Cinema: Conditional Knockout

Fight Club packs a visual punch, but its violent vision of male angst won't score with everyone

Let's say your life is so anonymous that the movie's credits list you only as "Narrator." Let's also say the symptoms of that condition include near terminal insomnia and an unsatisfiable urge for catalog shopping. Might you not then join a support group for the victims of TB or testicular cancer, just so you could hug, sob and generally surface some feelings, even if you don't actually have one of those diseases?

If your answer to that question is, "Are you kidding?" then Fight Club is not for you, though it must be said that early on, it funnily realizes...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!