I was under the impression that David Fincher‘s Gone Girl, which will open the New York Film Festival on Friday evening, had been pre-screened only for the trades (Variety, Hollywood Reporter, TheWrap, Indiewire) for early review. A quick glance at Rotten Tomatoes says otherwise. New York/Vulture‘s David Edelstein has seen it and posted a review (“Elegantly wicked, phenomenally gripping…a world of masks, misrepresentations, subtle and vast distortions”). Time Out‘s Joshua Rothkopf has seen it and reviewed (“The kind of wickedly confident Hollywood thriller you pray to see once in a decade…the stealthiest comedy since American Psycho…a hypnotically perverse film that redeems your faith in studio smarts”). Entertainment Weekly‘s Chris Nashawaty has seen and reviewed. All the big British critics and have seen it and reviewed. Is there anyone who hasn’t seen it except yours truly? I’m sorry but this drains the excitement out of the NYFF debut. I was under an early impression that the NYFF press screening on Friday afternoon would be the cool place to be. Now it’s looking like a last licks clean-up screening — a venue for second-tier journos who weren’t cool enough to be included in the first round.