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| Scene from Fight Club |
Welcome to Alternative to What: a weekly column that tries to find a great alternative to driving to the multiplexes. Based on releases of that week, the selections will either be thematically related or feature recurring cast and crew. The goal is to help you better understand the diversity of cinema and hopefully find you some favorites while saving a few bucks. At worse, this column will save you money. Expect each installment to come out on Fridays, unless specified.
THIS WEEK:
Fight Club (1999)
- Alternative To -
Deadpool (2016)
This weekend marks the release of the latest superhero movie with Deadpool. For those that have grown tired of superhero movies where the hero is clean cut and fights for justice, the presence of Ryan Reynold's wisecracking figure may very well be the relief they have been waiting for. But what makes us love Deadpool as a character? It is likely the fourth wall-breaking nature by which he exists, allowing comic books to be self-critical in inventive ways. It's also super violent. So, what do you choose to watch if Deadpool isn't going to be for you? There are a few more direct and obvious choices, such as Kick-Ass or Super - films that are more in line with the superhero deconstruction. However, I am choosing a film outside of the genre that likely appeals to a similar demographic with Fight Club.
You may ask yourself how to jump from Deadpool to one of the most misunderstood masochism and consumerism commentaries of the 20th century. Well, the answer is simple. While I don't know if Deadpool addresses its subjects with as much levity, Fight Club at least manages to do so with a vengeful wit that reflected an earlier and more frustrated version of David Fincher. It is a film that may be about fighting, but it has too much subtext for the casual viewer and was dismissed upon its initial release. In a sense, it's a story about the absence of fathers in a child's life and the inability to embrace the masculinity common to the male dynamic.
However, it is also a satire that doesn't make sense unless you really think about it. The Narrator (Edward Norton) makes a big deal about not selling out to corporate evil. Yet the film is notorious for featuring product placement in every frame. His insanity is itself a damnation of the mindset of the independent thinker. Yes, the film is violent and more masculine than anything Fincher has done before or since, but its embrace can be read as satire - especially as the nonconformist learn to conform to their own anarchic teachings. If you're not a meat head, it will make a tad more sense.
You may ask yourself how to jump from Deadpool to one of the most misunderstood masochism and consumerism commentaries of the 20th century. Well, the answer is simple. While I don't know if Deadpool addresses its subjects with as much levity, Fight Club at least manages to do so with a vengeful wit that reflected an earlier and more frustrated version of David Fincher. It is a film that may be about fighting, but it has too much subtext for the casual viewer and was dismissed upon its initial release. In a sense, it's a story about the absence of fathers in a child's life and the inability to embrace the masculinity common to the male dynamic.
However, it is also a satire that doesn't make sense unless you really think about it. The Narrator (Edward Norton) makes a big deal about not selling out to corporate evil. Yet the film is notorious for featuring product placement in every frame. His insanity is itself a damnation of the mindset of the independent thinker. Yes, the film is violent and more masculine than anything Fincher has done before or since, but its embrace can be read as satire - especially as the nonconformist learn to conform to their own anarchic teachings. If you're not a meat head, it will make a tad more sense.
The only other tie is that both Fight Club and Deadpool have some basis in 90's culture (also both stem from the literature medium). Both are commentaries on the shifting ideals of the time. The only difference is that Deadpool was created to appeal to readers looking for a more rebellious character and as a result has become a more conflicted character among fan bases. He may at times be existential, but he is more of a bully meant to keep things interesting. Likewise, Fight Club was commentary taken to its finite extreme. For better or worse, it's hard to understand the appeal of either without giving some deeper thought, which even then adds to their divisiveness. In fact, fans likely have made Fight Club far more insufferable than it actually was supposed to be.
If you haven't tired of Fight Club however, it's still an interesting twist on the fourth wall-breaking technique that one is likely to see in this weekend's Deadpool. While they both are ultraviolent in different ways, both reflect cinema's fascination with talking to the audience and creating worlds that almost feel inhabited by the viewer. Despite lacking the capability to reach through the screen, you're somehow an accomplice to their actions. Whether or not you think that's a gimmick is up to you. However, I think that if you're into violence and satire, you may get by on Fincher's strange and dark film.
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