Fight Club (1999; directed by David Fincher)
I was wary of this picture because of what it's about: corporate drones get liberated by forming a secret society to beat the crap out of each other. However, I was intrigued by it because it got the same kinds of reviews as Natural Born Killers.
Well, it's not NBK, but it's well worth seeing. It's 140 minutes long and I wasn't bored once. It raises a lot of issues, a few of which it can't resolve, but it is far from being irresponsible, as some reviewers have claimed. This is no hot-button exploitation flick. It shows a lot of terrible behavior, but in the end it's quite careful about what it endorses and what it repudiates.
Ultimately, I think, the thing some critics can't stand about it is that the characters Do Bad Things and Get Away With It. This was also true of NBK. If Oliver Stone has used his other ending, the one where Mickey and Mallory were gunned down by the serial killer who helped them in the jailbreak, there would have been a lot less hand-wringing.
Like "American Beauty," it's the story of a corporate cubicle-dweller who realizes that his successful life actually has no value to him at all, so he has nothing to lose by throwing it away and following his id. And, of course, he realizes that, even with nothing to lose, the id probably isn't the best spiritual teacher. I enjoyed it far more than "American Beauty," though. That film was predictable and meretricious, whereas "Fight Club" is surprising and far more thoughtful about the ideas that it presents (and way more visually entertaining).
One charmingly naive idea that this movie shares with "American Beauty," by the way, is that disgruntled employees of big corporations can blackmail their bosses into giving them large amounts of money based on information they learned while working there. Planting this idea in the minds of the impressionable young Dilberts out there is far more irresponsible than anything else in "Fight Club." There should be a disclaimer across the screen: "These men are actors. Please do not attempt this at home."
If you still find the idea tempting, go see The Insider.
With Edward Norton: American History X
With Brad Pitt: 12 Monkeys