The Final Cut (2004) or, Alan 'the Cutter' Hakman

♥♥♥

Robin Williams looks lost and uncomfortable on this inauspicious poster for Omar Naim's The Final Cut

In a future where devices record people's entire lives, Alan is a 'cutter' whose job it is to make uncritical edits of deceased people's lives. But his new, unsavory client gets him into danger.

A team of talented people are involved in this little-seen b-movie. Robin Williams (What Dreams May Come True (1998)) is good in the lead, and the set design, photography (by Tak Fujimoto (Gods Behaving Badly (2013))) and score (by Brian Tyler (Brake (2012))) are all professionally done.
The idea behind The Final Cut is interesting, but unfortunately it results in a rather banal story here. The film is written and directed by Omar Naim (When Simon Sleeps (1999)). It comes off as a somewhat sexless sci-fi thriller, which attempts to raise some issues that it can't quite handle persuasively in the end.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 3.6 mil. $
= Uncertain - but likely a huge flop
[The Final Cut premiered 11 September (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place in British Colombia, Canada and in Berlin, Germany from June - August 2003. The film opened and peaked at #27 to a weak 227k $ first weekend in 117 theaters in North America, where it grossed 548k $ (15.2 % of the total gross). The biggest market was Italy with 1.1 mil. $ (30.5 %). 2nd biggest was Spain with 586k $ (16.3 %). North America was the 3rd biggest. - If the film was made for a very modest 5 mil. $, it should be counted as a huge flop. - It could easily have been higher, in which case it may have actually been a mega-flop. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. Williams returned in House of D (2004). Naim only returned six years hence as co-director of the PBS documentary Stand Up: Muslim-American Comics Come of Age (2009) and then theatrically with Dead Awake (2010). The Final Cut is rotten at 37 % with a 5.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Final Cut?

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - Villeneuve's speculative sci-fi sequel is fascinating but flawed

♥♥♥

+ Most Expensive Flop of the Year

A silver fox and a burning-hot younger protagonist share this elegant poster for Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 is the sequel to Ridley Scott's great sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982), both based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968). It is written by Hampton Fancher (Blade Runner) and Michael Green (Logan (2017)) and directed by Canadian master filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Arrival (2016)).

In Los Angeles in 2049, a modern blade runner is retiring old replicants. But his latest job makes him remember what he expects is a false, imprinted childhood memory and discover a secret that indicates that the borders between robotic and biological life are not carved in stone.

The new Blade Runner comes highly anticipated, mostly because Villeneuve proved himself as a sci-fi filmmaker to reckon with last year with masterpiece Arrival. The new film film stays true to the cold, disturbing urban environment from the first film; the look of Scott's Californian metropolis is recreated and furthered with the latest technology very artfully, while the persistent rain, gloom and neon lights are kept.
Exciting concepts about life, identity, technology, sexuality and borders between humans and artificial intelligence are brought to vivid life. Ryan Gosling (Drive (2011)) is the blade runner hero here, and he is worshiped in countless long shots, not unlike in Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive and masterpiece Only God Forgive (2013), but somehow he is less compelling here as a very feeling machine. The film for a long while is good science-fiction with a nostalgic feel to it for those long familiar with the first film. Ana de Armas (Faraday (2013)) and Mackenzie Davis (Freaks of Nature (2015)) are good as Gosling's girlfriend, who is, in fact, a highly sophisticated program, and a prostitute, who enables their lovemaking scene, probably the film's most interesting, (although it finishes before the real action starts.)
Blade Runner 2049 is very long, and only in the last, very long act does Harrison Ford (Witness (1985)) show up. Apparently he has been holed up in an abandoned Las Vegas hotel with a possibly fake dog for some of the many years since we last saw him in this universe. The ambitious and complex story begins to crumble for me at this juncture. SPOILER There is a subtext which is that Ford may be Gosling's father, but the two seem to investigate this by beating each other up to a hologram Elvis performance that is quite unpleasant, if you are sentimental about the King. This development also brings to mind Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), (also about Ford's troubled, absent fatherhood of a powerful male), and it seems too much in some way. I exited the movie world here and began to look in at it from the outside, questioning whether it was really a good idea at all to go back to the Blade Runner universe, and also whether or not reenlisting Ford so many years after was really necessary.
SPOILER Sylvia Hoeks (The Girl and Death (2012)) is Terminator-like as a mysterious replicant power woman, who seems to like Gosling for much of the film, but who in the end wants him dead. I find the third act confusing overall, and didn't much enjoy Gosling's graphic drowning of Hoeks either.
Jared Leto (Suicide Squad (2016)) is Niander Wallace, a disturbing replicant-producing industrialist, (think nightmarish Jeff Bezos of the future), who personifies the religious aspects of Blade Runner 2049, which are uniformly negative and fixed upon humanity itself.
Blade Runner 2049 is carefully and impressively made, as cold as the first film but far from as original, good or compelling. It puts its audience in a permanent speculative position that is fascinating to some degree but didn't quite make the cut for me. A great part of it is its ethereal, diverse score by Benjamin Wallfisch (Air Bound (2015)) and Hans Zimmer (Rango (2011)).

