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Fight Club
(***1/2)
Fight Club is loaded with insanity, male posturing, senseless anarchy, black cynicism, and in-your-face blood and gore.
Yes, I loved it that much.
Fight Club is tainted with a "love it or hate it" aura. If you love it, you'll be able to pick apart all the reasons why it works so well. It's like a Swiss watch. Even the most insignificant parts are totaling to a sum at the end. Of course, if you hate it you can give a hundred reasons why it doesn't work. Most of the reasons will be the same on both ends.
As we open, we meet the Narrator (Norton). He hasn't had a decent night's sleep in over a year, and doctors don't see anything wrong with him. The Narrator finally finds his medicine in a help group for testicular cancer survivors. It's rather ironic that the Narrator goes to his first meeting here; since the rest of the movie is about men fighting to keep their balls.
Soon, the Narrator is addicted to help groups. Blood diseases, brain diseases, and various types of cancers. He goes to cry, and when he gets home he sleeps like a baby. There are many interpretations for why this works for him, and the most obvious has to do with the ethos of the movie, so I'll come back to it later.
After several months, the Narrator notices a woman in different meetings. It's Marla Singer (Carter), and she's a phony just like him. Seeing her breaks him; he was getting better because he knew all these people were worse off than he was. Now here's someone who's in on the joke. Thus begins a long and twisted relationship.
Meanwhile, the aptly named Narrator is telling us everything. One of these is the "single serving friend"; that person you sit next to on an airplane. One such single serving friend turns out to be Tyler Durden (Pitt), an odd individual who sells soap. They exchange business cards and part ways. Later, when the Narrator's condo burns, he calls Durden on a lark and soon they're sharing Durden's delapidated house outside of town.
This relationship starts an odd ritual. Every Saturday night they start beating the shit out of each other. The pain is liberating. The Narrator has found a new medicine, and he feels better than he ever felt. Like I said, men trying to keep their balls.
Soon, other people are seeing this, and Durden starts "Fight Club" in the back of a bar. Quickly everyone is in on it, weekly beating each other to a pulp. The Narrator can stand up to his boss, and he finally can get a good night's sleep.
It starts well. Durden has such a simplistic philosophy I found myself agreeing with him much of the time. He's simply stating what we all complain about every day. It's all about simplicity. The Narrator is burned out by everything; he's looking all over for something to define him. This is exactly what people complain about all the time, senseless materialism. These simple whinings give way to sheer anarchy, all out of boredom.
Now I go back to why the self-help groups were working. It all ties in, trust me. Durden says we're too dependent on things. The Narrator is dependent on his things; but when he starts connecting with people he feels better. No more things, it's the people around him.
Love it or hate it, Fight Club is addicting.