Born in 1962, David Fincher first started his career at a special effects house known as Industrial Light and Magic, working on such movies as “Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi” (1983) and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984). He left his short span here to pursue a career in direction. He came up with a commercial for the American Cancer Society, which portrayed a fetus smoking a cigarette.
Fincher himself produced several popular music videos which include “Vogue,” “Express Yourself,” “Oh Father” and “Bad Girl” for Madonna.
Ever since he shifted himself from the visionary music video director to the field of movie direction, Fincher has established himself as one of the most idiosyncratic and indispensable voices of mainstream American cinema.
Also, it has to be mentioned that David Fincher has also enjoyed some sweet success on the small screen, winning an Emmy for directing the pilot of “House of Cards” and returning to Netflix with the famous serial killer TV series, “Mindhunter.”
He’s continued to direct commercials and music videos, winning a DGA prize for a series of TV spots in 2004 plus Grammys for “The Rolling Stones: Love is Strong” in 1995 and “Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z: Suit & Tie” in 2014.
David Fincher is arguably one of the most talked-about filmmakers of the past 20 years. But it is kind of weird to realize that he’s only made 10 films, one of which was an Alien sequel. You might want to know the 10 Best David Fincher Movies now and we’ll wait no longer and dive straight into it.
Another thing that stands out is the fact that there are no absolute stinkers on the list – on a scale of 1 to 10, I wouldn’t rate any movie he’s ever made lower than a 6. Here is the list of 10 Best David Fincher Movies.
10. ALIEN 3 (1992)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Screenplay by: David Giler, Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson.
Story by: Vincent Ward, based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronal Shusett.
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Lance Henricksen, Brian Glover, Ralph Brown, Paul McGann and Pete Postlethwaite.
David Fincher’s debut feature is one of his most controversial films and deserves a spot on our list of 10 Best David Fincher Movies. Alien 3 went through a handful of rethinkings and rewrites, including one script famously written by science fiction legend William Gibson.
The version that finally made its way through into Fincher’s movie presented the series’ heroine Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in a prison society with a bunch of reborn convicts, killing off her entire supporting cast from the previous film in the first few seconds. The sequel, Alien 3 disappointed many fans of the franchise.
Still, it’s not an ineffective horror movie – the visual style is with feverish lighting and ominous shadows providing the backdrop for some of the most brutal violence of the series. Unfortunately, it faced several production difficulties, and Fincher didn’t yet possess the reputation to support his notorious perfectionist habit of shooting endless takes.
He refused to participate in any retrospective interviews or commentaries about the film and seemed content to forget he ever directed it.
IMDb – 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 44%
Metacritic – 59%
9. PANIC ROOM (2002)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Written by: David Koepp.
Starring: Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto, Kristen Stewart.
Despite its relatively simple setting, “Panic Room” still managed to be one of the most expensive and complicated productions of David Fincher’s career. One of the Best David Fincher Movies Starring pregnant Jodie Foster, which you wouldn’t know when you watch the movie. This movie is a superbly entertaining, intriguing and a tightly constructed thriller.
Foster stars as a divorced woman who moves with her daughter (Kristen Stewart) into a luxurious new home complete with its own panic room. When three men (Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared Leto) break into the house with the intention to steal a safe stuffed with cash, they lock themselves in and try to find a way out before it has gone too late. We recommend you give it a watch if you haven’t already as it was an easy pick for our 10 Best David Fincher Movies.
IMDb – 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 75%
Metacritic – 65%
8. THE GAME (1997)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Written by: John Brancato and Michael Ferris.
Starring: Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn, Deborah Kara Unger, Peter Donat, Carroll Baker, Armin Mueller-Stahl.
Fincher’s 1997 film about a mysterious organization that subjects you to the worst LARPing experience of your entire life is a movie I routinely forget exists, but not because it’s terrible. It’s a well-crafted thriller featuring Michael Douglas as a modern-day Scrooge being tossed through the ringer, and nobody does have rage quite like him. However, The Game is only really compelling as a thriller the first time you watch it.
We realize that it can be said about any thriller, but the statement is uniquely true for this movie – once you know the ending. Fincher himself has said that the many plot holes and logic leaps are intentional as his purpose was of creating a meta-thriller for the audience. This one totally deserved a spot on our list of 10 Best David Fincher Movies.
IMDb – 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 73%
Metacritic – 61%
7. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Screenplay by: Steven Zaillian, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson.
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson.
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” turned out to be a one-off for Fincher and company. It’s a compellingly dark, brutal mystery. Marketed as “the feel-bad movie of Christmas,” the storyline of the movie revolves around a Swedish journalist (Daniel Craig) investigating about the case of the disappearance of a woman who went missing 40 years ago, with the help of a tattooed computer hacker (Rooney Mara).
The film earned five Oscar nominations including Best Actress for Mara. Give this movie a watch. It is an excellent movie and deserved a spot on our list of10 Best David Fincher Movies.
IMDb – 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 86%
Metacritic – 71%
6. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (2008)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Screenplay by: Eric Roth.
Story by: Roth and Robin Swicord, based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas, Tilda Swinton, Mahershala Ali, Jared Harris.
Die-hard David Fincher fans often point out “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” as his most obvious stab-at-the-heart at The Oscars and also list it among the Best David Fincher Movies. It did earn 13 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, but it’s far from your typical Academy fare. It’s a sad, eccentric look at lost love and death, set on an epic scale with mind-blowing special effects.