Related posts:

Blade Runner (1982) - R. Scott's visual extravaganza, great SF
Denis Villeneuve: 2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Arrival (2016) - Villeneuve, Heisserer and Adams head sensational sci-fi wonder
Incendies (2010) - Villeneuve's dreary and depressing, wildly overrated drama

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 150 mil. $
Box office: 159.8 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Blade Runner 2049 premiered 3 October (Los Angeles) and runs 163 minutes. One development began in 1999. Ridley and brother Tony Scott started working on one in 2007, seeking Christopher Nolan to direct. Shooting took place from July - November 2016 in Hungary, including Budapest, Spain, Iceland, Mexico and in Nevada. The film opened #1 to a disappointing 32.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell to #2 in its second week. The film is opening in Japan and China on 27 October, and it will need very solid runs there and continued audiences globally to break even. - It is likely to become a flop theatrically, just like the first Blade Runner was. Blade Runner 2049 is certified fresh at 88 % with an 8.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Blade Runner 2049?

Snowden (2016) - Stone's inflammatory political thriller is a powerful must-see

♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Biopic of the Year

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the gentle title character on a sleek poster for Oliver Stone's Snowden

 

Snowden is the 20th fiction feature from great New-Yorker filmmaker Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July (1989)). It is written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald (The Homesman (2014)), based on two novels: Luke Harding's (WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy (2011)) non-fiction The Snowden Files (2014) and Anatoly Kucherena's (We Cannot Do Without Bloodshed (2003)) fictionalized Time of the Octopus (2015).

Edward Snowden, a precarious but deeply dedicated young American male, finds out that he can best serve his country by using his prodigal computer skills, working for the NSA and CIA. Over the course of several years, he is increasingly distraught by the covert tactics of his government, leading up to his becoming a whistle-blower for The Guardian in 2013.

Stone, once again, succeeds with a controversial, highly relevant and political current issue, - namely that of Edward Snowden and the mass surveillance and privacy infringement and espionage perpetrated by the US government. His film is arguably more important, inflammatory and needed than any other he has done in decades. As such, it is this year's The Big Short (2015); a thrillingly substantial outlaying of outrageous recent history; eye-opening and assured in its conviction: That Snowden is no suspicious expat that deserves decades behind bars or to rot in his involuntary refuge in Russia, but is, in fact, an American hero, a brave friend of the common man and an excellent citizen.

Cinematically, Snowden isn't as innovative as Big Short. But it's solid all-around, deftly illuminating the problems of mass surveillance in the digital age while letting us ever closer to its title protagonist and his struggles as a loyal citizen with increasingly burdening knowledge and feelings of complicity.

