There are a lot of similarities between David Fincher's Gone Girl and Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler: both star a career-best performance by their A-list leading man, both are a dark, twisted tale brought on by a sociopath, and both are a scathing satire on the relationship Americans have with the media. The only difference is that Gone Girl is directed by an experienced director with a rookie screenwriter, whereas Nightcrawler is directed by a first-time director with a veteran screenwriter. While we like to think as movies as the director's forum (whereas TV is the writer's playground), the reality is that if you do not have a great, or even good script, there's nothing even the best directors can do to tell a masterful story.
That's the main problem with Gone Girl. While David Fincher is at his best in his latest film, and he probably does some of the best directing work of his career, Gone Girl is just an average movie. There's nothing that Fincher could have done to save Gillian Flynn's script, and in fact, Flynn's script in the hands of almost every other director is a flat out bad movie. It is not that Flynn is a bad screenwriter, it's that her original story (Flynn also wrote the book Gone Girl) is so bonkers, bat-shit crazy that I'm surprised it ever became popular enough as a book to get Hollywood's attention. You can read my full review of Gone Girl here.
In my mind, there are two main directors who have heavily influenced my generation, Generation X- Christopher Nolan and David Fincher. Nolan got a late start and didn't hit his stride until the mid-2000's, when we were in college and beyond, as it was David Fincher that affected us early on. He freaked us out early with Se7en as we asked ourselves what was in the box and it was Fight Club a few years later that filmed just exactly what a "generation of men raised by women" felt like. After Fight Club in 1999, Fincher entertained us (Panic Room), challenged our notion of storytelling (Zodiac), and pandered to the elderly / artsy-fartsy (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). But once Nolan solidified his prime and made the case that he's Gen X's one-true director, Fincher released The Social Network and sucked us right back in. A story like The Social Network shouldn't have worked. It was a gimmick concept (the story of Facebook) being told over two different depositions. Yet David Fincher managed to make it work. In ten years, we will all be asking ourselves how The Social Network lost to The King's Speech at the Oscars the same way we ask ourselves how Goodfellas lost to Dances With Wolves. We will cry out what a shame it is that Fincher never won Best Director at the Academy Awards the same way we all did with Martin Scorsese before 2005.
However, the release of 2014's Gone Girl proves that Christopher Nolan will always have a leg up on Fincher. Nolan's Interstellar gets released later this year, and that could completely change mine and my generation's perception on him, but Nolan's stretch run of Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, and Inception is a run that might never be broken. Fincher has had the same highs as Nolan and Fincher's floor is higher than Nolan (Fincher has never made a movie as "bad" as Insomnia or The Dark Knight Rises), but I'm very doubtful that Fincher will ever have the same consistency that Nolan has. To David Fincher's credit, his films are always interesting and watchable. Gone Girl falls along those lines- interesting and enjoyable, yet it's not even close to becoming an instant classic.
NOTE: FROM HERE ON OUT WILL BE A SPOILER FILLED VERSION OF GONE GIRL. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET, GO OUT AND WATCH IT AND COME BACK TO ME. I'LL BE WAITING
10) Gone Girl / Insterstellar Release Dates(s): Oct 3rd / Nov 7th Directed By: David Fincher / Christopher Nolan Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, NPH, & Tyler Perry / Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, & Jessica Chastain Excitement Level: 5
MY THOUGHTS ON THESE FILMS: I grouped Gone Girl and Interstellar together because these films: are made by the two best filmmakers of my generation, led by actors who were complete jokes five years ago, and both look boring as shit. If you didn't tell me who directed these films and just showed me the trailers, these films wouldn't even make my list. But David Fincher and Christopher Nolan will 100% get the benefit of the doubt, and because these men are extremely talented, I'm sure the films will truly be great. Gone Girl is based upon a book by Gillian Flynn, and both my mother and wife tell me it's phenomenal. Great source material + David Fincher's direction should equal genius movie, but these trailers sure don't make it seem that way.
Interstellar is not based off of anything but the brilliant mind of Christopher Nolan. While he is coming off of the first creative dud of his career since Insomnia (The Dark Knight Rises), Nolan easily has the best start to any directorial career ever with Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, and Inception. Nolan has an excellent eye for big budget science fiction, but if the movie is anything like the trailer, then Insterstellar will be Matthew McConaughey waxing poetic for two and a half hours. And despite the McConaissance, McConaughey's projects themselves have been up and down. Mud was solid but not great, The Wolf of Wall Sreet was incredible (although he's barely in it), The Dallas Buyers Club was just OK but it's fault lay with its indie budget and limited worldview, and True Detective is gorgeous and well-acted, but boring as shit. I just hope I don't say Interstellar is gorgeous and well-acted, but boring as shit.
