Ten years later, Fight Club is still better than American Beauty

Even ten years later, I remain puzzled and annoyed by the critical community's welcome embrace of American Beauty and shunning of Fight Club. They both deal with many of the same themes and cultural ideas. Yet American Beauty allows the flawed anti-hero to die a 'tragic' death and escape having to deal with the consequences of his actions (deleted scenes imply that he still goes to heaven). While the allegedly immoral and dangerous Fight Club ends with Tyler basically admitting he screwed up and taking a baby step to do better (of course, most Fincher films deal with characters finally accepting and welcoming personal responsibility for their poor life choices).

Scott Mendelson