Come anticipate David Fincher's "Zodiac"

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At least it's not nine hours before edits like Birth of a Nation, and then later to suffer with extended cuts.

I rly want to see this! Oh Jake. Oh crrepy pseudo-true-crime. le sigh.

― Abbott, Thursday, 1 March 2007 03:11 (seventeen years ago) link

it's amazing.

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 04:04 (seventeen years ago) link

"le sigh"?

― Rock Hardy, Thursday, 1 March 2007 04:39 (seventeen years ago) link

"le sigh" is the new SQUEEEE

― David R., Thursday, 1 March 2007 04:47 (seventeen years ago) link

time out new york gave this six out of six stars. i'm pretty stoked. (i mean, that isn't the reason why, but that just kinda fueled my already-existent total enthusiasm for this movie)

― impudent harlot, Thursday, 1 March 2007 05:16 (seventeen years ago) link

i am excited about this. i love fincher. and it seems like even reviewers who have given him bad reviews in the past have done so somewhat grudgingly, understanding that he's an incredibly talented director but one who doesn't always make very good movies, and with this movie they've found something solidly plotted enough that they didn't have to slog through a lot of filmic vocabulary to praise it.

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 06:21 (seventeen years ago) link

calling the plotting "solid" is a bit misleading. it's a very twisty labyrinthine movie with lots of red herrings and LOTS left unexplained and no real payoff. some people will probably find it unsatisfying. i think it's awesome.

visually it's unbelievable. one of the best-looking movies i've seen in a really long time. when fincher turns his visual chops to pure period stuff he's incredible. it's especially impressive to see the art direction & visuals slowly change over the several decades the movie takes place. san fran hasn't look this good since vertigo.

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 06:26 (seventeen years ago) link

i am creaming for the visuals already. i KNOW what he can do, and that's the main reason i keep wanting another fincher movie. they look SO. FUCKING. GOOD.

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 06:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Ebert: "Alien 3 is the best-looking bad movie I have ever seen."

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 06:35 (seventeen years ago) link

from what i understand this is the first hi-def hollywood big budget movie that's all video. and it just kills.

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 06:47 (seventeen years ago) link

plz to make george lucas go eat a monkey's butt k thx

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 06:55 (seventeen years ago) link

oh wait i'm wrong. it's the first h'wood movie not to shoot to film or tape.

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 07:10 (seventeen years ago) link

and i can't make him do anything he wouldn't actually do when he's not hypnotized.

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 07:10 (seventeen years ago) link

maybe if we put our collective psychic powers together we can make him grow a chin,

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 07:14 (seventeen years ago) link

smoke some more pot kenan

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 07:15 (seventeen years ago) link

hey, it don't take drugs to start wishing that george lucas had a chin. that poor bastard. it's sad, really.

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 07:22 (seventeen years ago) link

time out new york gave this six out of six stars.

This is generally not a good sign (nor is using a 6-star scale, wtf).

Mark Ruffalo calls Jake's NY Times complaints "weird sour grapes":

http://www.thereeler.com/premieres_events/finchers_going_to_eat_you_for_breakfast.php

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 1 March 2007 14:40 (seventeen years ago) link

So how IS Jake's perf?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 March 2007 15:44 (seventeen years ago) link

i thought he was great!

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 15:47 (seventeen years ago) link

His sideburns and hair are way too perfect for the seventies, though...

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 March 2007 15:50 (seventeen years ago) link

...

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 15:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Fincher Hater for Eternity Armond labels it a remake of the "stultifying" All the President's Men, and finds JG and MR to be "nerdy, soft-voiced males."

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 1 March 2007 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link

"soft voiced" = "femmy"

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 March 2007 16:04 (seventeen years ago) link

I had no idea the Kubrick-Fincher analogies existed. I've never seen them. But there hasn't been a Fincher film that hasn't bored me or grossed me out after 20 minutes anyway.

But: The Smiths’ haunting “Suffer Little Children” – that maudlin piece of crap?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 March 2007 16:07 (seventeen years ago) link

the kubrick thing in zodiac is pretty hard to miss.

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 16:08 (seventeen years ago) link

He uses tracking shots?

Since I am a paranoid whiteboy I guess that's why Se7en and Fight Club mostly work splendidly for me (The Game and Panic Room were disposable crap).

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 1 March 2007 16:16 (seventeen years ago) link

the movie has a very kubricky structure.

you should see this morbius. you might like it.

