Monday, October 13, 2008

David Fincher - Will This Director Finally Be Invited to Join the Club?

David Fincher may be wildly popular, but when it comes to the Academy Awards, he hasn't had a chance to "join the club." Fincher doesn't have a single Oscar nod to his name, or even a best picture nod for one of his films...yet, his films have many fans.

Previous fan favorites Fincher has directed include:
  • Zodiac (much critic love, no Oscar love)
  • Panic Room
  • Fight Club (1 Oscar nomination...sound effects editing)
  • The Game
  • Se7en (1 Oscar nomination...film editing)
  • Alien³ (also 1 Oscar nomination...visual effects)

Will David Fincher be invited to join the club in 2008 with the Curious Case of Benjamin Button?

One thing is for certain, Benjamin Button breaks free of the thriller genre, so that has to be in David's favor. Plus it stars some high-level star power that the Academy loves (Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt). And this film should have many of the visual, editing, and sound finesse that Fincher's previous films have demonstrated.

But Fincher's choice of less-than-traditional film subjects have often made his films the love of a cult following, but too nontraditional to win over Academy voters in mass.

Does Fincher have a chance?

Unless it's a flop, I'd expect The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to score far more nominations this upcoming year than any of Fincher's previous films...but it will have to wildly popular at a critical level for Fincher to sneak in.

As an early-front runner in many ways, this film has it's challenges, and if Hollywood is uncertain what to make of this film they may just opt for nominating Clint Eastwood for the thousandth time.

Personally I think he has a great chance though, and really do hope this film is great and gives Fincher an opportunity to be a part of the club.

Other potential "finally" invited directors:
-
Edward Zwick
- Darren Aronofsky

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm holding my breath on this one as well.

I want it to be good simply because I like movies to be good, but also because I want some reassurance that I'm not always fooled by trailers. And since the trailer for this movie is the best trailer I've ever seen (and was the best thing about seeing Indiana Jones in the theater) the stakes this time around are high. If this movie fails I'm going to have a hard time watching a trailer and getting excited ever again. The level of discouragement will be unfortunately high and I'll almost certainly crawl into a hole and spiral into a deep depression and possibly DIE.

I sure hope its good...

Loren Eaton said...

The Curious Case looks fascinating. I'm quite anticipatory.

Loren Eaton said...

For those interested, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button appears to have originally been a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. You can read the original here.

elgringo said...

I need to go read up on this movie. Somehow, I've missed everything written about Button. For the longest time I thought it was a kid's movie. Why is this the one I'm completely ignorant on? I know all about The Secret Lives of Bees...what a year.