As subjectively unbiased as I can be....
1. Seven (10/10)
One of the bests serial killer movies, mood was excellent, Fincher really knows how to transport the viewer into a real life environment that is accessible but still full of despair.
2. Fight Club (10/10)
If even only looking at film adaptions from books, this is hands down one of the bests translations to screen. Regarding the source material, I wouldn't have even know where to start had I of been given the task of making this for the big screen. As a psychological thriller it succeeded on all levels, and as an allegorical platform for the emotional, sexual and masculine forced submission of the everyday working man it was executed splendidly.
3. Zodiac (9/10)
One of the main reasons why I utterly respect David Fincher as a director is simply because of what he was able to do with this movie. Robert Downey is excellent in this movie, I really liked Jake Gyllenhal even though I am not a fan (sorry Sexy Celebrity), but acting and mood aside, Its just the sheer fact that Fincher was able to make a movie about a killer, based on real life events, as to which you the viewer knowingly goes into the movie recognizing there is no real life outcome, but still was completely engaged and on the edge of your seat (atleast for me anyways). The scene where Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards are questioning John Carrol Lynch/Arthur Leigh Allen at his work about the killings, made my mouth drop and give me one of those "WTF" moments, great movie.
4. The Girl with Dragon Tattoo (8/10)
I know David didn't create the character or the story, but to be able to bring such a different protagonist to screen was wonderful, again a great book adaptation, and I really hope they make the second and third. Having read the book, I was very eager to see this and I wasn't disappointed. To put together such a intricate story with so many different subplots and backtracking was not a easy task. Typically, when I see a movie "more rich" with flashbacks, I sometimes wonder about the storytelling direction(as I see this as a cop out), but not here. Great atmosphere, excellent acting, and again the movie leaves you wanting more from Fincher, I've seen the foreign one's which are great in their own respect, but when this ends you want Fincher to finish the trilogy so you can see what his take on the remaining ones are.
5. Alien 3 (7.5/10)
As a stand alone Fincher movie, this deserves more than what I scored it in my opinion but I will explain my rationale for where I placed it. Since were are scoring the directorial efforts of David Fincher, Im taking into account every element of the movie and the role of the director that I can, or atleast that I know about. So after taking this into account I asked myself, "If I were to introduce someone to David Fincher, who had never seen his movies before, and my goal were to make/keep him interested in each movie and try and make the argument that he is a great director, then in which order would I show his movies to someone who had never seen them before." So in my opinion, this movie displays all the elements of a David Fincher movie, but since it is in fact a "Alien" movie, you are subconsciously predisposed to expect certain moods and themes from the movie based on the genre and the trilogy. Directors like actors come into their own after awhile, and sometimes without even knowing who directed the movie you say to yourself, "I bet so-and-so directed this," or "this looks like a so-and-so type of movie," to me those are signatures. And Alien 3 definitely has a Fincher signature, its just that the titles I ranked higher than this one, have more of a Fincher signature then this one.
6. The Game (7/10)
Again, great movie, great mood, the movie really had me guessing, had me engaged, fun to watch, I've seen it multiple times. For me, and this isn't a bad thing, it was very mainstream in regards to artistic direction for Fincher. Great movie, good twists, and even though the movie was all over the place as far as guess work,etc, for me the narrative was told in a very linear way.
7. Curious Case of BB (6.5/10)
Visually this movie was stunning, almost every scene looks like a damn painting. The story is what killed it for me....but worth the watch just for cinematography alone.
8. Panic Room (6/10)
Fun movie to watch, but in the context of Fincher, since he has done so much better, I would say this is a standard thriller(in context).
9. The Social Network (5/10)
What I loved about this movie was that fact that it really helped to "sexualize," Fincher's technology fetish which in my opinion is what helped to make Lisbeth and the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo so great. So when I look at Fincher's body of work I see Social Network as a stepping stone to Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, atleast in the evolution of his own interpretation and sexualization of technology. Personally, I can't stand facebook, I can't stand Mark Zuckerberg,sp?, etc,etc. So when the movie was released I can't say that I was dying to see it, but I did because it's Fincher. But I try and be unbiased, as I say to myself, well I probably wouldn't like the real zodiac killer, but I still appreciated that movie. My only thing, and the rhetorical(somewhat) question I kept asking myself is, did the story of facebook really need to be portrayed in a David Fincher retrospect?
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