From Seven to Gone Girl: writers on their favourite David Fincher movie

Seven

More than The Silence of the Lambs, Seven launched a mostly risible trend of late 90s serial killer thrillers that mimicked Fincher’s grimy neo-noir style and the invariably disgusting fetishes that spice up the villain’s dossier. Yet none of the film’s successors could hope to equal the meticulousness of his direction or the bruised humanity that makes its characters such affecting and ultimately tragic figures. That the rain-soaked urban setting has no name gives Seven a unique power, as if this city of unshakable despair and moral rot could be a stand-in for any other on its worst day. Though Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt sound like stock partners in a detective procedural – one a world-weary, seen-it-all veteran, the other a brush, impetuous newcomer – they develop a soul-stirring bond