New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Kim Hollis: What's your favorite David Fincher-directed film? What's your least favorite?

Felix Quinonez: It's hard for me to pick my favorite because I love Fincher's work so much. Because of this I will cheat and pick a three movie tie between Fight Club, Zodiac and Benjamin Button. My least favorite is Panic Room.

Matthew Huntley: Tough call, but favorite would probably be The Social Network, with Zodiac a close second. Least favorite: Alien 3 (the obvious choice, although I hear the director's cut is much better than the theatrical release).

Bruce Hall: If we're talking "favorite" and not necessarily "best," mine is Fight Club. I could watch that a hundred times and not get tired of it. And I don't mind saying I'm well on my way toward that goal.

I think Alien 3 is underrated as a film but since I utterly hate the impact it had on the franchise, I fart in its general direction.

Edwin Davies: Zodiac by a considerable distance, since I think it's the most complete, perfect and enjoyable film he's made, and even though I like a lot of the films he has made since (particularly The Social Network), everything he's done since then exists in the shadow of what a monumental achievement Zodiac was.

Least favorite would probably be Fight Club at this point, because it's a film that I like less and less each time I watch it, whereas even films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, both of which I flat out dislike, are ones that offer more with each revisit. Fight Club, for me, offers less and less.

Brett Ballard-Beach: I could easily force myself to choose between The Social Network and Zodiac for my favorite Fincher but I'll shake up this discussion and say The Game, which I both think is great and hold special affection for. It was a brilliant switch-up after Se7en, it manages to be both a great thriller and a wicked comedy, it works on the audience much the same way as the game works on Michael Douglas' character (by investing us with paranoia and breaking us down before putting us back together). And Deborah Kara Unger gets to deliver one of my favorite film lines of all time: her breathily mumbled put-down: "Where'd you all run off to, you motherfuckin' frat boys?"

For least favorite, I have to go with Fight Club. It's so much craft and technique in front of and behind the camera in service of a story that does nothing for me, even 15 years later. I'd be lying if I didn't say I find it entertaining, but it ultimately leaves me so cold, it always seems such a waste of the entertaining.

David Mumpower: The biggest compliment we can give Fincher as a director is that several different titles have been suggested thus far. Personally, I have watched The Social Network more than any other film of his. I also love The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I happen to be watching on Vudu as I type this. I will be disappointed in Fincher never does the sequels.

The choice of favorite, however, comes down to two titles already mentioned, The Game and Zodiac. I love the daring and the denouement of the former while the structure of the latter story takes my breath away. Which one I like best is a mood thing, but I consider Zodiac a greater achievement in moviemaking.

My least favorite of his works is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a film I often cite as an example of how a great concept isn’t enough to carry a film. That title has one brilliant moment, the description of all the circumstances that have to transpire in order for the dancer to experience an injury that ends her career. The rest of the flick is an unbearable slog. I still cannot believe that film received 13 Academy Awards nominations.

Kim Hollis: I am probably less of a Fincher fan than... almost anyone I know. I generally like a lot of his films but often find them cold and clinical. I think a number of them are really masterful (The Social Network, Se7en, Zodiac and The Game come to mind) but I may like Gone Girl the best in the long run. It's got a wicked sense of humor that I think goes right over most people's heads.

I'd agree on Benjamin Button as least favorite. I found it interminably boring.

Continued:       1       2       3