1999 was a very good year for movies, but nothing captured millennial angst quite so vividly as David Fincher’s bruising black comedy about what it means to be a man in modern times.
Edward Norton used to be an upwardly mobile urban professional; now, he’s pallid, neurotic and unhappy. In short order he bumps into Tyler Durden (Pitt), his apartment blows up, and everything changes. Gaudy and amoral, Tyler’s an id kind of guy: living on the edge is the only way he knows to feel alive. Pitt’s raw physical grace embodies everything his alter ego has lost touch with; they trade body blows for fun, and you can sense the gain in the pain. At least they are feeling something. Their ’club’ draws emasculates from across the city; under Tyler’s subtle guidance, the group evolves into an anarchist movement.
Jim Uhls’ cold, clever screenplay, from Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, is a millennial mantra of seditious agit prop. Shot in a convulsive, stream-of-unconsciousness style, with disruptive subliminals, freeze frames and fantasy cutaways, the film does everything short of rattling your seat to get a reaction. A quarter-century down the road, we have a pretty good idea of who Tyler has become…
Staff Pick: Yanan
From the guitar roar on the Dust Brothers’ opening title track through to the thundering drums of Pixies’ Where Is My Mind? it is pure synapse-splitting sensory overload.
Kevin Maher, The Times
Blistering, hallucinatory, often brilliant, the film by David Fincher is a combination punch of social satire and sociopathology.
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
The movie is not only anti-capitalism but anti-society, and, indeed, anti-God.
Alexander Walker, London Evening Standard
Media Partner
David Fincher
Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meatloaf, Jared Leto
USA
1999
English
Book Tickets
Monday August 31
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Screenwriter
Jim Uhls
Cinematography
Jeff Cronenweth
Editor
James Haygood
Original Music
The Dust Brothers
Production Design
Alex McDowell
Art Director
Chris Gorak
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Three Colours: Blue
The first of Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colours Trilogy, inspired by the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the French flag, the Tricolour. Blue stars Juliette Binoche as a young woman grieving her husband and child.
Schindler's List
One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.
Free event.
Three Colours: Red
Irène Jacob plays Valentine, a runway model living in Geneva, who crosses paths with a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who's a bit of an eavesdropper. Initially repelled, she becomes intrigued by this man, as do we... Kieslowski's sublime adieu.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings begins with an onslaught of fucks. It's the first signal that this rom-com will break from tradition, despite the ritualized structural conceit described in the title. The witty screenplay is by Richard Curtis — it's still his best.
The Lion King
With its beautifully drawn East African setting, its humour, pathos, and engaging characters, as well as its stirring songs, The Lion King stands as the pinnacle of traditional Disney family entertainment.
Image: © Disney, 1994
To Die For
Buck Henry (The Graduate) wrote this acidic black comedy about a ruthless weather girl on the make (Nicole Kidman in her breakout role). A young Joaquin Phoenix is the dim teen she seduces on her way to achieving stardom.
Casino
Revisiting the wise guy milieu for the third (but not the final) time, Scorsese tells the story of Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro (Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci), two New York hoodlums who become major players in the history of Las Vegas.
Andrea Superstein Sings Burt Bacharach + Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery Film Screening
Local hero and Anglophile Mike Myers scored a massive comedy hit with this spot-on spoof of James Bond and his many imitators. Before the yucks, Andrea Superstein treats us to a set of timeless Burt Bacharach tunes.
Before Sunrise
An American backpacker (Ethan Hawke) meets a French girl (Julie Delpy) on the train to Vienna. They decide to spend the next 14 hours together until it's time for his flight. They walk and talk. This brief encounter will mark the rest of their lives.
Ghost in the Shell
This seminal anime which inspired James Cameron and the Wachowskis, anticipates how AI technology encroaches on the human domain in ways we can scarcely comprehend. "A work of profound and melancholic beauty." Daily Telegraph
La Haine
This angry French thriller about alienated kids (a skinhead, an Arab, and an African) in the working class outskirts of Paris plays like a cross between Do the Right Thing and Mean Streets. French cops turned their backs on the red carpet at Cannes.
