How useful has a particular critical approach been in gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of your chosen film? 

My chosen film that I have studied for this topic is David Fincher's 1999 film 'Fight Club' which had a number of critical approaches such as Freudian and Post modernism but the critical approach that was most useful to me was this idea of the crisis of masculinity. The films exposition starts with [Jack] the narrator at a self help group for men, all sat in a circle in a gym. As men they should be playing basketball in front of the american flag but instead they are discussing their feelings and massaging each other. The diegetic sound of alarm bells ringing in the background symbolise that what is happening is wrong, it goes against the status quo. Jack suffers from Insomnia, probably as a result of too much TV and a lack of meaning in his life, 'If I didn't cry, I didn't sleep'. He lives his life out of an IKEA catalogue picking out pieces of decorum; something men are stereotypically not meant to do. When his house blows up after meeting Tyler, it is argued that this was the best thing to happen to him. 'It's only when we've lost everything, that we are free to be anything'. Marla (anagram for alarm) flips this idea of a feminine masculine on its head, Jack appears to not be interested in her but his alter ego Tyler is interested in her sexually. A more freudian approach of the id and the ego is applied here. This would make him more masculine because he does not admit his feelings (like women often do) and only desires her sexually. To counteract their growing feminine sides they start a fight club to reclaim their masculinity.