A celebrated filmmaker over the past 30 years who has managed to put forth 12 very interesting and different films (not to mention the incredible Netflix series, Mindhunter). Fincher has a distinct style that isn’t so one-note that will often bury its message with style over substance. He is a perfectionist who gets the most out of his actors in a way I think only a handful of present-day directors can do. Fincher is among a short-list of A-List Directors that are a must-watch when they have a film come out. Without further adieu, let the games begin…
12. Alien3
Jason – 11, Steve – 11, Matt – 12
Jason: I think Steve nails it below as a “momentum killer” film, considering the lead-up with two previous genre-defining films. The aspect of this film I despise the most was the decision (which I know wasn’t entirely Fincher/studios fault) to not bring back certain characters and ceremoniously kill them off. It was a complete disservice to Aliens and their characters. Despite studio interference and Fincher disavowing the film, there are still good things in it. The design and overall feel of the movie was very Fincher as you look back on it. Sigourney Weaver is great as always, as are performances by Charles Dutton, Charles Dance, Danny Webb and Pete Postlethwaite.
Steve: We all agree that this is one of Fincher’s low points. This is definitely a low point for the Alien franchise. No one is happy in this miserable film. There are interesting ideas, especially the idea that Ripley has been given a death sentence and must learn how to process it while keeping a group of desperate men alive. Ultimately, it makes for a depressing film that kills all momentum from two of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. No one was happy with Alien3.
11. Mank
Jason – 12, Steve – 9, Matt – 10
Jason: There are rarely times that I physically cannot finish a film; this is one of them. Sometimes movies just aren’t made for me, I get it! Is this a good film? I don’t even know. I made it about 45 minutes before both my wife and I looked at each other and agreed to turn it off. The story wasn’t interesting to me and was actively putting me to sleep. Gary Oldman seemed to be having fun with it, but I have no intention of ever going back and finishing this.
Steve: I liked Mank a lot, but I also just watched Citizen Kane for the first time a couple of years back, so it was somewhat fresh in my mind. Grizzled Gary Oldman is my favorite type of Gary Oldman, and he is extremely grizzled in this film.
10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Jason – 8, Steve – 12, Matt – 11
Jason: I’m clearly the high-man on this film, though I can agree it is a bit weird. It is possibly the strangest story that Fincher has tackled in his filmography, but I really embraced the weird. One of the strangest love stories ever told that is also tangled up in how we view life as we age. Brad Pitt is absolutely phenomenal in this and I remember (at the time) being blown away by the physical effects used on Pitt at various stages of his curious life.
Steve: I really did not enjoy this film. The concept is interesting in theory, but not in execution. I just could not get how stupid it felt seeing a man age in reverse. The effects did not wow me and the movie bored me. But, I also saw this way after everyone else, so I missed the effects when they were brand spanking new.
9. The Game
Jason – 10, Steve – 6, Matt – 8
Jason: Somehow this felt more bizarre and unrealistic than Benjamin Button. In no way did I feel like any of this could actually happen given the “twist” at the end. Everything felt a bit circumstantial and it doesn’t really appear to teach Michael Douglass’ character anything really? This feels like Fincher’s most forgettable film, which is probably why this is the last in his filmography I watched.
Steve: This over-the-top 90s thriller was a blast. I have found myself drawn to a lot of the action sensationalism of the era lately, so this was right up my alley when I watched The Game late last year.
8. Panic Room
Jason – 9, Steve – 8, Matt – 6
Jason: Panic Room was unfortunately released between two of Fincher’s best pictures and gets forgotten quite a bit. It is a good film that is self-contained and has a very Hitchcockian feel to it with its intensity and cat and mouse dynamic. Jodie Foster is great in this (Nicole Kidman was originally cast and I can’t see the film being as good with her in that role). The real stars are however the three burglars played by Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam. They are so conversely different in their demeanor and motivation that it plays perfect to Foster’s strong, protective parent.
