Gone Girl

Started by MacGuffin, April 15, 2014, 12:25:54 AM

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jenkins

Quote from: ElPandaRoyal on October 02, 2014, 10:56:27 AM
it deals with the question of duplicity - a lot of characters are hiding something in their personality; it's ultimately a movie about lies: the ones we tell ourselves, the ones we tell others just to please them.

Quote from: ElPandaRoyal on October 02, 2014, 01:59:18 PM
[the ending is] the perfect culmination of all its themes and it's also so darkly funny, but I fear regular audiences may not catch what it's really saying. I don't know how it could have ended any other way.

^spot on, btw

i've seen and thought about this movie and i don't have much to say about it. i'm not sure what could be talked about from the movie that's not within the movie. fincher knows how to make a movie, for sure. he's great at making movies. and that's all i got to say about that

samsong

this is the most fucked up screwball comedy ever made.  went into this pretty cold so there was much to be pleasantly surprised by, among which is just how intensely vitriolic this film is, about a lot of things.  people mostly. 

fincher has never struck me as one to pay homage in his films, or at least i haven't noticed many, but i saw/felt a lot of billy wilder in this one, and i love that kinda shit so i ate that up.  but it also struck me as a poignant connection, in that wilder always prided himself on making "movies" rather than "films" who, at least in the way he talked about his work, was more concerned with craftsmanship and professionalism than having any artistic ambition.  in that sense i find them to be kindred spirits, on top of which is that both share a ferociously cynical world view.  might be a stretch but it's what i thought about while on this fairly wild ride of a movie.


Drenk

Richard Kelly on Gone Girl and Eyes Wide Shut:


http://ronaldtaverner.tumblr.com
Ascension.

jenkins

Quote from: samsong on October 06, 2014, 04:48:02 AM
this is the most fucked up screwball comedy ever made.  went into this pretty cold so there was much to be pleasantly surprised by, among which is just how intensely vitriolic this film is, about a lot of things.  people mostly. 

fincher has never struck me as one to pay homage in his films, or at least i haven't noticed many, but i saw/felt a lot of billy wilder in this one, and i love that kinda shit so i ate that up.  but it also struck me as a poignant connection, in that wilder was one to always prided himself on making "movies" rather than "films" who, at least in the way he talked about his work, was more concerned with craftsmanship and professionalism than having any artistic ambition.  in that sense i find them to be kindred spirits, on top of which is that both share a ferociously cynical world view.  might be a stretch but it's what i thought about while on this fairly wild ride of a movie.

like approximately everyone who enjoyed this movie, i don't disagree with you about its admirable traits. they're there. screwball comedy -- i haven't heard anyone say that, and it's a great perspective, because the movie certainly is about a married couple obsessed with being mean to each other for love

though, craftsmanship isn't a cloud. i don't think you can swap any ol' hitchcock with any wilder or with any fincher and it all comes out the same, since they're craftsmen. sounds scary

wilder's craft, during ace in the hole for example, which is a movie that shares traits with gone girl and might've been in samsong's mind, i appreciate his comparison and think the conversation benefits since it helps raise my lows about the movie but, to get to my point, wilder's craft involved mama mimosa with her rosary. the mother who cries amid the pageantry, who only wants her son. the mother whose interior life has a value outside the story. wilder could share that feeling without breaking apart his movie. i think wilder was better at offering dimensions. wilder's craft had more complex emotional dimensions, in my opinion, like for example there also isn't a betty schaefer in gone girl, no. there're parents and there's a girlfriend in gone girl, but they're sucked into the story as quickly as they can be. only the cat seems to exist outside the movie's narrative

fincher's craft is of course coupled with gillian flynn's craft, and her intention was to create characters that are "pragmatically evil, bad and selfish." so all the pistons fire to develop the evil bad and selfish stuff. all the pistons. all of them, all of the time. it's airtight to the end. everyone agrees that everyone is terrible. and like xixax-wilder said, "the characters being cyphers helped to serve their characterization." and to fincher's credit, i think the ending was a solid decision that separates it from other thrillers. it leaves you with an idea to consider, and not all thrillers give you an idea to consider

but, fuck. to me it's so sealed and airtight that after a while my excitement runs out of oxygen. we'd have to crack all kindsa movies open, but in my opinion only the bad hitchcock and wilder movies are airtight. if gone girl is like a wilder movie, i think it's like the lost weekend. i think in the great movies of craftsmen you can discover thoughts and feelings bubbling on the brim. and i think it's hard to put those traits in movies about awful characters who the creators want to make sure -- make absolutely fucking sure -- that everyone in the audience understands how awful they are

it's this year's wolf of wall street. i don't think that's bad and i don't think that's great

wilder

Quote from: jenkins<3 on October 06, 2014, 04:29:45 PM
only the cat seems to exist outside the movie's narrative

I swear I'm going to print this out and paste it to my wall as a reminder of how to write well

samsong

the connection's a bit tenuous, and i probably should've offered as a caveat that wilder still has a beating heart inside of him, mired in cynicism as it may be.  any worthwhile portrayal of media-as-circus will forever be indebted to ace in the hole, which i certainly saw streaks of in gone girl.  the scene in which pike and affleck descend the stairs in their house, everything about that screamed sunset boulevard to me, and i kinda wish fincher rode that out and made that the ending.  the twin sister seems to be the closest thing we got to a reference point for goodl ol' humanity amongst to sociopathic malady that is modern life (the world according to gone girl, anyway) but she falls by the wayside.  i think that scene towards the end was supposed to be WAY more poignant than it ended up being.

