and so then yeah physically in that moment you know jack is in the center of the room addressing everyone as tyler while the jack persona yeah sort of hangs on the periphery and observes and it's interesting just to see yeah the different positions and proximities the personalities and habit or even the way again just like when they're at house just Tyler is always just kind of like bouncing around in the back and he's always like munching on stuff and he's I wonder if they even maybe had him appearing and disappearing from
Starting point is 00:19:43 places that wouldn't entirely make sense like he does feel like somebody who's just kind of walking around all through the back of this guy's mind uh you know jack and and yeah just like the way this all starts out this is yeah definitely a stylized movie the dialogue and the pace I'll have a real rhythm about him. And I like the way that Ed Norton, you know, really brought this permeating sense of malaise and detachment throughout. And I'm reminded of that one scene where he's like, you know, lying to the officer on the phone or feigning concern over his blown up apartment as the guy's investigating.
Starting point is 00:20:19 And it's like you're watching an actor give a performance where a guy is acting over the phone. And, you know, it's always a fun little meta layer where you're like, you know, Jack is probably not, you know, the actor that Ed Norton is. So to watch somebody do that layer of, I'm in character, but this character is acting. It's always an interesting thing. And I think that's another sort of nice little, just spiritually attuned little detail here. And yeah, just his interplayoff of Brad Pitt. And I do wonder if that's like an Easter egg that actually kind of cements that because
Starting point is 00:20:51 Brad Pitt certainly is cast for a reason. He, again, at this time, I feel like his. profile would have been pretty high, and he's still in the younger phase of his career. So he's like, you know, super hot as is on display frequently throughout this. And so I wonder if it is that thing where it's where it is that Jack's, you know, knows who Brad Pitt is and, you know, has seen some of his movies and just chose this guy subconsciously as, you know, the embodiment of all the things that he wish he could be his most alpha and his most masculine instincts. And And yeah, again, that's the kind of interesting and conflicting thing about this is that there are aspects of Tyler's message that are enticing and that do, you know, sort of call upon you to free yourself from, yeah, the shackles of the mundane, the stuff in your life that's weighing you down because it's not actually important.
Starting point is 00:21:43 And like that scene where they hold the guy up at the liquor store and he, you know, grills him about like, what did you go to school for, you know, stuff. No, be more specific than that. Come on. You know, like, this is important. This is a life and death situation. What did you go to school for? Biology. Why? Biology stuff. I don't know. I wanted to be a vet. You know, like getting past all these layers, you know, that we accumulate. Some of them are thrust on us. Some of them we pick up in different ways. But, you know, society, life in society, especially in modern society, you know, it is a hard thing to find your footing in, especially if you are not, you know, in the upper crust of it. You know, it could be really hard to find purpose in life and feel like you're in tune with like the reason that you're actually here. And, you know, yeah, I think the interesting thing and the thing that makes this movie so heavily debatable
Starting point is 00:22:36 is the fact that, yeah, on face value aspects of Tyler's, you know, call and philosophy, you know, do kind of ask that you, yeah, free yourself in some ways, you know, harshly, maybe ripping a Band-Aid off to kind of free yourself of, you know, so many things that you've been saddled with and to create the sort of rush of immediacy that forces you to make a choice,
Starting point is 00:22:59 make a change, make a growth of some kind. But, yeah, it's just taken to the most rotten extent because it's not tempered by anything. It becomes just this festering, destructive miasma where it is, you know, seeking basically to inflict this ideology on everyone and everything to, yeah, reshape the world, you know, as we, you know, this,
Starting point is 00:23:21 this angry, marginalized fuse sort of see fit, angry, entitled, disaffected, you know, to pull a buzzword. Like, it is the worst of all the masculine instincts kind of amalgamated together and then inflicted upon the world around. Because it's true, it's like it's interesting. You know, it's like, yeah, I think it's true that you don't really, there are things you just don't ever know about yourself until you're in a fight or until you're in some kind of intense, maybe even life or death situation. And there are ways to deal with and sort of broach that, you know, that can be healthy or whatever or at least can make you into a well-rounded person. And I feel like that's the interesting thing here is that like, you know, nobody's trying to get to the