We see Brad Pitt as a man born with the infirmities of an 80-year-old who astonishingly ages backwards. While the movie runs, he meets the beautiful Daisy (Cate Blanchett), who will come in and out of his life in the most surprising ways. Covering nearly 100 years of history as seen through Benjamin’s eyes, this is a romance of the grand stature in Hollywood tradition as only Fincher could imagine.
IMDb – 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 72%
Metacritic – 70%
5. GONE GIRL (2014)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Screenplay by: Gillian Flynn, based on her novel.
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, Missi Pyle, Emily Ratajkowski.
A Hitchcockian thriller for modern times, “Gone Girl” might also be the most harrowing examination of marital woes since Ingmar Bergman’s “Scenes from a Marriage.” This deserved a spot on our list of 10 Best David Fincher Movies. Gone Girl is adapted by Gillian Flynn from her bestseller of the same name.
It centres on Amy Dunne (Best Actress nominee Rosamund Pike), a Missouri housewife who suddenly goes missing, casting suspicion on her less-than-faithful husband, Nick (Ben Affleck). As all signs point to her spouse, he has to prove his innocence before it’s too late. Fincher keeps us guessing as to the character’s true motives, skillfully pulling the rug out from under us scene after scene.
Though he competed at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice for Best Director, he was snubbed at the Academy. We recommend you watch this if you haven’t already as it is considered among the Best David Fincher Movies.
IMDb – 8.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 87%
Metacritic – 79%
4. FIGHT CLUB (1999)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Screenplay by: Jim Uhls, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf Aday, Jared Leto.
Perhaps Fincher’s most divisive film, “Fight Club” has been praised as insightful satire and is also known among the Best David Fincher Movies and at the same time condemned as macho junk in equal measure. It’s a little of both, a satire of masculinity and consumerism, and how both are equally toxic to our society. Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, it stars Edward Norton as a nameless office worker suffering from insomnia.
As he keeps searching for meaning in the support groups, he eventually meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a rogue soap salesman who forms a secret underground club for men just to beat the crap out of each other. When a psychotic woman (Helena Bonham Carter) enters their orbit, it tears at their bromance.
Fight Club is David Fincher’s version of slapstick, and while it’s a little too long and its twist can be seen coming a mile away, it radiates an infectiously ghoulish energy which is fun to watch.
IMDb – 8.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 79%
Metacritic – 66%
3. THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2010)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Screenplay by: Aaron Sorkin, based on the book ‘The Accidental Billionaires’ by Ben Mezrich.
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Rashida Jones, John Getz, Douglas Urbanski, Rooney Mara.
With “The Social Network,” Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin created a spellbinding vision at how the number one “friends” site, Facebook was created by a dead-eyed college genius Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) to rate women. Facebook soon rose into a multi-billion dollar company that destroyed his relationship with his best pal, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield).
With crackling dialogues and endless energy, it’s a story of cold-blooded capitalism at its worst. An Oscar winner for its unscrupulous script, editing and score, it brought David Fincher a deserving Best Director nomination and victories at the Golden Globes, BAFTA and Critics Choice Awards. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that it is among the Best David Fincher Movies.
IMDb – 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 96%
Metacritic – 95%
2. ZODIAC (2007)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Written by: James Vanderbilt, based on the books “Zodiac” and “Zodiac Unmasked” by Robert Graysmith.
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr., Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Dermot Mulroney.
Fincher’s sprawling true-crime epic about the infamous serial killer who taunted police and the media with cryptic letters containing bizarre coded messages about his identity and his future victims is part mystery, part historical drama, part comedy, and part horror movie. It was the fastest pick for our list of Best David Fincher Movies.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Robert Graysmith, a newspaper cartoonist who becomes obsessed with deciphering the Zodiac’s code and ends up becoming one of the chief investigators of the case. Robert Downey, Jr plays his coworker Paul Avery, and Mark Ruffalo portrays police inspector Dave Toschi.
The movie itself is utterly captivating as it follows the three men across a decade and a half of dead ends, near misses, and shocking developments to their pursuit of the suspected murderer. Based on the book of the same name by the real-life Graysmith, Zodiac doesn’t come to a definite conclusion, as the case itself was never solved.
But Fincher takes us through every triumph and frustration the investigators experienced, the chilling recollections of the surviving victims portrayed the gripping tense, San Francisco, during the 60s and 70s with passionate visuals. Zodiac is a brilliant movie overall and we highly recommend you watch it if you haven’t already as it is considered as one of the Best David Fincher Movies ever made.
IMDb – 7.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 89%
Metacritic – 78%
1. SE7EN (1995)
Directed by: David Fincher.
Written by: Andrew Kevin Walker.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow, R. Lee Ermey, Richard Roundtree, Richard Schiff, John C. McGinley.
SE7EN is among the Best David Fincher Movies, he firmly established the dark, sleek and moody cinematic style that would give justice to his name, creating one of the great modern movie examples. Its extraordinary success is astonishing given how unrelentingly bleak it is.
Often considered among one of the Best David Fincher Movies, the film is set in a city flooded continuously by rain, where it finds a veteran detective (Morgan Freeman) pairing up with a young novice (Brad Pitt) to catch a psychotic murderer who ruthlessly kills his victims in the style of the seven deadly sins. “SE7EN” keeps us on the edge of our seats with its stylish and intriguingly disturbing twists and gloomy atmosphere, right up to the shocking finale.
IMDb – 8.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 81%
Metacritic – 65%
With this, we put an end to our list of 10 Best David Fincher Movies and hope you loved them. Do comment below and let us know if we missed a David Fincher movie that you love and don’t forget to share it with a fan of David Fincher Movies.
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