Zodiac

Finally saw Zodiac Monday night. I can't say it's is a great film, nor that it compares with Fincher's other masterpieces, Seven and Fight Club, respectively, but once you get past that, it's a pretty interesting little film, about the search for the killer, which ultimately becomes this journey for narrative itself.

It was bizarre to see it at The Metreon, though, because the story is set here in the city, and it's hard not to let you mind wander for a second and think, whoa, they never caught the real killer, and he could be sitting here in the audience, laughing at the irony of seeing his life on the big screen.

Anyway, I liked the fact that the narrative focused on the detective and journalist work (and how we get to see the inner workings of a big city newspaper), rather than romanticizing the assailant and justifying the reasons why he killed. I also thought it was interesting to see how the Zodiac developed his own "brand" - this crosshair-like symbol that he included in every letter he sent to police and newspapers throughout the Bay Area. In his own way, the Zodiac killer created the perfect counterpoint to the harmonious peace/love thing the Bay Area was synonymous with during the summer of love, and foreshadowed the Altamont Free Concert tragedy a few months later, which, for all purposes, was the de facto end of the 1960s.

And as always, Robert Downey Jr. is amazing, although playing a witty but out-of-control reporter with substance abuse problems was hardly a stretch for him.