Don't You Forget About: Zodiac

Sure, it's fun to catch the latest flick at the multiplex, or grab the newest release at a video store, but sometimes you just gotta say, "Out with the new, and in with the unknown." There are plenty of older flicks out there that are worth a rental, but never registered on your radar. In Don't You Forget About, we remember the long-gone gems, so you don't have to.

Photo: impawards.com

ZODIAC  

WHAT it's about: The infamous Zodiac Killer, who terrorized and killed a number of people in San Francisco area in the 1970s and Robert Graysmith, the cartoonist who became obsessed with his every, cryptic move and eventually wrote the non-fiction novel of the same name.  

WHO'S in it: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chloe Sevingny and Anthony Edwards.

WHEN it came out: 2007  

HOW come you haven't heard of (or just seen) it before: It didn't get the mainstream media attention it should have. Critics loved it, but I don't recall the ad campaign at all. I mean, unless you were a self-proclaimed Gyllenhallic at the time,  it was a pretty tough sell. A nearly three-hour thinking man's thriller with no real resolution is not exactly popcorn muncher bait.

WHY you need to watch it - immediately!...

• It's directed by DAVID FINCHER. You know, the man who brought us Fight Club, Se7en, The Social Network and Alien 3!?
• The back story, based on true events, is remarkably chilling. It may start off like a standard urban legend - couple at Lover's Lane get killed by a mysterious mad man - but as things move along, slowly but oh-so-surely, things get more and more real. 
• There's a whole lot of Gyllenhaal in vintage plaids and cords, mumbling like an indoor kid. 
• RDJ acts like Tony Stark in the 1970s. Or himself in the mid 1990s.
• Mark Ruffalo just knows how to pick movies. And hairstyles. And just general ways of being. 
• It's got the most perfectly creepy 1970s folksy rock/spooky soul soundtrack featuring stellar, underused Donovan, Issac Hayes and Three Dog Night tracks.
• The cinematography, much like that in The Social Network, is off-colour gorgeous, making everything seem like a terrifying, yet consuming dream.
• It contains one of the most horrifically realistic movie murders I have ever seen in my life. There's no corn syrup or bad, pre-kill puns. Just a dude and a knife and no fucking mercy. Sure, it's brutal but it's brilliant. At least for us desensitized slasher fans. It's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer stuff.  Only worse. Cause you know it actually happened.