Review: Zodiac

It’s hard not to enter the theater for a David Fincher movie with extremely high expectations. After all, Fincher did direct two of the best films of the 1990s (Se7en and Fight Club) and is a prolific music video and television ad director. Known for his particularity in his film-making process — yes, that’s me putting it nicely — Fincher retains full control over his projects, crafting each one intricately and meticulously. This attention to detail is what makes his work so startlingly impressive, and is definitely what makes Zodiac a fantastic film that you do not want to miss.

Zodiac, in short, is a film about the Zodiac killer that terrorized California in the 1970s. But more than all of that, Fincher’s movie is about the atmosphere of fear, mystery, and suspicion that permeated the police corps and the media at that time. Given that the Zodiac runs at almost three hours long, Fincher is able to pace the film perfectly to create a sense of foreboding gloom and heightened hysteria at the right moments. He is helped along by some fantastic performances by all three of his principal actors — Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and a particularly amazing Robert Downey Jr. — and a script that is funny and scathing all at the same time. Sure, it may be a long film, but it definitely doesn’t feel like it could be cut any more.

You won’t read this much in reviews of the film, but Zodiac is an absolute aural masterpiece. The way that Fincher uses ambient noise to set the mood and the tone is genius, and the sound editing in general is miles ahead of most people in film are doing right now. Couple this auditory brilliance with a tight script, masterful performances and inspired directing, and it is clear that it was definitely worth waiting five years for Fincher’s newest film. I hope the next one comes much sooner, but after the film-making wonder that is Zodiac, I’ll wait in anticipation as long as it takes.