(for the record i thought the game and panic room were disposable but fun)

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

The Game was disposable crap of the best kind – it's probably my favorite.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 March 2007 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I hated Seven and Fight Club, fell asleep during The Game and semi-enjoyed Panic Room. The only movie of Finchers I really liked was probably Alien 3. All that said I just read a couple of reviews of Zodiac (figuring what the hell they can't give away anything I don't already know haha) and it sounds really interesting so I am definitely going to see this despite my misgivings above.

― Alex in SF, Thursday, 1 March 2007 16:24 (seventeen years ago) link

as an alex in sf you should see this at least for the sf, alex.

― s1ocki, Thursday, 1 March 2007 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link

i see what you did there

― kenan, Thursday, 1 March 2007 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Fincher has always been deceptively shallow to me which is why, after reading the script, I thought 'The Game' was better than I thought it was going to be, though still fatally flawed. 'Seven' was the worst kind of paranoid porn and I never bothered with 'Panic Room', though I've seen parts of it. I remember liking 'Alien 3' but I don't rememer much. I like that he's used Harris Savides for DP again.

― Michael White, Thursday, 1 March 2007 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

i want to see this.
i love The Game and how Alien 3 looks. no desire to see Seven again (though i've seen it twice) and i haven't seen Panic Room. i kind of hate 'true crime' though...

― rrrobyn, Thursday, 1 March 2007 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link

what slocki said x 1000000

Tho I didn't catch any Kubrick, that scene in the factory, w/ all the straight-on one-shots, was oh so Demme.

― David R., Saturday, 3 March 2007 03:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Nice to see Philip Baker Hall in a GOOD movie about the Zodiac killer, too.

― David R., Saturday, 3 March 2007 03:24 (seventeen years ago) link

the way the movie had such distinct acts—journalism movie to cop movie to... obsessed man on a mission movie... the way it discarded characters it was done with... all of this felt pretty kubricky to me.

― s1ocki, Saturday, 3 March 2007 04:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I think there was a good movie in here somewhere, but I think it's time to re-evaluate Fincher because Zodiac was complete half-assed. First 45 minutes were terrific. The remaining 90 minutes were disjointed, out of place, and, well, half-assed.

At the very least, Chloe Sevigny's shrill Sissy-Spacek-In-JFK "you're too obsessed!" routine needed to be deleted

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 3 March 2007 08:03 (seventeen years ago) link

what? sevigny wasn't shrill at all!

it was a similar kind of role as Spacek in JFK for sure but what struck me is how un-shrill her take on it was.

i thought this was great. really absorbing!

― latebloomer, Saturday, 3 March 2007 08:58 (seventeen years ago) link

A bit disappointing, this. Scene to scene it's gripping, and the murders are shot in an off-kilter manner vaguely reminiscent of David Lynch (I looked away several times). Probably Fincher's best.

But this Greengrass-ian docudrama schtick is getting puritan and tiresome; why do directors assume that asceticism equals realism? I can't remember a single memorable line. It makes perfect sense that Fincher cast the boringly efficient Anthony Edwards in a big part.

Downey, Jr was predictably entertaining; he and Brian Cox were the only ones allowed actorly flourishes. Jake was miscast and stunningly groomed (he's never looked better), although makeup artists didn't even bother aging him (atoning for the Brokeback Mountain porn 'stache?).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 3 March 2007 20:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Best movie I've seen in five years, maybe more. I'm sure the Coen Brothers fan club here will gag on it, if the mongrel shits can grasp it at all.

― Dr. Morbius, Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Alfred, are you seriously bitching about this movie because it wasn't showy or quotable enough?

― David R., Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:11 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm pretty sure Domino's playing on a Cinemax station, if you're looking for that sort of thing.

― David R., Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I'll take a masterpiece over a catchphrase. No surprise in seeing the plebian element voicing otherwise. Maybe Klinger should stick to his Tarantino video game garbage.

― Dr. Morbius, Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:17 (seventeen years ago) link

No surprise in seeing the plebian element voicing otherwise. Maybe Klinger should stick to his Tarantino video game garbage.

Who the fuck are you talking about and what the fuck are you talking about?

― Rock Hardy, Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:21 (seventeen years ago) link

I didn't sense the obsession in the Graysmith character to support some of the Borges-sian ironies in the script and Fincher's direction; his ardor

Best scene: the interrogation of Leigh Allen in the distillery. John Carroll Lynch was quietly amazing.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:22 (seventeen years ago) link

*er, "his ardor" = his ardor seemed more like doggedness.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:24 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm pretty sure Domino's playing on a Cinemax station, if you're looking for that sort of thing

Look, there's no fucking point in comparing two very different movies for the sake of a joke.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Stuff I loved:

(1) The staging of the murders

(2) How Fincher serves the material instead of injecting hysterics: the fucked-up bureaucratic haggling, how Paul Avery and Graysmith never develop a friendship (their last scene is brutal).