Steve: I rewatched Panic Room for this exercise and my opinion of it improved. Not knowing the greatness of Kristen Stewart and being a dumb teenager when I initially saw this, I did not have the best impression of this film. Forest Whitaker stood out to me on the rewatch. Whitaker is the heart and soul of this film, as the one criminal who is in it for complicated reasons and ultimately has a tragic end.
With all of that said, it still has my personal nemesis, Jared Leto in a major role. That, I cannot abide.
7. The Killer
Jason – 7, Steve – 10, Matt – 5
Jason: I wound up liking this more than I thought I would. It is such a simple story shown through an unreliable narrator type. We are so often shown that professional assassins are perfect and this ultimately turns that on its head. He isn’t infallible and ultimately his mistakes have bigger consequences than he realizes. It’s not ultimately a significant entry into the whole assassin/revenge genre, but felt like one that was needed. Michael Fassbender is fantastic as always and his fight scene with The Brute is thrilling.
Steve: I liked The Killer well-enough, but didn’t love it as much as I wanted to. Michael Fassbender is very cool as the titular hitman. However, this just did not connect with me.
Matt: I think this one was misunderstood upon its 2023 release. I think too many people were reading too far into the mistakes that Michael Fassbender’s character makes and pointing to them as proof that he is a completely unreliable narrator who has an inflated vision of himself and is presenting the audience with complete fictions. I don’t see it quite like that. To me, it’s a complex examination of our relationship to work, both personally and as a nation; it’s a paperback crime story told through the lens of a more modern thriller that is able to investigate all the ways in which capitalism has seeped into our lives in the years since those pulp stories were at their peak; and it succeeds at feeling like it’s small-scale and shallow while still having something to say. The killer isn’t puffing himself up so much as he is approaching his job in a meticulous manner with a desire for competence. It’s the execution of this lightweight plot that elevates it because, as the movie’s tagline says, execution is everything. Plus it’s got one of the best hand-to-hand fight scenes in all of Fincher’s filmography.
6. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Jason – 3, Steve – 7, Matt – 9
Jason: To me, this is Fincher’s most underrated film. Having never read the source material and previous film adaptations I was captivated by the story and mystery surrounding this missing girl. The gravitas of performances by Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara are remarkable and some of the best Fincher has gotten out of actors in his films. Some of this film is hard to watch and some will think it’s both over-the-top and is using sexual assault as a plot device. However, I think it does more than that and helps paint a clearer picture into the fascinating character of Lisbeth Salander. It is an absolute crime that Fincher wasn’t able to continue this series (yes, this is just based on the first book in the original series of three). You see a ton of both visual and stylistic tones between this film and Fincher’s critically acclaimed Mindhunters series on Netflix.
Steve: Like Jason, I was also not familiar with the source material. Unlike Jason, I was not quite as captivated by the mystery in this film. The beginning is tough to watch, which is the point given the subject matter.
5. Gone Girl
Jason – 4, Steve – 5, Matt – 7
Jason: It is always good to hate Ben Affleck. I kid, I kid. But seriously, there are so few people to root for in this film. Is Affleck’s character a piece of shit husband? Absolutely. Is Rosamund Pike’s character unhinged? Absolutely! It all makes for a perfect mystery thriller as all are exposed for who they are. They are not good people, but pretending to be good people. The performances are fantastic and Fincher’s overall direction make for a perfect adaptation of this book.
Steve: Ben Affleck really is perfect for Gone Girl. It’s a perfect use of his weird smug charm and often punch-able face. It adds the perfect level of ambiguity to the question at the core of Gone Girl – did Nick Dunne kill his wife?
As good as the use of Affleck is, though, the real star of the show is Rosamund Pike. She is downright diabolical in her career-best performance as Amy Dunne. Pike brings a cold calculation to Dunne that matches the energy that Fincher brings to Gone Girl. Like Dunne, it is a methodical, efficient film about a toxic relationship.
