Zodiac

A few years ago, David Fincher made a movie that made a lot of people think about their lives. It made them rethink their culture of consumerism. And it made them think about their own personalities.

Then, just as quickly as we all thought about it, we forgot it again. Buy more Ikea! Accumulate more stuff!!

But, since Fight Club, Fincher has only done one film: Panic Room. And, even though it’s a quality film, no one really paid much attention to it. It wasn’t Lofty. It wasn’t Important.

But, remember: This is the guy who directed Alien3. Not everything needs to be Important.

Well, he’s back in his Important stage and even I think he’s all the better for it.

Zodiac is the story of the Zodiac Killer in San Francisco of the early 70′s. It’s one of the few truly unsolved serial killings in America.

But really it’s a story of obsession. David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) needs to know who killed all of these people. So does Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.) But, most of all, Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) needs to know.

Toschi is the lead inspector on the case. He and his partner, William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) work on the case day and night and every lead takes them around in circles. Avery is a reporter for the San Fransisco Chronicle. He breaks some news that shouldn’t be broken to the public, but, even though he has some inside sources, he is just as blind as the police.

It all comes down to Graysmith (who wrote the book the film was based on), a political cartoonist for the Chronicle. He’s an Eagle scout and single father of two boys who just wants to look the killer in the eye. And he loves puzzles. So, when the killer starts sending the police and reporters cyphers to give them clues, he jumps in head first. And he sacrifices his relationship with his kids and a new girlfriend (Chloe Sevigny) in the process.

This is one of the more clever procedural dramas I’ve seen in a long time. We see everyone’s investigation. Both reporters and all three county’s policemen. And, at one point or another, every single character is singled out as possibly being the killer. Even, to some extent, Graysmith. That’s some talent to make you think that the author of the book is the killer.

The cast is pretty amazing from the principals to the smaller cameo type roles. Elias Koteas, Dermot Mulroney, Donal Logue, ian Cox, Philip Baker Hall, Zach Grenier (played the boss in Fight Club), Charles Fleischer (who the Scorpio killer in Dirty Harry always reminded me of), James LeGros, Clea DuVall…I can’t even begin to name everyone who is in this movie. (Although I did a pretty good job of it here.) There’s not a weak link in the cast.

Zodiac is the first Hollywood studio movie shot on the new VIPER digital camera. It looks pretty amazing. I would NOT have been able to tell that it was digital. In fact, I didn’t know until I started writing this review and I never even thought about it. Digital has come a LONG way in a very short amount of time.

And speaking of tapes, there was one thing that was REALLY creepy about this movie: The tapes that they used as the Killer’s phone calls. I have no idea if they were the real calls or not, but they sounded authentic enough and it helped add to the already creepy vibe a lot.

I also really like the repeated use of music. I won’t go into any details here, but listen for at least two songs being repeated at key moments. Then again, I love interesting use of music. It’s one of my little quirks.

Go see this movie when it comes out this weekend. It’s awesome. A little slow at times, but, overall, a very good film. I would actually like to see it again sometime soon.