Gone Girl

Director: David Fincher

With: Rosamund Pike, Ben Affleck, Carrie Coon, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry

I tried to make this as spoiler free as possible but read it as you may. This movie...may truly...kill me. As I've waited to see this for months and now that I did, I just may die because of its awesomeness. Of course, that's an exaggeration but it truly didn't disappoint one bit. David Fincher made another film adaptation of a bestseller with a twist so great, it's hard to move on from it and as usual, he paved the way, yet again, for one of his actor to have the peak of their career by casting them in a complex and iconic character. He did it with his past two films The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, with Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. Here, it's Rosamund Pike who played Amy Elliott-Dunne, The Amazing Amy.

A testament of a good film adaptation of a mystery [and comedy] thriller like Gone Girl is the nonstop reaction of the crowd during all the twists and turns of the film. Heck even before and after its turning point, which is super amazing by the way, people are so into it. I've read the book that's why it's so amusing whenever people react to Fincher and Flynn's deceptions. They're the same reactions I've got when I read it. I happened to sit beside an adorable old lady whose reactions are hilarious. She's clearly slayed by the film. From her reactions to the douchebaggery of Nick Dunne and how it diverted to being disgusted by Amy's amazing psychopathic deeds. She kept going on and on with her reactions varying from "siraulo" (crazy), to "sakit sa ulo" (headache), to "papatayin ka niyan" (she'll kill you) and a number of "six weeks pregnant" when the idiot pregnant neighbor Noelle revealed that Amy was 6-weeks pregnant. Often times, viewers like this would annoy me but she just added up to the exciting movie experience that is Gone Girl.

Gone Girl doesn't need CGI, it doesn't need to be viewed in 3D or IMAX to be considered an incredible movie experience because for what it is, it IS an incredible movie experience. A super entertaining movie that tickled my fancy especially at the second act of the film where it revealed its tumble-inducing curve, with Amy Dunne throwing pens while driving and ranting about men's standards regarding "cool girls". I'm a little bit jealous that I've read the book prior into watching because I'd love to have the same large reactions of the nonreaders in the movies. Nevertheless, whether you read the bestseller or not, the film pushes you to think, to wonder, to suspect, to believe and to react to whatever the film mis/leads you and it's an exhilarating feeling. It helps a lot that Fincher made this fast-paced, incorporated with the persuasive score of Fincher's resident scorer Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that effectively adds to the tension of the scenes. 

Ben Affleck is good. Carrie Coon is good. Tyler Perry's alright. Neil Patrick Harris is funky and funny. But Rosamund Pike playing the titular character is truly the star of the film handsdown. She completely owned the film and stole Affleck's thunder despite being barely in the first part of the film. I won't say that Affleck didn't shine though because he did. Let's just say, Rosamund is just simply way more amazing. She epitomized the wickedly twisted, one and only Amy Elliott-Dunne. She made an iconic book character even more iconic with how she portrayed this delusional human being in this film, and Fincher made sure that she will and they're successful in doing it. She's truly perfect for the role and has exceeded my expectations. The divergence of her acting as the cool and elegant girl Amy Dunne to the deglamorized faux dead woman into a merciless femme fatale is not only spectacular, but extremely thrilling. She made it so enjoyable watching a character, who never begged to be loved, but with the variety of layers that she showed, there's no way you would not appreciate her in this film.

She IS the movie for me, along with of course Fincher's direction and Flynn's genius script. A script that didn't follow the conventional happy or sad ending, rather she ended it with a disturbing yet awesome conclusion that would probably haunt you days after seeing it. It's not as cogent as how Flynn ended her book but it's similarly maddening. It's like we're all Nick Dunne and the film is Amy Dunne, and we finally cracked the film's skull, discovering the crumpled and tangled wires that made the whole movie so gripping, wild and interesting.

