Zodiac

There’s a lot to love here. Gyllenhaal delivers an absolutely scene-stealing performance that kept me engrossed throughout the lengthy runtime. The subversions the film uses in the way it tells a crime story were such a refreshing take on the genre, opting for a slow burn instead of jump scares and big twists. Fincher simply tells the story linearly and places us in the shoes of the people working the case, letting us mellow in the torment and fear the crimes are causing. It’s such a smart decision to structure the story this way as it allows people watching to feel like they’re solving the case with the people investigating.

The crimes are also injected with horror, despite this not being one, with the way the story is structured, you’re waiting for his next victim to be shown and when it happens there’s no music or intentional horror, Fincher let’s the crimes speak for themselves. Front loading the movie with crimes and having a dead space where no victims are announced allows this creeping tension to build as well. And THAT scene in the basement, ‘Mr Graysmith, I do the posters myself’. I was properly terrified.

I do think there’s some issues though, I think the pacing is a little off. Despite me saying it works it terms of structuring the crimes, there’s some clunky stuff in the middle of the movie that isn’t that entertaining. There’s an incredibly interesting, suspenseful opening where we’re thrown in the deep end with the characters trying solve the clues before someone else becomes a victim and then the latter half, which I thought was phenomenal, that is akin to something like Whiplash or Black Swan, where we focus on Gyllenhaal’s obsession with the case. 

In part this dragging middle section can be paired with my other small criticism of the film, Robert Downey Jr.’s character. I wish the film actually focused on him a little more, even if it made the runtime longer, it feels as if we get to spend time with him in the beginning and then is just abandoned. We’re told he’s drinking and we see him for moments where he’s bad but I could’ve used some more development of his story.

Granted the film focuses more on the case and in that, it succeeds. It’s a creepy, brilliant true crime thriller that is a great MCU film too featuring Iron Man, Hulk and Mysterio