Zodiac

Over the weekend I saw Zodiac, the new film by David Fincher.

This movie is excellent; it was shot (beautifully) on DV and edited completely in Final Cut Pro. The movie was printed to film for distribution, which is usually a good thing. Where I saw the screening, however, the theater's print had a lot of flaws in it which were distracting.

Anyway, this movie is about the Zodiac killer, specifically, Robert Graysmith's theory about who the Zodiac killer was, since he was never caught.

Graysmith, played by Jake Gylanhaal, is a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle who becomes obsessed with the case. Robert Downey, Jr. plays crime reporter (and boozehound) Paul Avery assigned to the story. Mark Ruffalo is the SF detective assigned to the case... all of these lead performances are excellent!

There are also a ton of smaller parts by recognizable faces. For example, John Terry (Jack's father on "Lost") plays the publisher of the SF Chronicle and Chloe Sevigny plays Jake's love interest in the film. It's also great to see 70s-era San Francisco; through visual effects and other techniques they re-created the city skyline (including the freeway that used to run above the Embarcadero).

Early in the film, you see gruesome scenes of the killer and his victims. They are disturbing and one in particular has haunted me for a while. But the majority of the film is spent with Graysmith, Avery and the detectives around the Bay Area who are investigating the crime. It's a long film (over 2 and a half hours) and some people might think of the movie as "slow". But I think it's more methodical and tedious, as you have to patiently wait with the lead characters as they try to get a break in the case.

I would say that this is an "old school" type film, like "All The President's Men", not influenced by the seizure-inducing style of MTV. I highly recommend it!