1. Fight Club (1999)
Fight Club is a pulsating adaptation based on the novel of the same title by Chuck Palahniuk, with the film directed by the legendary David Fincher (Seven, Panic Room). Fight Club was to be one of the most controversial pictures of the 90s, and the overall reception from critics was ambivalent. Nonetheless, it is revered by many, and has collected a substantial cult following in the years gone by. The story begins with an unnamed narrator played by Edward Norton, an employee of a travelling automobile company who suffers from insomnia. The narrator is disillusioned with his IKEA-style existence, where his whole personality is defined by the interior of his apartment and his material belongings. To acquire some sense of feeling the narrator frequents support groups for people with various diseases, providing him with the opportunity to embrace another human being and let go of his angst, though there is actually nothing physically wrong with him. One day, on a flight home from a work assignment, the narrator encounters Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a snappily dressed, charismatic soap salesman who gives him his business card. That night, after his apartment is destroyed in a curious explosion, he contacts Tyler asking for a place to stay, a decision which drags his life into another direction. With his apartment gone and all of his superficial hang-ups with it, the narrator and Tyler begin to establish an underground boxing club for men who are tired with their daily routine and are anxious to feel alive. Soon enough, the narrator and Tyler call it Fight Club. The popularity of Fight Club spreads like a forest fire and soon spreads across the country, and Tyler begins to establish a training camp for the devotees with the intention of creating something much larger. In an attempt to shake up the corporate society of modern America, Tyler assembles Project Mayhem, an anti-materialist, anti-establishment group that commits acts of terrorism against business giants. Realising the extremity of Tylers actions, the narrator tries to dissemble Tylers plans to erase national debt, but in doing so, his attempts shed light on a grim reality. A triumph of style and substance, Fight Club exhibits just how far a person can go in the process of changing their world. The narrator cuts a figure of the modern man; delineated by his profession, his appearance, and his capital. In finding Tyler, the narrator not only breaks out of his soulless confines, but tears them down with a wrecking ball.