4. Zodiac
Jason – 6, Steve – 4, Matt – 3
Jason: A film that makes you anxious as those trying to solve the case. The dialogue is perfect and helps delve into the time and stakes these investigators were up against in the obsessiveness for uncovering the truth. Like real life, that ultimately never happens and presents a true lesson in life. Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal especially are all terrifically cast. The film has an excellent soundtrack to boot.
Steve: Zodiac is not a film for dummies. Zodiac is not a film for the modern audience with the attention span of a goldfish. It’s a dark (noticing that theme throughout this catalog) film about just how difficult and confusing the investigation surrounding the most mysterious serial killer of modern times.
Every one of the films on this list has a stellar cast, but Zodiac has my favorite of the bunch. Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Brian Cox, Chloë Sevigny! Character actors like Donal Logue and John Carroll Lynch get great roles. A non-Top Gun or E.R. role for
Anthony Edwards!
Jason’s point about the anxiety and immersing you in the case is a great one. Zodiac makes you feel just as much a part of the search for the Zodiac Killer as the reporters and police in the film. It’s a long film, but it could be even longer given the complexity of its subject-matter.
3. Fight Club
Jason – 5, Steve – 2, Matt – 4
Jason: Probably the most iconic film that Fincher has done and for good reason. I do love how this film has been viewed over the years and what it has meant to certain folks. As Matt mentions below, it is one of the best satires of toxic masculinity and capitalism you will find. You also get to laugh at how that message has been completely missed and unironically embraced by toxic men to mean something it is not. Outside of maybe 12 Monkeys, this is Brad Pitt’s greatest performance. How hard he tries to convince himself and the audience that what he is doing is justified goes to show you how good he can be. Edward Norton is no slouch either with his transformation throughout the film. This one will keep you engaged from the beginning to the iconic ending as The Pixies “Where is My Mind?” starts blasting.
Steve: Will I be viewed as a bro for ranking this so highly? Am I an idiot for not putting The Social Network above this? Perhaps. But, I do not care. I friggin’ love Fight Club. It’s perhaps the most energetic film that Fincher has directed. Brad Pitt’s charisma is off the charts as Tyler Durden, so much to the point that people often miss the true message of this book and film. Like most antiheroes, Tyler and his message are not good for society and are not to be followed. But, Tyler is just so damn cool! And I am not my credit cards, I am not my stuff, I am not…how did I just in this dusty basement covered in blood?
Fight Club is also one of the best uses of Edward Norton. He is so the polar opposite of Pitt’s Durden that it really is a shock the first time you see this movie and the twist is revealed. Helena Bonham Carter
Matt: One of the handful of movies in existence whose cultural footprint is so large that it can truly distort your reaction to it. It’d be so easy to focus on Fight Club’s legacy of dorm room posters and MRA manifestos and just ick your way into devaluing it in your mind. But then you watch it and it’s actually totally a masterpiece of a thriller that is completely satirizing the toxic masculinity, the violence, and the worship of capitalism that are all so prevalent in the sub-groups of society that have so vocally adopted the movie and it’s aesthetics.
2. Se7en
Jason – 2, Steve – 1, Matt – 2
Jason: Possibly the greatest mystery thriller of all-time. This was Fincher’s magnum opus for many years before what I chose as his new best film listed below this one. The cinematography and direction of this film is hard to be rivaled and to think this was only Fincher’s second feature film (after the disastrous production of Alien3). What makes this movie work so much is the noir-like telling and style. It is pulpy and engaging. Brad Pitt is some nice eye-candy in the film, but the bulk of the acting heavy lifting is given to Morgan Freeman’s Somerset and the infamous John Doe Serial Killer. On top of being one of Fincher’s best, it is also one of his most rewatchable, which is incredible given that you already know the big twists of the movie. Despite knowing the end, it’s the road that gets you there that makes it the most enjoyable.
