If you’re one of the many people who like celebrated actors Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. as well as acclaimed director David Fincher, you may have enjoyed their critically lauded 2007 film Zodiac. But if you missed it back when it released, fear not, as you’ll have the perfect chance to watch as it’s now on Netflix. Great timing for those of us who need a good thriller while spending our summer stuck at home in self-isolation, right?
For those unfamiliar with the underrated movie, the plot concerns the manhunt for the elusive Zodiac Killer from the late ’60s to the early ’70s, a case that remains unsolved to this day. The film gives special attention to the real letters used by the murderer to taunt Californian law enforcement into pursuing him throughout the course of his killing spree, reaching a body count of at least 37 people according to the unidentified killer himself.
Zodiac grossed over $84 million worldwide against an estimated production budget of $65 million and currently sits at a comfortable 89% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 78% on Metacritic. More impressively, it won the Palme d’Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival among other illustrious honors including at the Teen Choice Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards and Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. It also tends to be mentioned in cinephilic circles as a victim of an unfair snub from the Academy Awards, as it really deserved more recognition than it got.
Hopefully, the Netflix audience will be kinder to the movie than the Oscars crowd was. Although the film will face some stiff competition dropping on the platform today in tandem with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, West Side Story and All Dogs Go to Heaven amongst others, Zodiac is certainly no cold case.