Fight Club at 15

I always associate this movie with High School so it does feel like 15 years to me.

But it is too cool for school.

Its kind of laughably angsty though.

Fincher has improved and matured so much since then. Its not even close to his best film.

I've been meaning to rewatch it for a while to see if it holds up on a technical/aesthetic level, but as a story and a statement I'm pretty sure I still really like it. And no, I don't think it's "too cool for school" or angsty given that it's ending more or less completely subverts all the angst and bravado and reveals that most of it was destructive and aimless. What I like so much about the movie is that it gives you the experience of sort of being led down the wrong path and then makes you rethink it.

I can't believe it. You're meant to come here and defend me against these characters, and the only one I've got on my side is the blood-sucking lawyer!

I don't think that was just an Iowa thing, the movie kind of bombed when it first came out.  It only made $37 million domestically, in part because they had no idea how to market it and in part because Columbine happened shortly before it came out and this was before controversy was a big selling point.  Its placement in pop culture today is largely rooted in a cult following it earned on home video. 

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/fight-club-author-chuck-palahniuk-says-chinas-censored-ending-is-actually-truer-to-his-vision-1235082239/

The author later gave an interview to TMZ, in which he pointed out that the altered Chinese ending is actually somewhat closer to his how his book concluded. In Palahniuk’s novel, the narrator’s scheme also fails — but not because of the wisdom and competence of the authorities, but due to his bomb malfunctioning. The narrator then shoots himself in the head and wakes up in a mental hospital, thinking that he’s made it to heaven.

“The irony is that the way the Chinese have changed it is they’ve aligned the ending almost exactly with the ending of the book, as opposed to Fincher’s ending, which was the more spectacular visual ending,” he said. “So in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit.”

The author also said that he saw the irony in the angry response from many Americans to China’s actions, given that his books are banned in many locations across the U.S.

“What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S.,” he said. “The Texas prison system refuses to carry my books in their libraries. A lot of public schools and most private schools refuse to carry my books. But it’s only an issue once China changes the end of a movie? I’ve been putting up with book banning for a long time.”