GONE GIRL - david fincher 9.5 / 10

I enjoyed Gone Girl on every level on which it’s possible to enjoy a movie: as entertainment, as comedy, as art, as a masterful display of filmmaking technique.  It's a thriller that’s thrilling simply in the bare fact of its existence.  That a film like this-- with this budget, this level of talent, produced and promoted at this scale about this subject matter portrayed in this way-- exists at all is thrilling in and of itself.  That it also succeeds on every level makes the whole thing one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had at the movies in years and recalibrated my conception of what's possible artistically and thematically in a big budget thriller.  I'm pretty sure I was grinning like an idiot for fifteen minutes after the credits rolled.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK – david fincher – 8.6 / 10

Forget all the hype about this being the first great movie of the twenty-first century or the film that defines a generation; The Social Network is just a really good movie told exceptionally well.  It’s not a film interested in critiquing the new ways in which people communicate with one another in the digital age.  It’s not trying to get at some universal truth about the millennial generation.  Instead, The Social Network is a piercing look at the many ways in which men (especially young men) are assholes.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – david fincher – 9.7 / 10

More than simply an investigation of what would happen if youth weren't wasted on the young (though it's certainly that as well), David Fincher's technical marvel of a film attempts to deconstruct what we fear about old age and death and what we celebrate about youth and life. We celebrate the promise of youth while simultaneously lamenting that it can't be properly appreciated until it’s been squandered. And we fear death because we have no idea what it holds in store for us until it’s too late to do anything about it.