Why can't David Fincher suck?

I've mentioned David Fincher a few times before, but have never outright talked about him and his films as a whole.
Put simply, the man's a genius behind the camera, and easily my favourite director.

He's made films better than entire careers of lesser directors, he's made thousands and thousands of people demand better crafted films because of his control over a project, and most importantly: he's never won an Oscar.

Calling Fincher "One of the greatest living directors right now" is a huge cliche for sure, but that doesn't make it untrue in the slightest.
To talk about Fincher and his work is to talk about the very best cinema has to offer: he can manipulate the camera to show as much visual information as he likes, directing and misdirecting a viewer's attention to key threads in a web full of deceivers and meticulously planning and plotting a scene even down to the subtlest movements and expressions of a character.
These elements (just to name a few) make up Fincher's body of work, spanning a relatively short time, considering other director's and how long it can take for them to find their own flavour of film (Spielberg, Nolan, Villeneuve).

This speedy understanding of the medium, that is quite specific, can only be found in only a few other filmmakers, such as Stanley Kubrick or even Edgar Wright, I've found.
There are some names that come to my mind that may reach this point at some time in their future, but these last few are the ones universally recognised as being the forefathers of their respected genres and themes today (Wright- Visual Comedy, Fincher- Tense Thriller and Kubrick- Dueling Forces) which prove how well they know (and knew) the medium.

But back to just Fincher, I think it's important to expand on what I said in my micro review of Alien^3.
David wasn't instantly a genius director with a full know-how on film with his first film, far from it, but we can see even from his first feature- length film that we had something special, and from then on we saw a change and a growth; culminating in important and convention- destroying films using social commentary and dark humour to get across a new view point to a shaken audience.
All this from an overly long movie about an acid- bleeding, four legged alien killing off boring characters.

I believe it's very noticeable how much better Fincher becomes with each new project he works on. He can adapt to so many styles, themes and genres while keeping that potential of information fully tapped, and can keep expanding on or evolving his own themes and conventions. By making each new production different and familiar, the audience can be wowed and comforted, and this is the best state for being shocked in.

David now has the scene of 'two people in a room talking' down to as clever and subtle as you possibly could by this point.
Mindhunter's four Fincher flourishes are excellent examples of how perfectly he can convey invisible exposition on any character by simply letting the camera follow their movements, mimicking how they move and ultimately telling us how this person acts in this specific setting through body language.

The slow panning camera as someone walks, the veering of focus as we learn some new info and the tightly choreographed pace are all hallmarks of this refined style, coordinating an experience uniquely belonging to Fincher.

Logan (2017) Review

Yeah, so I've only now just watched Logan, what a piss poor superhero fan I am, huh?
Well it was pretty great, and I hope we don't see Logan on the big screen again for a long time, and definitely not in the body of Hugh Jackman.
Logan could be what fans may call "the quintessential superhero movie" in the near future, I think. So many things point to it, the overwhelmingly positive reception, the final chapter in the book of a beloved character (and characters) and the dark, gritty, unforgiving nature of its tone that seems to work well with superhero movies if done well (see The Dark Knight and/or The Winter Soldier).
I'd like this to be the case for sure, because this film gets it.

The subtle theming of this film really accentuates that bottomless feeling of 'this is the end, isn't it?' through hints at a larger part of the story many years ago that lead to the downfall of many characters, literally and metaphorically.
The constant references to western movies (a genre that died because of over-saturation.. sound familiar?) adds to this feeling too. And by using settings that once were cowboy shoot out zones, that are now shopping malls and gas stations is another clever hint at what the director is trying to say about this genre ("Out with the old and in with the new, but is old still better?").

While I really admire the fresher themes in this film, I do miss the idea of Mutants being used as walking metaphors for oppression and rights, but seeing as there's hardly any "Mutes" left, I guess that wouldn't fit the film.

I had a few problems with the child performances, it seems hollywood still cannot get their own child actors to behave like real actors. But every other performance was pretty great and meaningful, Hugh and Sir Patrick the most, of course.

But really, this is one of the best superhero movies ever, and I'm very glad to see such a violent one too, with really seamless special effects to cement that into place.
Hopefully we get more movies like this and less like Deadpool.

Logan gets a gritty 8/10

Micro Review- Letting The World Know Why They Should Leave Alien3 Alone.

The most underrated movie (ever?) in a franchise.
I love the intro to this film mainly because it gets rid of the annoying characters from the equally annoying 'Aliens'.
There, I said it.
Not only that, it creates some instant conflict for Ripley, who's been completely heartbroken and this amplifies the drama tenfold.
We empathise with her immediately, and this is GOOD SCREENWRITING.

