Review of Zodiac (2007) by Stuart M — 03 Sep 2017

Absolutely the best serial killer film ever made. Also the best true crime drama and investigative reporting film ever made. I'd compare it favorably with All the President's Men in terms of style. The tone of the film is clinical rather than over-the-top, although it maintains an intensity and can truly horrify when it feels like it. The film's low-level realism and attention to detail make the extraordinary events seem even more astonishing and unpleasant.

The core of the film is built around three characters: Paul Avery, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and most notorious pursuer of the Zodiac, Dave Toschi, the SF detective assigned to the case, and Robert Graysmith, Avery's co-worker and eventual publisher of a book on the Zodiac. The most obvious thing to note about this list is that none of them are victims, or friends of victims, or pursued by the killer. This film is about the chase; about good investigation pursued thoroughly. We do get some very accurate recreations of the Zodiac's crimes, told from the POV of the victims, but these are there to provide clues and motivate our heroes. And that's what really sells the film for me. There's no chases through dark alleys, no captures and daring escapes, no targeting of the heroes' wives and families, and, while we do get plenty of taunting calls and letters, this doesn't lead to a grand climax where heroes and villain meet and confront each other. The film is also a lesson in disappointment and failure.

These characters are there because they're at the heart of the investigation and can serve as exposition dumps, but the film somehow manages to give them all strong characterizations as well. Graysmith is a naive but obsessive boy scout, Avery is an arrogant and drugged out dilettante, and Toschi is a no-nonsense professional with a love of animal crackers and a no-drama attitude. And they all get copious amounts of character development amidst all the plot. I'm astounded at how well they manage to mix drama with character. It helps that most of our scenes are only a minute or two long. Watching how every scene reveals not only some new development in the case but also something about the characters I find myself in awe of Fincher's work. Graysmith meeting his wife while worrying over Avery's new source for example, or exposition dumping on Avery as he's trying vainly to wake and sober up after a night out in his back seat. Each of these scenes could have done one thing and well, but instead it manages to tell two stories simultaneously. A masterpiece.

This film is staged like a nonfiction book. The facts are presented to you and the viewer has to find a way to process them and judge the relative reliability of contrasting sources. The result is a feeling of insecurity and doubt. The Zodiac killer has escaped justice, and as the film goes on it gets more and more remote. By the end you're jumping entire years to get just a trickle of new information. It's a brilliant display of failure and of real life. The ending is not a conventional one by any means. It is dissatisfying, but dissatisfying in a way that haunts you rather than leaves you upset. You feel like there should have been some sort of resolution. Like such horrors cannot go eternally unpunished. That justice does exist. And you're given the mild panacea of Graysmith's personal satisfaction that he has identified the killer. But that's it. And that uncomfortable truth is what really sets this film apart from the competition.

This film manages to juggle numerous themes and goals in the air simultaneously and somehow have them all function. It works as a character piece, studying three flawed leads in the orbit of an all-encompassing and never seen forceful personality. It works as a period piece, evoking a sense of time and place in a way that feels real but also recognizes changes. It works as a mystery, with new clues constantly building on old ones in pursuit of a killer. It works as a horror film, with some terrifying sequences where the killer does his thing in a very calm and precise manner. All these different genres and styles exist together, and feed off each other in a very fruitful way. It's sublime.