It had some changes from the book but it kept all the exciting parts. It didn't include some of my favorite themes from the book. For one, Nick's hateship with his father but it doesn't matter in the end because Fincher clearly focused on making the film an entertaining ride rather than making it dramatic and sentimental. Fincher meant to entertain and he did! This is my favorite David Fincher film to date.

Gone Girl will go down as a classic femme fatale movie. A womancentric movie that will become one of the most memorable films of its genre, and Rosamund Pike just put herself a few levels up the film industry. From being a bond girl in Die Another Day, to Keira Knightley's sister in Pride & Prejuice and now the iconic Amy Dunne in Gone Girl. With this portrayal, she will never be forgotten ever again.

Don Jon: Not all about sex, porn and comedy

Don Jon

Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

With: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore

It makes me wonder why Joseph Gordon-Levitt would direct, write and star in a film like Don Jon aside from the fact that it's about porn and his leading lady is Scarlett Johansson, which is pretty self-explanatory. I am not sure about the message he wants to address though. Is it about the bad sides of being addicted to porn? Is it about love, life and the internet? Is he trying to create the funny and light version of Steve McQueen's Shame? or he just wants to create a film with a subject that he knows people will enjoy? Why choose New Jersey as the setting? I should probably do my research on that. But I just find it odd that he chooses to direct something like this.

'Don Jon' is about an old-fashioned, disciplined, vain, Jersey guy, Jon Martello, who cares only for a few things: his pad, his car, his family, his church, his boys, his chicks and most importantly, his porn. He finds watching porn better than doing the actual 'deed' with, as he refers to, "the real pussies". When Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) came to his life, he struggles between his true love and new love - porn and Barbara.

This is Gordon-Levitt's writing-directing full feature film debut and while it's far from being perfect, he showed his distinctive and playful style in his screenplay and direction which is pretty admirable. The film showed repetitive sitcom styled plots with hints of mystery c/o Julianne Moore's character, Esther, wherein at first, one would think that the course of the film is going nowhere. But Gordon-Levitt surely knows where the film is heading and he succeeds in putting a closure, or should we say, a 'development', to Jon's porn addiction.

Gordon-Levitt created a variety of characters in this film which is easily my favorite aspect of the film. Each character is unique and they all bring something to the table -- from Don Jon's friends who always look for women in bars and grade them from zero to dime, to Don Jon's family consisting of a tough father who mirrors his love for chicks, a gentle loving mother and a quiet sister who always checks her smart phone like the usual teenagers in this generation. But the real gems are Don Jon, Barbara and Esther to which Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore humorously characterized in this film. Gordon-Levitt displayed his never failing charisma. This time, as a porn addict, chick magnet that's very reminiscent of Neil Patrick Harris' Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother. It also helps that NPH and JGL have the same overconfident and naughty expressions on their faces whenever they turn on their manly buttons. While I saw nothing new in Julianne Moore's performance in this, she's proven in so many films already, that whenever a casting director needs a middle aged woman willing to be fucked by a woman, a man or whoever and whatever his/her age is, she's always open ;) to portray that role with no shame, and her character in Don Jon is not an exception. Scarlett Johansson is my favorite though. Whatever she's doing with her accent, which the film has implied that it is a heavy Jersey accent, she played it pleasantly entertaining. She is almost effortless with this flirtatious and sexy yet kind of obnoxious JAP from hell character, but managed to make it fun and lovable. She's 75% why this film is entertaining. And her hotness still leaves everyone breathless, especially in one of her scenes with JGL in the hallway. Oh my! It is apparent that they all enjoyed their characters.

My friend said that this is a guy-flick but thinking about it, it's actually no different to other chick flicks. While the first half reeks of machismo, sex and grown men stuff, the second half kind of negates all of those things by including sappy and serious materials in the film. It would have been better if Gordon-Levitt maintained the level of virility throughout the movie. He obviously tried to stay that way but he focused more on the turnaround of Jon-Barbara-Esther's relationships and Don Jon's overall growth. We should have been warned before watching the film that this is not all about sex and comedy.