Zodiac (2007)

When I was a teenager I had a habit, a true-crime novel habit and the two pillars of the genre are Helter Skelter and Zodiac. They are both exhaustive and extensive, both chock full of the kind of crazy evil bullshit you want when you’re a kid and both stand head and shoulders above 99% of the competition. I was way way into the Zodiac book.

The Zodiac is the perfect villain because he wore a scary outfit, taunted the press and the police with letters and encrypted notes, killed for no reason, and was never fucking found. Nothing is scarier than what you do not see.

David Fincher has clearly done his homework in his massive (almost three hours) film of the case, following the detectives and the journalists. It is a story of the people whose lives were ruined by their obsessive search for the elusive killer, not really the killer himself.

Fincher was born to make this film, I feel it is the best thing he has ever done. It is dark, understated, perfectly paced, full of great performances that are beautifully filmed and edited. I cannot praise this movie enough. I’ve heard people complain that this film is boring and long. Having read the book, I may have been oblivious to this. When the credits rolled I wanted more. I wanted to start it over again.

Also it has the best use of Donavon in a film since “Goodfellas”, it raised the hair on the back of my neck.

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