The intro, to me, is the best part of the entire film, as the rest is very slow and plodding and full of darkly lit rooms with not much going on inside them other than talking.
It's obvious this was early Fincher (the earliest in fact), as we get quite a few amateurish problems in the production and development of characters.

That being said, the themes and ideas expressed throughout the film are reason enough to keep watching, there's no overly- silly action and "comedy" scenes in this film, unlike a certain other movie in this franchise that may or may not have come before this one.

This feels like a franchise going back to its roots, ditching the silliness of Aliens and going back to what made Alien so great to begin with; tension, characters and horror.
And since this IS David Fincher, we definitely get some great building tension and creeping horror, along with some of the most haunting visuals from any of the six (so far) Alien movies.

It really is a shame that the whining fanboys can't recognise how great the first scene really is, and of course, how good the rest of the film is compared to what they think it is.
This is a well made thriller/drama and a mediocre horror movie at best, but signs of the growing Fincher's talents are there for everyone to see.

Breaking Bad (mini review) | controlling your inner Heisenberg

So I recently finished the last s (eason) eries of Breaking Bad and thought I'd just quickly share my thoughts before I forget all about my blog and stop making reviews again....

Basically everything everybody has ever said about the show is true. No, really.
It is a masterpiece, it is genre- pushing, it is excellently written and acted, etc..

Honestly, I wasn't too fussed about finishing the series as series four (the last I have on dvd) was probably the weakest one, and I wasn't terribly excited to conclude the show.

So I left it for about a year.

Then we got Netflix and I saw it on there one day and thought why not, and I couldn't stop watching once I'd started.
Series five must be the best since the first and really racks up the intensity of each episode and whatever insanity is going on in each.
By this point our not- so- beloved main character Walter White has completely given in to his monstrous alter ego 'Heisenberg' and is just plain evil now; he kills without remorse, he acts only to save himself, and doesn't really care about anything any more.
The difference in attitudes between series one and series five Walt is as stark as my own when I went in and back out of the cinema when I watched Suicide Squad.

But enough of that dead horse..

We may have in Walter White and Jessie Pinkman, two of the best characterisations in television history (maybe even Skylar, for that matter). Seriously, the level of depth with which we go into both character's psyches and how frequently we see how relatable both are is perhaps my favourite part of the show.
Witnessing Walter trying to hold back his inner Heisenberg from busting out of him and eventually giving in, is an amazingly profound journey full of terribly necessary and horribly unnecessary decisions, that none of us could ever know the right answer for.

[Yeah ok, this went on a little too long for a 'mini review', but it's smaller than most of mine so I guess it still fits the margin.
Basically, go watch Breaking Bad if you haven't, or maybe give it a re- watch to catch some additional foreshadowing or a line of snappy dialogue you didn't remember before.]

Overall Breaking Bad gets a monstrous 10/10.

Baby Driver | refining a style

So many people kept going on about how Edgar Wright's latest film is his most refined in terms of style and substance.
My dad and I weren't entirely won over by this praise as we'd seen the somewhat uninteresting trailers and thought it may not be the return to form everyone expected after the lacklustre offering of The World's End (only my opinion, apparently).

We were hoping, and maybe even expecting to be proven wrong.
                                                                                                     
                                                                                                        We were.

Baby Driver shows that being original, witty, clever, colourful and funny can pay off in a big way in modern cinema.

Not only has Edgar refined his already excellent style, but he has added new additions to it that I just know he will implement in future projects. The level of detail in the back and foreground really is something to be admired, as Mr. Wright's ability to reward those who pay attention has been pushed to breaking point in this one.
The use of showing the audience important information is something Edgar has always excelled at, and he has definitely served us up something tastier than before with the use of framing and veering in and out of focus explains more to us than any dialogue could.

The direction is as fast as Baby's driving, if not more so, and the timing of gunshots, walking, clapping, talking, tapping, eating, drinking, alarms, cocking, quipping and movements to the stellar soundtrack is just clever icing on the adrenaline cake.
We've seen E.W. use this in his direction quite a few times before, but never has it been implemented in this exhilarating and calculatingly perfect way before.
Never once did I see the sound design miss a beat and it flowed incredibly well with the crazy pacing and insane visuals.

So yeah, this is one to check out if you like action and/or cars.

I had problems with trying to think up a rating for this film, to be honest.
I had barely any issues with it, but I wouldn't exactly call it flawless.
I think for now I'm gonna give it a 9/10 but this could change on my second watch.

So yeah, Baby Driver gets a stylish 9/10.