Starting point is 00:24:05 point of well-roundedness. It's like an extreme reaction to an extreme feeling that's begat by just a bunch of little, you know, again, mundane factors building up and overlapping into, yeah, a pile of what can often very much feel like bullshit and make people feel invisible and alone. But that, but that, yeah, you don't need to go destroying everyone's world literally to make change on or to wake up from. I mean, it's up to the individual to wake up from this anyway and not necessarily, again, to just inflict this chaos and this theory wantonly on everybody. And the further society goes, and now we have a much more, you know, sort of technologically and client society than when this movie was made, but it's still there in the way they reject TV and media. And two, the way you have ads throughout this movie, I was curious, and I bet
Starting point is 00:24:57 it's a little bit of both as to whether there was like product placement intentionally just to get budget, or if it was also kind of messaging that, yeah, these advertisements and this stuff, this onslaught of stuff is just omnipotent and ever encroaching upon your reality. You know, there's just, yeah, there's a lot to what Tyler Durden is getting at, or at least like the seed that grows this gnarled tree that is Tyler Durdon, you know, the waking up from, you know, the mundane rat race that chips away at your soul and that just mutes your passion and makes you feel, you know, castrated or impotent or, you know, ailing in various ways, marginalized in various ways, you know, breaking out of that and creating circumstances in which you have to really just sort of be in the moment here and now making a choice. and, you know, unlocking the potential of just the randomness of being a lot. Like, there are ways in which that message is valid, and there are healthy ways of enacting it.
Starting point is 00:25:59 But part of the point is that you're watching this philosophy filtered through the most extreme reaction to what is happening. I mean, this guy snaps. He blows up his apartment. By the end, we realized this guy snapped, you know, blew up the apartment full of stuff. He'd spent so much time sculpting and fussing over. and then, yeah, completely had a wholesale rejection of, you know, the entire societal system. And then by the end, realize it's like, oh, God, I got to meet somewhere in the middle, actually.
Starting point is 00:26:27 You've had me at a very strange time in my life where I'm finally maybe starting to learn that, like, yeah, you do need to take control of your life. And there are certain people you do just need to tell off. There are certain things that you do need to, you know, reject or refuse to stand for or whatever it is. However, you can't just go forcing this on everybody and assuming that this one ideology is good for everyone because that's kind of what's happening and that's kind of what's happening in the thing that you're reacting to.
Starting point is 00:26:57 So yeah, and then you have Marla on the other side who is like just as much sort of left to languish underneath the shadow of, you know, a pretty uncaring and constantly cycling system. And I mean, their relationship, a part of me was expecting her not to be real by the end too just because again, like, whenever she steps out into traffic, there's this just sort of like otherworldly thing where like, you know, just like the cars gracefully are always missing her. And like whenever Ed Norton steps out on the street, it's complete opposite. Just like chaos immediately. But yeah, her presence, I would be curious to go back and reexamine because, you know, he meets this girl in his space. And I mean, there are women in these support groups. But I think that there's something else interesting in the fact that, yeah, he's. And what a twist. hook to start off with this guy who is you know emotionally repressed and who feels again just
Starting point is 00:27:51 marginalized by the circumstances of his life and and made sort of voiceless and impotent and and uh you know unimportant by all these other concerns around him that he is just sort of in the middle of maintaining uh you know he finds a means of you know unlocking his vulnerability and his emotions but also in like a weird experimental kind of anthropological sociopathic kind of way crashing these support groups pretending to have these ailments becoming territorial over them gatekeeping them and then this girl shows up who is this is in the same form as his like there are other women in the support groups and stuff but you don't really ever they don't really ever break out of the ensembles of those moments whereas like marla
Starting point is 00:28:41 you know, is, you know, kind of the equal, you know, female counterpart in certain ways to Jack, except a little less unhinged, you know, from a different life experience, different perspective, et cetera. And like, watching them work out, who gets which support groups, when and all that stuff. And just, yeah, that idea that this guy is, like, unlocking his ability to, like, feel these, these unbroken swells of emotion that have probably been building up and festering for so long, only to then swing back in the opposite direction. Like, it's an interesting sort of exploration of, yeah, of coming of age when your growth is sort of stunted by a lot of the things that can stunt growth in society.
