David Fincher in The New Yorker

Ever since Aliens 3–a strange, gothic sci-fi movie–I’ve admired David Fincher’s work. He directed Fight Club, Zodiac, The Panic Room, The Game and others–all visceral, inertial films about dysfunctional relationships among men. His movies are all damp ceilings and dark corners, seedy and stylish.

I was reading some slightly out-dated New Yorker magazines, and discovered this great piece on “The Social Network”. Writer David Denby really loved the film, but I moved enjoyed the section about David Fincher:

Despite the half-craziness of the themes, the early Fincher movies have a visual distinction that makes them galvanic, irresistible. Even Fincher’s patented junk and mess, first seen in “Alien “3 and then in the rubbishy, derelict rooms in “Se7en” and “Fight Club”, has a perversely attractive appeal, a glowing awfulness, as if it were lit from within. He doesn’t hide the disintegrating walls, the sordid beds; we are meant to see the ugly poetry in them. Whatever locations he uses, Fincher brings out their special character.

I see Fincher’s next movie is the American adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. While I’m not a huge fan or rapid Hollywood remakes of European movies, I suspect that Fincher is well-suited to adapting the moody novel.