Gillian Flynn is one of my favorite writers and this was the best book I read two years ago. Read it IMMEDIATELY if you haven’t (here’s my review). Flynn adapted the screenplay so with that and the talent onboard (David Fincher also being one of my favorites) this is one of my top 5 of the fall if not the whole year.
Based on the bestselling crime thriller by Gillian Flynn (who also adapted the screenplay), Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit and Carrie Coon.
On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?
Fincher is such a good director, it’s scary. It’s why I can’t watch his movies anymore. Distressing material becomes so much more distressing when the talent that goes into it is genius-caliber.
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Just Girl with Dragon Tattoo or other Fincher stuff too?
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Seven.
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Ah, yeah true. It’s tough. Fight Club, The Game, The Social Network, Zodiac; Fincher is one of the best working. I’ve decided for those artists who have done fewer than 15 films, a Latest vs. Greatest profile would be Top 5 vs. Top 5 as you excellently suggested and Fincher and Nolan were the first two I thought, I CAN DO THEM NOW! Wait, that came out wrong….
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We were just now typing at the same exact time. Eerie.
Now that you have taken stock of your methodology, please do David Lynch at some point, he is desperately hit-or-miss, but deserving of attention.
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The list just got a lot loooooonger lol
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I take it you are not a fan. I’m not really a fan, either, though I admire the man. Lynch makes it tough. I have never seen such a brilliant director lead himself down such a misguided path. He’s too caught up in his obsessions. Like art-deco lamps, for example. I know there are Lynch devotees who would string me up for saying this, but every single film he’s made for the past two decades is the same film. Of course The Straight Story is the big exception. And I love Twin Peaks, but even that is part of the one long film.
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Im not a huge fan and Dune didn’t help but I have always wanted to watch Twin Peaks
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Dune was a fiasco, but Lynch has always recognized it. In fact, he flat-out refuses to discuss it in interviews.
You MUST see Twin Peaks. It’s the greatest TV series of all time IMO. and it’s only thirty episodes. My advice is to wait for the blu-ray set that’s coming out soon. The series finale is a huge letdown, but by then you will have figured out that in Twin Peaks Land, the resolutions are not what’s important, even in the case of explicit mysteries. And whatever you do, do NOT watch the movie Fire Walk With Me before you have seen the series. It will make you swear off Twin Peaks entirely. In fact, it should not even be discussed in the presence of the uninitiated. It’s interesting, but Lynch’s two most compassionate films (and all around least-freakiest) are are also his best: The Elephant Man and The Straight Story. If you have not seen many of his films, those two will get you though a Latest vs. Greatest column.
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I do love Benjamin Button, though. My favorite film of Fincher’s career. I just have to be choosy.
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