Starting point is 00:29:23 It's easy to grow up into a 30-year-old boy or child or whatever he says there. So, yeah, coming to this place where it's like he gets these extreme emotional outbursts and outpourings, you know, through these intimate interactions with these, these survivors or these people who are coping with various ailments, people who actually have real, that's the thing, is, I think it doesn't help to be like, these people have real problems and the character of Jack doesn't. It's like their problems are much more grim and existential in a
Starting point is 00:29:56 sense, certainly. And, you know, it doesn't always, it doesn't pay to start comparing, you know, problems. But yeah, it's like, if you're looking at it from the outside, you're like, this guy who doesn't have any sort of like real life threatening problem at the moment other than yeah the sort of oppressive malaise that can set on when you're living in capitalist society yeah it's like he's this grifting sort of cipher that comes in and and that genuinely seems to i guess maybe want to feel something but also doesn't understand enough to process all of those emotions and then yeah instead of you know i guess the the reason that doesn't fully work is because, yeah, it's still doesn't fix the, you know, sort of sense of rage from within and the longing to, like, take some kind of meaningful action to catch everyone's attention and change everything. And I think there's also just the idea that, you know, nihilistic destruction only leads to and begets more nihilistic destruction.
Starting point is 00:30:55 And so by the end of the movie, I almost feel like, yeah, it's like he went to one extreme, you know, just sort of trying to understand emotion the most extreme way possible in order to get that catharsis, then going, switching over to the most physical catharsis, tearing down my soul first, then tearing down my body and the world around me, and then finally resting at the end in a sort of middle place of like, you know what, maybe instead of like trying to divide everything up and keep, you know, here's your stuff, Marla, and here's my stuff over here, you know, instead I think we can kind of look at the world around and realize that we're both caught up in this. And there's probably not a lot we can do to completely control and change it because we are
Starting point is 00:31:40 just two small figures in a crumbling, you know, skyline here. However, you know, maybe something in between these two instincts can lead us forward and maybe together we can do that instead of, again, homogenizing and tearing down and destroying and again, just, you know, kind of devolving into, to amoral anarchic chaos. Because, yeah, like, there are ways in which, you know, we have been separated from the natural world and our animal instincts and our, you know, sort of traditional roles as hunter-gatherers
Starting point is 00:32:16 and things like that. However, you know, there's a way to embody those things without just perpetuating wanton, toxic destruction, which is, you know, sort of the furthest extent that this ideology, this fight club grows into, is just like the unchecked, you know, the unchecked desire to just, you know, destroy, rebuild and destroy again, and probably not even rebuild that, you know, sturdily in the first place. And then, yeah, sort of waking up to the idea when it's maybe too late, you know, that,
Starting point is 00:32:48 that, yeah, maybe this ideology is a bit problematic, a bit toxic. And once you let that cat out of the bag and once that, you know, spreads to enough people, you might not be able to contain it again. might have some real problems on your hands as are demonstrated by the fact that he's like running around being like, oh my God, what have I done? What have I created? This one, you know, sort of snap has, you know, spread just so far beyond me into all these other people and is creating, yeah, this sort of dystopic, you know, terrorist threat now, which, you know, as time moves forward. And it's like we've seen it in movies like the Batman as well with the riddler and the way, you know,
Starting point is 00:33:29 that is pulling, obviously, from radicalization that has happened online that's been spurred on by, you know, movies and stories and ideologies similar to this, you know, and certainly inspired by this. You know, it's a fascinating, again, piece of social satire. And I guess that's always the risk of satire as well is that it always will run the risk of being misinterpreted as something, you know, genuine by people who simply share the ideology that is being. satired. So, I mean, yeah, it's always fascinating to watch a movie or a piece like this because you just feel the way in which, again, what it's communicating and the ideas it's exploring are very much sort of relevant and alive and permeate our current moment, perhaps even more than they did, you know, or at least in a more visible way than they did when this was released originally. I can see why a lot of people latch on to this probably who do, you know, kind of feel like they're owed something and are angry and who want to, yeah, tear down the complacent society that doesn't care about you and that feeds you all this meaningless nonsense and expects
