fight club bandwagon

I thought Fight Club was an ok movie (not as good as the book though), i also think The Game, another David Fincher film was much better.

Other films that were good, that i think are aimed at a similar audience, are The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola) and Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly).

Now, the point im trying to make here is :

what 'genre' do these films fit into?

ive been reading a few threads on another board, which i suspect has many more younger (more impressionable?) readers than this board, and it would appear that if you drop the names of these three films (donnie darko, fight club, and the virgin suicides), then your instantly 'hip' and 'cool'.

which i think is a shame, because its certainly not fair to put these films in the If You Like These Films Your Hip & Cool genre, or the Eclectic Teenagers Trying To Be As Adult As Possible genre.

Perhaps i've completely misconstrued whats going on, but i guess this is how i feel.

What do you all think? Do you find yourself not liking films you previously liked, because the 'mainstream' has gotten a hold of them? Or because someone else, who's taste you dont respect might like them, or claim to like them?

How do you think this effects the production of 'good' films, as opposed to the production of films that are only concerned with making big money?

How underground must a film stay to be a 'good' film. Does it need to stay underground at all?

or, do you just think im a complete w*nker!?!

Well, Fight Club kind of straddles some genres. It's comedy, drama, action, satire, and in some ways you could look at it as a kind of neo-noir.

Donnie Darko probably fits best in the Sci-fi genre, and The Virgin Suicudes in drama, but they both encompass more than just those genres of course.

Kong supposes that you could also label all three as being cult films, but The Virgin Suicides has a much smaller following than the other two.

Kong personally loves Fight Club, likes Donnie Dark, and thinks The Virgin Suicides is a bit overrated. Not a bad film, but nothing that special.
No. You're right. That happens with lots of cult films. Drop the right names amongst the right crowd and you've achieved almost instant popularity among them. But, on some level we all do this, or at least Kong does.

For instance, if someone comes in the video store where Kong works and rents a couple of movies that Kong really likes, let's say Umberto D and Tampopo, then Kong almost automatically assumes good things about this person.

Kong doesn't start to dislike a film just because it gets popular among a big or cult crowd. Sometimes Kong will get a bit upset because people will often, IKO, misinterpret the film, as in the case of Fight Club. The only behavior of Kong's that he might change in the case of a movie becoming popular in the kind of crowd you mention is that Kong might be less inclined to want to talk about or rewatch the film. Mostly just because the subject becomes quickly tiring.

Not that much. The films you are talking about are generally independent, and mostly popular with fairly small (by Hollywood standards), but fanatical, or at least very dedicated, watchers.

Kong subscribes to the school of thought that says that a films quality is independent of its audience. So, it doesn't matter if it stays underground or not. If it's a masterpiece it's a masterpiece either way. If it's terrible it's terrible either way.

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