Steve: Se7en has it all. It’s an amazing noir thriller in an era dominated by the summer blockbuster. The only flaw with Se7en is the 7 in the title, and I refuse to type it any more, so it’s just Seven now.
Fincher created a gloomy world of perpetual rain exploring the seven dangerous sins in a dark, disturbing way. Fincher uses the old, grizzled cop and enthusiastic, young cop motif in a way makes you think that everything has to work out in the end for Brad Pitt’s Mills, as if he was Riggs in Lethal Weapon. Unfortunately for Mills, he is the subversion of that trope and receives one of the most tragic endings in the history of cinema.
Seven cemented Morgan Freeman as one of the go-to actors of his era.The less said about Kevin Spacey, the better, but the man knows how to play a creep.
1. The Social Network
Jason – 1, Steve – 3, Matt – 1
Jason: It feels strange to say a film is literally “perfect”, but this “biographical” film about the founding of the social media kingpin Facebook is absolutely it. This is Fincher at the top of his craft, with career-defining performances from Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield and an award winning soundtrack from Trent Reznor. You probably already hate Facebook and what it has become, but seeing it through its infancy and the dynamics of when friendships and money come together make for this deeply engaging story. If I were to make Jaypo’s List of Movies you should watch before you die, this would most definitely be near the top.
Steve: I feel like an idiot for having this third. It really is a tremendous film and might objectively be Fincher’s best. One of the questions I struggle with throughout these director rankings is a director’s best films vs. my favorite films from that director. In this case, the favored films won out. This is all to say that The Social Network is really friggin’ good.
Perhaps the biggest accomplishment on this Aaron Sorkin / David Fincher collaboration is making Facebook interesting. Making a movie about Facebook sounded like a boring proposition in 2010, let alone in 2024 when the main people left on that social network are your conspiracy theory loving uncles and distant cousins giving you every update throughout their day. Jesse Eisenberg is an inspired choice to take on the role of Mark Zuckerberg. He plays incredibly well off of Andrew Garfield’s Eduardo Saverin, especially when the former grows more distant and cold and the latter grows more frustrated as the company blows up.
Matt: I’m an Aaron Sorkin apologist—even The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Charlie Wilson’s War and much of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip—and I think this might be the best Aaron Sorkin script. And so much of that perception has to come from Fincher’s ability to adapt the script into a David Fincher movie. Sorkin has a propensity for making everything seem like the biggest deal in the world even when it’s something super trivial like sketch comedy or I Love Lucy and that can be really grating when the tone isn’t correct. The inner workings of the creation of a social media application isn’t life or death and somehow Fincher is able to find the exact right tone that truly dramatizes the events while still making it feel like these are a bunch of pompous, shallow-minded people who are doing unimportant work that they believe with all their hearts is important. No other Sorkin script has this on-screen tone or the visuals that The Social Network has and so the Sorkinese somehow hits even harder because the setting feels really grounded.
Plus, the casting—has Armie Hammer ever been used better than as two chiseled, handsome, entitled blowhards who are propped up by the systems of power that they’ve been born in the right side of other than maybe as Max de Winter in an otherwise flacid Rebecca adaptation and as Tom Buchanan in my dreamcasting of a new but probably unnecessary The Great Gatsby? Is there a better film appearance by Justin Timberlake popping in and giving the movie some juice without overstaying his welcome? Andrew Garfield in a role that has to walk the line between cool and uncool, moral and litigious, petty and justified? To this day still the best movie that Dakota Johnson has been in?
The fact that so much of what makes this movie great are elements easily attributable to specific other collaborators highlights one of the understated and often-impossible-to-articulate skills of being a director that I happen to think Fincher is excellent at, which is acting as a manager. It’s Fincher here who is able to pull all of these things together and get the best out of all of his department heads in ways that are not necessarily tangible to us the viewer.
