Gone Girl

Join this week’s guest Walt Bismarck and I on the second episode of In Kino Veritās— a podcast where the guest picks a film, we both watch, and discuss.

We don’t simply review films but dive deep into their themes, characters and cultural context. In this episode we explore the late 2014 film Gone Girl. A film rich in subtext and meaningful perspectives on Gender Politics, sex, and post-modern narrative. Released contemporaneously with Gamer Gate and followed shortly after by the me-too movement.

Be sure to check out Walt’s new novel.

Where you can stream Gone Girl (Use your local library to get a physical copy for free.99)

Main Points

• Who’s Walt Bismarck? From racist Disney parodies to metapolitics, lifestyle writing, and novel-writing

• Walt’s film choice: Gone Girl and its exploration of feminine power, myth-making, and betrayal

• Quick synopsis: Amy Dunne vanishes on her anniversary; unreliable narration unravels layers of truth

• Spoilers past this point

• Amy as a rare female villain: not shrill, not cartoonish—genuinely frightening and seductive

• The femme fatale reimagined: audience sympathy tilted toward the villainess

• Walt’s sympathy for Amy; contempt for Nick as a “jackass” with latent charm and no self-reflection

• Nick as a red-state golden retriever: charming in New York, repulsive at home

• Amy’s early romanticization of Nick vs. her elite disdain and disgust

• Hypergamy and fear of replacement: the biological stakes of romantic betrayal

• The "cool girl" monologue: femininity as performance, exhaustion, and narrative plasticity

• Amy’s will to power: myth-making as control, radical feminism as narrative authorship

• The scavenger hunt and media circus: surveillance, performance, and public opinion

• Truth as a masculine defense vs. narrative perception as feminine weapon

• Desi as tool and narrative sacrifice; Amy’s sadistic flourish in his demise

• Amy’s “lesbianced” phase: post-gaze indulgence, New Orleans accent, undone by a “white trash bitch”

• The “button masher” theory: narrative sophistication vs. chaotic reality

• Walt’s Beauty-and-the-Beast analogy: women introducing sentience to men

• Amy as myth-maker: shaped by parental branding, reclaiming authorship through vengeance

• Feminine betrayal as aesthetic, narrative, and deeply cutting

• Male betrayal as base, impulsive, and status-seeking

• Walt on Amy’s conditional affection: real in the moment, gone the next

• Theon: feminine power as shaping belief and perception, not just control

• Nick’s mythos re-engagement: pregnancy, public appeal, and partial redemption

• Discussion of red pill tropes: caring less vs. crafting new masculine architectures

• Critique of exoteric movements: red pill and alt-right capture by low-IQ populism

• Desire for positive portrayals of mythologized men: where Gone Girl falls short

• The feminine power to enchant vs. fear and resentment: call for reverence

• Cultural timing: Gone Girl before Gamergate, Me Too, and the collapse of narrative subtlety

• Comparison to The Last Duel: heavy-handed vs. Gone Girl’s elegant ambiguity

• Final thoughts: Gone Girl as postmodern tragedy, gender war fable, and enduring cultural mirror

• Look forward to next episode!