Reading Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club [review time]

"Well. Whatever. You can't teach God anything."

It's very hard to review this book without comparing it to the movie, but Fight Club as a novel really impressed me. It's unsurprising, given that typically an original book will be better than it's screen adaptation, but Fight Club is a rare case where the movie comes close and in some ways even supersedes the novel. The ending of the film adaptation has been praised by critics, but I find that it's very epic and world-relevant - it makes a clear point about Tyler and what he wants for society, his world view - where the novel's ending is more character-centred and I find it magnificent. If you haven't picked up this book yet, you really should. The movie stayed fairly close in terms of plot and even specific scenes, but there are extra goodies that you'll really enjoy if you're into Tyler Durden's philosophy.

Why we love Christopher Nolan's Inception [review by starlight]

Inception: It's the action packed heist movie with the best of special effects, taking place inside the psyche. It's Leonardo DiCaprio all intense and grown up. It's Ellen Page - who doesn't love that short little Canadian? It's the incredible and memorable Hans Zimmer score that blends perfectly with the world of the dream. It's the hard-hitting lines between the gunshots, the conceptual madness, and the art direction that taps into something most films can't ever touch - the human imagination. We love to see the rules of reality bent and snapped into pieces, and to know that it's all possible inside the mind.

Lynch's "Molhulland Dr." (2001) - A tribute to the old art of film [review by starlight]

Ever watch a movie and when the credits roll feel that you have no idea what just happened? Actually, it doesn't happen much these days unless you fall asleep and miss part of the plotline. Hollywood really likes to spell it out these days. The last time I had this sensation was with 2001: A Space Odyssey. I watched this with perhaps not the best frame of mind for a challenging film and when it was over, I headed to IMDB to find an explanation for the past 141 minutes of my life. It's a rewatch in the sense that on the first watch, you will probably get lost. I mean, the flicks these days just really don't challenge you in the same way. I even watched it after the lecture in my Sci-Fi class and still felt pretty lost, despite the fact that I was decently well-prepared.

Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010) [review time]

 

Another visually intense film from Darren Aronofsky, the director of Requiem for a Dream. I made the mistake of assuming this film would be more mainstream and therefore less horrifying than Requiem, but this film definitely goes just as far to push you to your limits. Before seeing it, a friend described it to me as "hypersexual", and I have to agree with that. It left me a little bit afraid to be alone with myself, to be honest. An excellent psychological thriller to follow my Fight Club review. This is another film that I will pretend is anywhere close to science fiction because the psychological is manifested in reality in a stunning, yet fantastic way.

My Favourite Movie is Called Fight Club [review time]

"It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything"

I'm really adamant about this. Fight Club is my favourite movie of all time. The main point of this review is to get people to watch this film that has such deeper meaning than the title suggests, and I've provided a spoiler-free video to show you what the movie is really about. In a way, this doesn't achieve what I'm after because the main focus of the scene is the fight club, which is only really important in the middle portion of the movie, but here you get some of the ideology and the message. Consumerism has enslaved the modern man to 9 to 5 weekdays. That's the basic message, but what makes this film great is that after watching it time and time again, the message becomes more complex and well drawn out. In a way it's harder to put into words than the first time I ever saw it, because whether or not we are to agree with Tyler's point of view, or agree with how far he takes it, is really up in the air.