wasn't trying to suggest that craftsmanship made their films interchangeable, but it's a mode of working that fincher definitely falls into and it's something i appreciate him for--continuing the tradition of the Great Hollywood Director.  preoccupations are what define each of them as individual artists, and fincher's are by far the least interesting/compelling. 

as far as wilder's craftsmanship is concerned, again i thought mostly about sunset boulevard and how the script was written with all of the technical aspects written out on the page alongside the dialogue, and as far as i know was followed to a t, which i assume is pretty analogous to the way fincher makes his films.  he's content to work within the confines of the studio system and still able to make interesting work out of it.  wilder also talked about how he liked his films that have a bit of grandeur and elegance to them, something that i think fincher wears in spades.  his movies are easily the slickest being made today.  at the very least, that's admirable.

the cat!  forgot to say something about that. being a fan of rivette films, i'm conditioned to think of lewis carroll whenever a cat appears on screen more than once, and seemed, to me at least, a knowing bit of foreshadowing of things to come.

jenkins

lol, the staircase scene for sure. betty schaefer is the girl from sunset boulevard and i mentioned her. i was thinking about that scene when she said she doesn't always want to be a reader, she wants to be a writer. but i think you're right about the twin sister i forgot, and the function of her as a character. the cat's potential meaning, wonderful. cats, cat footnotes, background cat equipment, any layer of cat culture is acceptable in today's world

gone girl can't really land in a bad place and i can get so mad but its good is still good. movie season has begun

Cloudy

Spoilers

Really fun stuff like usual with recent Fincher,  but that ending really left me sour as well, the movie goes flaccid after the great bloody homecoming. I actually think if Fincher was the more ballsy filmmaker from before he could have really made magic there... that last bit of the movie is where you hit at a gut level, if Lorgos Lanthimos had the reigns after she came home, oh yess.... these days subverted endings that are done with such a lack of passion like that are just a cop out and cliche... Anyway who cares about the cat, Jenkins? That cat actually pissed me off, because it was also another one of those throw ins "let's have a cat that is completely outside of the absurd human behavior", who gives a shit, to me I just enjoyed seeing a cat.

Have other people been plotting out ways this movie could have ended well? It's fun, because the image of her coming home in blood is fucking beautiful and absurd. And I think that tone could have evolved and bubbled into a really strong madness than the ending we have there. Her getting pregnant at the end? Fuck off.

jenkins

just thought the cat was impressively photogenic so i mentioned the cat. the conversation gauging the cat's importance has been like an oil field in this conversation's front lawn, tho

Cloudy

Oh me too. Great cat.

Brando

#26
SPOILERS

I really enjoyed the movie. It's Fincher so not surprising.

Quote from: samsong on October 07, 2014, 02:25:29 AM
the twin sister seems to be the closest thing we got to a reference point for goodl ol' humanity amongst to sociopathic malady that is modern life (the world according to gone girl, anyway) but she falls by the wayside.
Or maybe not of modern life but marriage.

In the beginning of Amy's diary, we see a funny, witty and charming Nick. Margo is single and Nick has been married for 5 years. Margo is still funny, witty and charming. Nick is now dull and emotionless and lifeless even after his wife goes missing.

Carrie Coon is great as Margo. She also plays a very funny and witty character on HBOs the Leftovers. Margot is the reason we are ever on the side of Nick.

Quote from: Cloudy on October 07, 2014, 03:51:13 AM
Have other people been plotting out ways this movie could have ended well? It's fun, because the image of her coming home in blood is fucking beautiful and absurd. And I think that tone could have evolved and bubbled into a really strong madness than the ending we have there. Her getting pregnant at the end? Fuck off.

I think the ending is great but subtle. Amy knows Nick just as much as he knows her. He is in her marrow as much as she is in his. What Amy tells Nick in the closet after giving him the pregnancy test is true. She's killed for him and no other women could ever top that.

In their final scene, Margo realizes that Nick isn't staying with Amy just for the kid. He is staying cause he wants to be with Amy. Margot calls him out on it. she is disgusted by Nick going back to Amy but she'll stick by him. That's why the scene wasn't poignant or devastating.

Then the final shot. Amy with her head on Nick's chest then looks up at his pov. She has short hair so it's not in the past or present. It shows Nick and Amy are back to being the couple from the beginning of her diary. it's bettered or saved their marriage. After everything, these two psychos are living happily ever after together with a kid along the way.

I think that ending is disturbing.


Oh, yea.

I think the cat was in on it with Amy. The cat got the neighbor to call Nick. Amy fixing crepes on her first morning back, the cat sitting right there in front of her.
If you think this is going to have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.

Jeremy Blackman

People can click "Report to moderator" for severe spoilers (anywhere really) and I'll try to mark 'em. It sends an email. That might be faster than waiting for the original poster to come back to edit their post.

Alexandro

I couldn't shake the feeling while watching this that I was swimming in densely mediocre material which major talents in every department were trying to elevate to something bearable. And it ended up tiring me. This is pulp yet every aesthetic choice aims at high art (even the ridiculous 2 hour and 30 minutes running time). I guess Fincher is Fincher, and that's how he does it and always has, but the seriousness seemed to be at odds with the "darkly funny" spirit of the piece.

I started getting impatient pretty soon. As a thriller it lacked thrills, as a satire it was too light. Comments on marriage, media, gender expectations, are at the level of the "local idiot" the woman talks about at some point. I felt I was at an Ihop with four married couples reflecting on a murder case. The "genius mastermind" angle is such a cop out at this point, that to me just because of it renders this whole movie pointless. Why make this anyway? It's way too dumb in origin, and no amount of craft or A list talent will make it smarter. This is a great example of how TV kicks Hollywood's movies asses nowadays. Any episode of Breaking Bad is endlessly more thrilling, funny, entertaining, interesting and smart than this.