Starting point is 00:34:37 you to just keep the cycle humming while a couple people at the top really live the good life while the rest of us are down here aspiring. Like, there's a lot of legitimate anger that permeates this. And yeah, just like the most toxic extent of all the most masculine instincts of counteracting it. And so, yeah, it's like Marla is a total mess too and is a junk and various other things and is yeah again living in complete poverty but has like a totally different sort of means of flitting through these scenes and scenarios and so like her mania and the tyler durden mania are like very different but they do pose these interesting sort of complimentary yin yangish influences on uh jack you know as his his little table here uh yeah i don't know
Starting point is 00:35:26 I'm sure there's plenty that's already been said about this movie, and I feel like I'm rambling a bit just because it is such a piece, and it is pretty rich with, you know, both style and themes. I mean, David Fincher obviously is well known for having an intense, you know, sort of eye for exactly what he wants and for exactly how he wants his movie. He's paced out and composed and what the rhythm should be. And yeah, I mean, this was wild and irreverent, and it certainly had a pace to it. But it wasn't like, yeah, some kind of like, you know, create. It wasn't like watching like a Guy Ritchie movie where it's like every moment is like zip, zip, zip. But it does constantly have this percolating music and this really stylized dialogue, but that isn't too wacky, you know. and yeah just like some really fascinating and interesting cinematic choices and two with david fincher i mean
Starting point is 00:36:22 certainly when to use cg and and certainly there are like there's that one uh lovemaking scene there's the kitchen exploding and stuff like that uh the bomb wires things that you know use cg in ways that you would probably need it for you know to do what he wants to do but it is interesting because we think of these guys and and there's been talk lately of you know like oh no cg and whatever it's a killer or whatever um but you know and even in panic room i remember seeing a featurette about like how they cg completely one of the sequences or something like that and you can tell more now but i think it is interesting just to see those moments in a movie like this uh because again you too you have like so many people who have shown up in comic book movies and big blockbusters and
Starting point is 00:37:02 stuff so to see these like totally cg sequences but that are for completely different purposes than they would normally nowadays be used in uh it's just sort of fun and interesting and uh and yeah Like the whole concept of the fight club itself and just all the people that it attracts and all these, again, different guys who are yearning in some way, shape, or form to feel powerful or to at least feel in control. And yeah, the euphoria and freedom. It is fascinating. It is an unruly and a multifaceted piece for sure. And I'm definitely going to be thinking about it just more and more. I'm excited to hear more discussion now that I actually have the full picture in mind and can sort of jump into the nitty. gritty details. Because again, you know, this movie famously carries with it this sort of just this mantle of being a problematic fave for a lot of people. And I could absolutely see how you would watch this from one perspective versus another. I found this to be very darkly funny. And I can imagine a lot of people maybe not finding it so much or finding different aspects
Starting point is 00:38:08 darkly funny. And it all depends on, again, where your humanity lies and how you, you know, process things like marginalization and rage and just the friction that comes with living in the system in general. But yeah, I thought this was a pretty effective piece of sort of darkly comedic social satire and film stylings, obviously. Again, great soundtrack, really well composed by David Fincher. And again, like, this is a pulpy movie. We watched Zodiac recently. I'm used to the more restrained Fincher. And this one, while it's not like a horror movie or anything, like there are some real harsh moments of violence and gore and stuff like that and yeah i think the cast all does a really nice job you got jared leto before he was jared leto uh meatloaf in here
Starting point is 00:38:54 and of course brad pitt and i were norton are you know great as the center of the movie helenabon carter too seeing her in a role very befitting of kind of what i associate with a lot of the character she plays but in a mode that's a little bit before you know her peak like blockbuster version of that with Harry Potter and things like that. So yeah, like this is so much to sum up, but I'm really glad that I've finally seen it. It is and isn't what I was expecting in a lot of ways. And yeah, like, I can see the treachery of this movie as a power fantasy,
Starting point is 00:39:30 but I can also see the potency and the salience as a cautionary tale. And, yeah, I'm curious to hear your guys' thoughts on it. So let me know what you're thinking on Fight Club. Is it one of your favorite movies? Do you hate this movie? What's your take on it? Yeah, hit me up in the comments and we'll see you on the next one.
Starting point is 00:39:49 Much love for now. And as always, cheers.

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