I can't believe it. My favorite movie of 2007 and I didn't even say anything about it.

So, now that 07's all over and done with I can say, without a doubt, that Zodiac is easily the best movie of last year. The performances were all spot on (say what you will about Gyllenhaal, but I thought his Graysmith was understandable, layered, all-around well done), the direction by Fincher is-as usual-top notch, and I could pretty much break down everything about the movie in terms of its greatness, but I won't. I'll keep it as brief as I can.

Each of the murder scenes (Blue Rock Springs, Lake Berryessa, and Presidio Heights) were so well done, and I loved that they only went with the killings that had some kind of account of what happened. They didn't show anything of the first Zodiac killing, Lake Herman road, because there were no survivors or witnesses to report what happened and they didn't just want to make it up.

Gyllenhaal, Downey, Ruffalo, Edwards, Mulroney, Brian Cox, and pretty much every single person in the cast were imersed in their roles. I like when good, solid actors take smaller parts in a director's movie just so they can work with him (see: every supporting role in Zodiac).

Since it's pretty evident that I love this movie, I'll wrap up with one mention:
I thought the guy who played Brian Hartnell, the male Lake Berryessa stabbing victim, did a great job and I hope to see him in future things.

This movie is a clear A+ (and I don't give A+ grades out often or ever). There's nothing about this movie I don't like, and I wish it were longer.

Summation of Fincher films:

Alien 3: B (the "director's cut" is much better than the theatrical version, and I get what they were going for. The FX were pretty awful, though).

Seven: A+ (another movie I can watch over and over again, it's still always beautiful).

The Game: B+/A- (very underrated movie. Douglas does very well, and the constant "what the hell is going on?" is reall fun).

Fight Club: A (what's there to say about Fight Club that hasn't been already?)

Panic Room: B+ (remarkably well-directed, and I'm a fan of Jodie's work so you can't go wrong there).

Zodiac: A+ (see above, also-this is top 10 of all time material).

I can't wait for move from the best director alive.

Just saw the DVD of this. Excellent film, I can see why some of you are saying this was robbed of an Oscar nomination. It certainly was worthy. Great acting, great direction, and a riviting story even though I knew going in that there was no "solution" (I didn't know about the prime suspect though). Highly recommended.

Well, Fincher has an incredible eye for giving every scene and every confrontation a sense of momentum and direction, but I think in the big picture he lost track of that. There were some thing that could have been easily dropped that would have little to zero impact on the movie as a whole. I must admit that I started this a bit tired, so I felt a bit restless through most of the 160 minute running time.

To Fincher's credit, take any ten-minute segment of this film and it's damn near perfect on all levels. But the big picture is that Zodiac runs a bit too long for no reason. Ideas and even plot points pop up and drop out randomly.

A-

P.S. Downey did incredible work here. INCREDIBLE.

Yeah, Downey, Jr. was really snubbed here. As supporting performances go, I thought that only Javier Bardem was better last year. But luckily, the Zodiac snub is just one of several things that could potentially work in his favor for a nomination this year (but it depends mostly upon how The Soloist actually ends up being).

My thoughts exactLy. It deserved the BP noms that Juno and Atonement had. Perhaps the running time was my onLy probLem and if not for that, it wouLd have been a straight A fiLm.

A-

Just watched this again yesterday and its quickly moving up my top movies list. My favorite part has to be the Rick Marshall plot, because I feel it sums the whole movie. Rick Marshall was of no consequence, he didn't matter, but while Graysmith was investigating him he's treated as everything. It's the level of devotion Fincher puts into each of his characters and story lines that parallel I believe parallel the actual killings very well. I'm hesitant to say it, but I'm thinking this is Fincher's best.