(3) Graysmith and his wife's marriage. Chloe Sevigny is NOT Mrs. Jim Garrison; that mooncalf docility she specializes in is put to good effect.

(4) No attempt to "humanize" characters, a la Brad Pitt playing with his dogs in Seven.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Look, there's no fucking point in comparing two very different movies for the sake of a joke.

Point taken, but given that you seem to like the down-tempo, restrained nature of the flick (serving the material, lack of hysterics, etc.), I was kinda surprised you zinged it for being that very thing.

Fake Dr. Morbs needs to go back to the drawing board & whip up better zingers.

― David R., Sunday, 4 March 2007 00:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Best scene: the interrogation of Leigh Allen in the distillery. John Carroll Lynch was quietly amazing.

otm!

my other favorite scene:

gyllenhall with Charles Fleischer in the basement, so creepy/hilarious

― latebloomer, Sunday, 4 March 2007 03:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Skipping 837 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

"Hurdy Gurdy Man" (and pop music in general) in Zodiac:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pb3AAT8HQA

The usual mistakes--I describe the beginning as the San Francisco night sky, forgetting the first murder takes place in Vallejo.

― clemenza, Thursday, 21 March 2024 21:56 (three weeks ago) link

(There's a part 1 to that, Donovan in various other films, that I will post later after I've had a chance to listen to it myself.)

― clemenza, Thursday, 21 March 2024 21:57 (three weeks ago) link

I thought this film would have a lingering effect on me when I moved to SF last summer. Instead it's just creeped me out about Vallejo.

― Cosmo Vitelli

belated but lol when i drove thru Vallejo a few years back i kept flashing back to that opening scene w/the wide shot of the city at night, fireworks popping off everywhere.

― omar little, Thursday, 21 March 2024 23:05 (three weeks ago) link

Exactly the shot I misidentify. Also, I had intended to talk about the supporting cast--I almost put it up there with Godfather II for all the small supporting roles beyond the three principals--and typically forgot.

― clemenza, Thursday, 21 March 2024 23:19 (three weeks ago) link

i've met two people who were in this film in very, very small but specifically memorable roles, one of whom i was kinda pals with through a place she worked, and the other because we were both helping install a mutual friend's front window.

― omar little, Thursday, 21 March 2024 23:27 (three weeks ago) link

If you don't mind me asking, which characters?

― clemenza, Thursday, 21 March 2024 23:28 (three weeks ago) link

for the former, she came upon Ione Skye on the side of the road after her encounter with the possible Zodiac, and the latter was more memorably the older Mike Mageau

― omar little, Thursday, 21 March 2024 23:33 (three weeks ago) link

(the former was credited as "woman" so maybe the role isn't that memorable)

― omar little, Thursday, 21 March 2024 23:34 (three weeks ago) link

Older Mike Mageau is great. Last three lines of the film are his: "It's at least an eight. Only other time I saw this face was on July 4, 1969. I'm very sure that's the man who shot me." The actor's name is Jimmi Simpson, and he was weirdly memorable in a couple of seasons of House of Cards as Gavin Orsay, a hacker being manipulated by the FBI.

― clemenza, Friday, 22 March 2024 00:52 (three weeks ago) link

Ahem that's MCPOYLE

― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Friday, 22 March 2024 05:49 (three weeks ago) link

Pretty prominent role in Westworld too, I like seeing him in stuff

― Vinnie, Friday, 22 March 2024 09:05 (three weeks ago) link

Love him, but he'll never top It's Always Sunny. He really chews up the scenery in those appearances.

Used to be married to Melanie Lynskey too, but she's with Jason Ritter now.

― dan selzer, Friday, 22 March 2024 13:48 (three weeks ago) link

honestly never saw him in anything else! glad to report he was just a remarkably nice guy.

― omar little, Friday, 22 March 2024 16:41 (three weeks ago) link

emmy material https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7HURhtyHgE

― dan selzer, Friday, 22 March 2024 17:17 (three weeks ago) link

also find it humrous that young Mageau was the nerdy kid from One Tree Hill

― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Friday, 22 March 2024 17:22 (three weeks ago) link

way overdue for a rewatch of this movie.

― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Friday, 22 March 2024 17:23 (three weeks ago) link

xpost and MINKUS ON BOY MEETS WORLD WTF I NEVER MADE THE CONNECTION

― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Friday, 22 March 2024 17:24 (three weeks ago) link

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