Cadinho93’s review published on Letterboxd:
"Just because you can't prove it doesn't mean it isn't true."
Zodiac is a great David Fincher film. It has all his technical craft and brilliant stylized shots. It has the deep tension and atmosphere of his other films, but with a little less ick-factor as can be done in a film about a serial killer.
Great actors that find ways to solve and crack down crime: Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), Inspector Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), Melvin Belli (Brian Cox), Sergeant Jack Mulanax (Elias Koteas), Captain Ken Narlow (Donal Logue), Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch), Captain Marty Lee (Chloë Sevigny), Sherwood Morrill (Philip Baker Hall) and Captain Marty Lee (Dermot Mulroney).
It's a great investigation film that gets you closer and closer to finding the truth on whodunit. The "basement" scene instills so much tension every time I watch it, which is remarkable. What's horrifying is knowing all the events, the characters and the story you just digested is all very accurately real after finishing the film.
Zodiac reaches frightening lengths of obsession, a film made by obsessors, acted by obsessors and by the end of it, you're an obsessor yourself as the audience. The great attention to detail about the murders, how they took place just in the first 30 minutes of the film glues you to the screen.
The film is a straight out police procedural at times, it's also a very good, reasonably deep psychology about a unique serial killer and how his mind works from just the murder details and the killer's mail letters. The ending brilliantly fits the movie's message by not satisfying the audience, portraying the horrifying mystery that still is unsolved by this day at the heart of the film.
Overall, Zodiac is a murder-mystery-masterpiece.
