I Gotta Be Me #3 - Thoughts on Cinema

Have you ever taken a look at a list of the top ten movies at the current box office? If you have and you consider movies an art form rather than disposable entertainment, you must feel as disheartened as I do sometimes about the state of our culture. I would say on average that maybe 3 or 4 of the top 10 movies are actually worth paying money to see at the theater, for those of us who actually care about movies. The rest are usually either big, dumb action movies, romances built almost entirely on treacle, or comedies that seem to cater to undiscriminating 12 year olds, yet are marketed to adults. Rare are the films that are actually challenging, original, intelligent, with memorable stories and interesting characters. A few years ago, I actually overheard a couple of teenage girls lauding the classic film Citizen Kane at my local library. Maybe we yet have hope. Last week, on the blog, I wrote that I would only review contemporary films from now on. I have changed my mind and have decided that if I so choose to, I will review films from any and all eras, and any and all genres. I watch movies from all eras and genres, so I see no good reason to pretend that I watch contemporary films only, certainly not because I might gain more readers(yet lose myself in the process). I watch a lot of contemporary films, but I also love old black and white films, foreign films, silent films, and documentaries. Cinema is one of the great modern art forms:  less subtle and intellectually absorbing than literature, but perhaps even more empathetic and humanistic in its immediacy. To take the potentials of the art form and devolve it into entertainment to be watched today and forgotten tomorrow is to throw part of our cultural heritage into a wastebasket. If you love cinema like I do, avoid bad, even mediocre movies like the plague, because culturally, that's what they are.

Movie Review: The Social Network(2010)

9.5/10 The Social Network may or may not become the modern classic that previous David Fincher films such as Seven and Fight Club did, but at least for now, it remains an essential viewing experience for understanding not only modern communication, but also modern business. It concerns the seemingly sudden rise of genuis computer whiz Mark Zuckerberg onto the world stage by being the ipso facto creator of the society-changing website Facebook.com. But what it is really about is Zuckerberg's ambivalent personality and character. Adapted from the book The Accidental Billionaires, The Social Network is more of a character study than anything else: Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg is teeming with ambition, brilliance, and leadership qualities, but a vile pettiness and selfishness undercuts nearly every single achievement he accomplishes in the film. Of course he's not the only one: the opportunistic Winklevoss twins claim he stole their idea, and Napster creator Sean Parker comes off as perhaps the slimiest of all the characters, riding the coattails of Zuckerberg  for all the money, sex, and drugs he can get. The only ethically sound guy in the whole enterprise is Zuckerberg's best friend Eduardo Saverin(perhaps not coincidentally a consultant on the book), who gets so royally screwed over by Zuckerberg that we feel the same catharsis as he does when he smashes his "friend's" computer to the floor. And yet, Zuckerberg's thorny pretensions are something to behold and at the end, we even feel a little sorry for him. It's important to note that Aaron Sorkin, the writer of the film, has made no secret about the fact that some of the material is blatantly false and full of what great director Werner Herzog might call "ecstatic truth". In other words, this film isn't necessarily about the events depicted themselves, but about what they mean. Do you have to be this selfish to be this brilliant? Do you have to be this ruthless to be this successful? and finally.... Have we all been brainwashed into joining the biggest social club in the world, created by an asocial genuis? and if so, What does that mean for society? These and many important contemporary issues are addressed in this brilliant film. It may not be worth owning unless you are a big Fincher or Sorkin fan, but it is a must-see for everyone. Get it at Redbox. 5WW4M8EZPFWY