Fight Club, like Catcher in the Rye, may be one of those books that is best appreciated by younger readers. I bought the novel nearly twenty years ago, after seeing the movie, eager to further explore themes of anger, alienation, violence, and nihilism. Today, as a middle aged man, I appreciated the book's clever language, sick humor, and intellectual critiques, but abhorred the characters and their actions (as indeed a reader is meant to). Fight Club doesn't so much extol violence as it devastatingly critiques society's shallow consumerism, dead end jobs, dysfunctional broken families, and self-help cultures. Among other things its a dsytopian vision of how religions and cults bubble up from the ugly underbelly of the disenfranchised (I believe it's no coincidence that the spelling of Tyler Durden and Jesus Christ mirror one another). And while this short two hundred page novel left me as physically exhausted as its "nameless" insomniac narrator, its pre-apocalyptic vision of an America on the decline eerily foreshadows the destructive impulses of a post-911 and angry Trumpian world. ( )

An interesting read... would have been better if I'd read it before seeing the film, I think... ( )

An insomniac gets involved in antisocial mayhem.

I loved this movie when I was younger. Now, I kind of despise where it's coming from. But I still appreciate it and enjoy most of it anyway.

Concept: D
Story: A
Characters: A
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: A

GPA: 2.9/4 ( )

All films take a certain suspension of disbelief. Fight Club takes perhaps more than others, but if you're willing to let yourself get caught up in the anarchy, this film, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, is a modern-day morality play warning of the decay of society. Edward Norton is the unnamed protagonist, a man going through life on cruise control, feeling nothing. To fill his hours, he begins attending support groups and 12-step meetings. True, he isn't actually afflicted with the problems, but he finds solace in the groups. This is destroyed, however, when he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), also faking her way through groups. Spiraling back into insomnia, Norton finds his life is changed once again, by a chance encounter with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), whose forthright style and no-nonsense way of taking what he wants appeal to our narrator. Tyler and the protagonist find a new way to feel release: they fight. They fight each other, and then as others are attracted to their ways, they fight the men who come to join their newly formed Fight Club. Marla begins a destructive affair with Tyler, and things fly out of control, as Fight Club grows into a nationwide fascist group that escapes the protagonist's control.
Fight Club, directed by David Fincher (Seven), is not for the faint of heart; the violence is no holds barred. But the film is captivating and beautifully shot, with some thought-provoking ideas. Pitt and Norton are an unbeatable duo, and the film has some surprisingly humorous moments. The film leaves you with a sense of profound discomfort and a desire to see it again, if for no other reason than to just to take it all in. --Jenny Brown

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion. (source: TMDb)