Black Widow 2021
Pushed off 2020 along with most of Disney's slate; Amanda calls the loss of the year's big movies a real one.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Rankings · Interview
The David Fincher Rankings, Part II
September 25, 2020/ 98 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · Chris Ryan
Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, and Chris Ryan close out the David Fincher countdown, then Sean talks to Miranda July about 'Kajillionaire.'
19 films across 4 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The Disney Slate Shuffle2020's release calendar keeps emptying out
Death on the Nile 2022
Amanda's most-anticipated casualty of the delays: 'a personal loss.'
Tenet
Its underwhelming opening is why everyone else is punting, per Amanda: the industry's decisions come down to money, not safety.
Mulan
Its Disney+ premium numbers apparently weren't strong enough to push more titles onto the platform.
West Side Story 2021
One of the biggest presumed 2020 Oscar contenders, now bumped a full year to December 2021.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 2020
Sean and Amanda saw it the night before taping; Sorkin's script has Sean already hyped to discuss it at length.
The Unmade Fincher Fileson Alan Siegel's Ringer piece cataloging the projects that got away
Se7en
Cited as the model for how Fincher elevates a premise that could've been corny or predictable, same as the Zodiac idea.
Mission: Impossible III 2006
Fincher was attached before J.J. Abrams came aboard; both hosts think a Fincher version, with Ethan Hunt getting the dark-cynic treatment, would've been fascinating.
Burnt 2015
The Bradley Cooper film that effectively absorbed Fincher's shelved Anthony Bourdain adaptation, 'Seared'; Chris jokingly calls it 'one of the great plane movies.'
Steve Jobs 2015
Chris says the Danny Boyle version is underrated, though he still wants to know what Fincher's take would've looked like.
The Dirt 2019
The Mötley Crüe biopic was originally a Fincher project before landing at Netflix; Chris calls the version that got made 'not successful at all.'
The Black Dahlia 2006
Chris's biggest what-if: Brian De Palma's adaptation of James Ellroy's book is 'a very stiff movie' despite De Palma being a clear Fincher influence, and Chris sees echoes of the unmade Fincher version in both Mindhunter and Zodiac.
The Top 10 David Fincher Things, Concludedthe countdown finishes here; three music videos and Mindhunter also charted in the top 10 but are cut from this list as non-films
No. 1
Zodiac 2007
No. 1. Sean's pick, seconded by Chris: 'in the 100 greatest films of all time conversation.' Amanda concedes the point despite coming in ready to argue for Social Network.
No. 2
The Social Network 2010
No. 2. All three agreed it's the best movie of the 2010s; Sean calls it a movie about the world where Zodiac is a movie about life.
No. 3
Fight Club 1999
No. 3. Sean's cooled on it over time, calling it more polemic than movie now; Amanda finds it gimmicky; Chris still ranks it third.
No. 4
Gone Girl 2014
No. 4. Sean likes it but thinks the movie loses its grip on Rosamund Pike's character; all three note the comically fast Dateline-style cuts.
No. 5
Se7en 1995
No. 5. Chris and Amanda both put it here despite loving it, essentially conceding it can't crack the top four against this group.
No. 6
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 2008
Landed at No. 8 on air, behind the excluded music videos and Mindhunter. Amanda's defense: dismissing it outright means 'not curious enough' about how wide Fincher's range is; she also flags it as the breakout for Mahershala Ali and Taraji P. Henson.
In conversation
Miranda July on
Kajillionaire 2020
July on the idea's origin (a half-awake vision of a family, dictated into her phone), the total creative control Plan B and Annapurna gave her, and casting Evan Rachel Wood and Debra Winger.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing, during the unmade-projects talk Truth or DareRed SparrowThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Mentioned by Miranda July Me and You and Everyone We Know
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV MindhunterThe CrownWandaVisionThe Mandaloriana Boba Fett showVideos and ChaosUtopia
Music videos Janie's Got a GunVogueFreedom '90
Unmade Fincher projects The Sky Is FallingWorld War Z Part 2CleopatraStrangers on a Train (remake)Torso20,000 Leagues Under the Seaa Star Wars filmRogue One (spinoff)
Video art Ian Cheng's work
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