Gone Girl (2014)

This is one of those great thrillers that you can barely write about without spoiling the best parts—and I don’t want to do that. The twists here are wonderful and need to blindside the viewer. I’ll try to step lightly. What I can say is that the main spark of this story’s engine is when a married man who’s imperfect—and we’re all imperfect—a little callous, often selfish, but depicted here as mostly harmless, rubs the wrong way against a true psychopath. Not a scenery-chewing movie villain, either, but someone ice cold motherfucking scary. Someone you didn’t know and didn’t suspect was that scary until it’s too late. Like all psychopaths, this one has their own story. The brilliant stroke of this meticulously made film is that it tells the psychopath’s story, too. Director David Fincher takes that ride with enthusiasm and he doesn’t judge. He enjoys the psycho’s invention and he fans the flame of their catharsis. You might even end up liking them… but watch out. This movie is about two people who once liked, even fell in love with, each other, too. And look what happens to them here.