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Non-Review Review: The Game

The Game is perhaps something of a black sheep on David Fincher’s filmography. It wasn’t quite an early work like Alien 3, but it falls between two of his larger and better received works, Se7en and Fight Club. While it contains the same thematic depth which would define Fincher’s work (and continues to), exploring ideas like the nature of social interactions and the hostile world, it isn’t quite as readily accessible as most of his other work. From the outset, it’s almost as though The Game wants you to believe that it is just a set-up, that it’s rigged, that it will have a ridiculous and illogical conclusion, which makes it a difficult movie for the audience to engage with or trust. The Game hinges on the audience (and the central character) being unable to distinguish between the set-up and reality – effectively letting the audience know that they are going to be toyed with, and potentially alienating them. Which is a shame, because it’s a cleverly constructed little film which would be a lot more charming if it didn’t spend so much of its time informing you of how smart it is.

Quit clowning around...

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Facebook Off: Tyler Durden’s Cameo in The Social Network

Fans of David Fincher will be pleased to know that Tyler Durden, the character played by Brad Pitt in Fincher’s breakout hit Fight Club, has a (sort of) cameo in The Social Network, one of my most anticipated films of the coming weeks. Reportedly the film see Facebook founder Zuckerberg set up a fake account to cheat on his art history assignment. No points for guessing (from the title of this article), the name he uses:

In a brief scene where Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is using Facebook to cheat on an art exam, the student profile he searches for art explanations is Tyler Durden’s. Just keep your eyes peeled and look for his name on the top left of the computer screen during the scene. It is a quick one, so be ready.

I like little teasers like this. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled when watching the film.

 

Would you let Tyler Durden "poke" you?

 

Calvin v. Hobbes – An Alternative Interpretation of Fight Club…

I am a sucker for a crazy movie conspiracy theory. Be it the possible identities of Keyser Soze or the fact that The Shining is about Native Americans or even whether Anton Chigurh (the unstoppable killing machine from No Country for Old Men) is actually an angel. I stumbled across a somewhat similar one a little while ago which has been out there a while (and I imagine most of you are familiar with). But, for those who aren’t, I thought I’d pass on my own favourite crazy movie theory of the moment: Fight Club is a sequel to the iconic comic strip Calvin & Hobbes. Edward Norton’s narrator is Calvin and Brad Pitt’s Tyler Durden is Hobbes. It actually makes sense.

"I am Jack's abandoned childhood friend..."

Note: In case that opening paragraph hasn’t given the game away, there are spoilers in here for the rather excellent Fight Club. I’m assuming anyone reading a detailed article on the movie has seen it (you’ve had ten years!), but – if not – consider yourselves warned that here there be spoilers.
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