Zodiac

In the late '60s and throughout the '70s, a vicious letter-writing serial killer roamed Northern California claiming victims and baffling police and reporters. This man, known only as the "Zodiac" was never officially caught, but the case became a life-endangering obsession for several people, including one near-heroic San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist who took it upon himself to solve the mystery at a time when it seemed everyone else had given up. Director David Fincher (Panic Room, Fight Club, Se7en) has crafted a mesmerizing take on the whole story, weaving facts and observation into a coherent drama that will have you on the edge of your seat, despite a two-hour-and-36-minute running time. An unrivaled masterwork, Zodiac reminds us what great filmmaking is all about. There isn't a false note anywhere. Fincher has delivered his best movie yet, an enthralling, superb, and riveting account of the obsessive hunt for a killer. This is endlessly fascinating and intelligent adult entertainment that deserves to stand alongside such classics from the same period it depicts as All the President's Men, In Cold Blood, and Bonnie and Clyde. The casting is complete perfection led by Jake Gyllenhaal as a cartoonist (Robert Graysmith, who wrote the books on which the films are based) on a mission, Robert Downey Jr. as a brilliant but burnt-out reporter, and Mark Ruffalo as the cop who has seen it all. One particular scene where Graysmith confronts a silent movie theater owner (Charles Fleischer) who may be the Zodiac, is as chilling an encounter as the screen has seen in many years. Although there is violence, particularly in a lakeside stabbing sequence, it's all rather subdued and works in the context of the greater story. It's rare to find something this good this early in the year. Do NOT miss this film.