10 Vitriolic Films Built On Biting Satire
4. Fight Club
Fight Club spoke to many a Gen Xer at the turn of the millennium. It's a staunch critique of consumerism and other elements of modern society, complete with all the meaningless degradation it brings. It came out at just the right time, 1999, with the state of western society firmly locked into long office hours and additional purchase power.
The unnamed narrator (Ed Norton) teams up with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) to start the titular Fight Club, an underground combat sport that allows individuals to detach themselves from normality and slug it out with no fear of repercussion. However, what starts as a hidden past-time turns into a full-on rebellion against the world with Project Mayhem.
The emptiness the narrator feels around consumer culture and the desire for something more vigorous directs the film's satirical contempt squarely on the passive nature of individuals. This clashes massively with the unhinged, violent nature of the criminal activities, who aim to free themselves from the pacifying system.
Fight Club remains an intensely popular cult film to this day, relaying dissatisfaction of 21st century life with all its mundane trappings. It's one of David Fincher's most well known films and continues to be dissected.