20:07 ("Zodiac") and the 8th Annual FB Awards

Screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie.
Can't guarantee the same results at home. I use a VLC

It might be perverse to end a fun series like 20:07 on as sick and somber a note as Zodiac (2007) but the obsessive detailing of this particular blogging experiment does dovetail nicely with Fincher's lengthy minutae-loving procedural. So here we go, the final installment *sniffle*

Zodiac: Get on your stomach so I can tie your feet.
Victim #?: It gets really cold out here at night. We could freeze. You all done? You know, just because people are going to ask... was that thing even loaded?

And then a rather gruesome double homicide begins (again). One of the things that's most disturbing about Zodiac is that almost every single man in it (even this soon-to-expire one) shares one particular psychosis of the killer's: an absolute fascination with detail. This guy is being trussed up like a turkey and he's asking questions calmly, wanting to know the killer's history, correcting his own girlfriend, thinking about the temperature of the Bay area at night, and wondering about the practical aspects of how the masked man is committing his crimes. If this man weren't about to be killed, you could totally see him joining Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffallo and Anthony Edwards in their downward spirals of crime solving.

Creepy as hell this sequence is. And it doesn't even bother with typical violent filmmaking impulses. David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) isn't concerned this time with making you jump or scream. He doesn't offer up lazy quick cutting to disorient you. The psychosis is disorienting enough. It's easy to make an audience jump out of their seats. Suddenly loud sound cues and quick edits with threatening blocking do the trick every time. It's hard to make a film that disturbs well beyond its running time. David Fincher, my hat is off.

So, um...(trying to shake it off) "HAPPY NEW YEAR" (?)
If you wanna keep me typing through 2008 and through another year of the Film Bitch Awards, it's as simple as this:

2008: I already have some ideas brewing (even a couple of rough drafts written) so hopefully you'll stick around. I've successfully become more than an awards man in the past few years but my traffic still paints the picture that many of you are only here for the circus that is Oscar season and my own awards. Where the hell do half of you go thereafter? Some of the best stuff @ the film experience is in the off season. That's when it gets more creatively random, more rangey in tone and topic, less "now" focused and more series driven: I've got more original content weekly (not just news regurgitation) than most blogs even attempt in patches. So I hope you'll reward me with your continued patronage --and tell your friends to read -- once the last movie award for 2007 is handed out. To keep the Oscar junkies in a perpetual high, I've decided to keep sunday's "naked gold man" series on a weekly basis... even once awards season wraps. We'll cover Oscar news as it develops every Sunday or revisit past Oscar years. But only on Sundays. There's more to the movies than the red carpet.

But speaking of awards... the tentative calendar
12/30 Cinematic Shame ~ Worst of the Year
12/31 Oscar Updates. Year in Review Best of Begins...
01/01 Underrated and Honorable Mentions
01/02 The Film Experience's Top Ten of 2007
01/02 The 8th Annual FiLM BiTCH Awards Begin This site's singular awards-giving jamboree, all January long. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in so many categories you'll beg me to quit. Here's a sneak peek...

If you have any FYCs now would be the time. You can see previous years here
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