Thanks to a stellar cast that Stone has managed to gather, the film becomes a riveting encounter: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (10 Things I Hate about You (1999)) has a smugness that peaks through his otherwise impressive performance; he really embodies Snowden credibly. Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars (2014)) is, once again, excellent, here as the very normal, loving girlfriend. Rhys Ifans (Another Me (2013)) and Nicholas Cage (Drive Angry (2011)) appear and are great in minor but pivotal parts, and the cast is full of exceptional actors; young up-and-comers like Scott Eastwood (Diablo (2015)) and Ben Schnetzer (Pride (2014)) and more seasoned actors like Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood (2004-06)), Joely Richardson (101 Dalmatians (1996)), Tom Wilkinson (RocknRolla (2008)), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek Beyond (2016)) and Melissa Leo (Flight (2012)).

Don't go into Snowden expecting a break-neck paced conventional thriller. - Its hero is a geek, and it's about technology and the real world, which is thrilling in another way. - But no less thrilling, mark you. Snowden is a must-see.

 

Related posts:

 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

 

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 22.7 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Snowden premiered September 9 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 134 minutes. Stone was working on a film about Martin Luther King's last years with Jamie Foxx starring when he started getting contacted about Snowden and eventually went to Russia and met him. Stone allegedly paid 0.7 mil. $ for the rights to Harding's book and 1 mil. $ for the rights to Kucherena's, scrapping the King biopic. Financing proved tough: Stone and his producer financed the film themselves until 8 days before production, when French and German financing came through: Probably due to its controversial content, it was not possible to get American financing for Snowden. The film was shot in 62 days from February - April in Munich, Germany, Moscow, Hawaii, Washington, D.C. and Hong Kong. The budget was so tight that when Stone's mother passed away, he had to miss her US funeral, because the production couldn't afford any delay. Fears of surveillance and hacking by the NSA made the cast and crew adhere to special precautions during production. Gordon-Levitt, who had also gone to Moscow to meet Snowden and his girlfriend to prepare for his part, donated his entire salary to the production. The release was pushed out from a December 2015 release until the fall of 2016. The film opened #4, behind Sully, Blair Witch and Bridget Jones' Baby, to an 8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spend its 2nd week in #5 and then left the top 5 and has to date grossed just 18.8 mil. $. The film has yet to open in several important markets like France, Germany, Spain, the UK, Italy and Japan, and hopefully it will still gather the much larger audiences it deserves, and avoid becoming a major flop. Snowden is fresh at 63 % with a 6.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Snowden?

Silicon Valley - season 2 (2015) - Critically deflated second run for beloved sitcom

♥♥

 

+ Worst Poster of the Year

 

Symptomatically for the second season of John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley, its poster is much less poignant and funny than the preceding one

 

The second season of creators John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky (Blades of Glory (2007, both)) and Mike Judge's (Extract (2009)) Silicon Valley still focuses on the trials of San Francisco tech startup company Pied Piper upon winning an important industry prize at the conclusion of the first season.

The following episode run-through will contain SPOILERS:

1. Pied Piper's financier and CEO of Raviga Peter Gabriel dies a sudden death.

2. Things are going bad for Pied Piper, with their huge competitor Hooli suing them for copyright violation and their investor Raviga jumping ship. With none of the previously interested investors interested any longer, and facing a legal battle that could cost millions, Pied Piper's founder Richard (Thomas Middleditch (The Final Girls (2015))) decides to meet with Hooli CEO Gavin Belson (Matt Ross (The Aviator (2004))), who is interested in buying up Pied Piper.

3. Richard is about to accept the buy-up, when he is stopped by wealthy douche Russ (Chris Diamantopoulos (Empire State (2013))), who has another plan: To give Pied Piper a 5 mil. $ loan in exchange for a seat in its board. Richard agrees, and Belson finds his weapon against Richard; his past best friend and Pied Piper associate, 'Big Head' (Josh Brener (The Belko Experiment (2016))).

4. The company hires two additional programmers. One is hired with Ehrlich (T. J. Miller (Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014))), Pied Piper's loud-mouthed board member and 'incubator' (owner of the house they operate from) objecting, and that ends up disrupting it.

5. Richard suffers from severe night sweats, which he fears will develop into bedwetting, as moving the company has to be postponed, because Pied Piper needs its own servers, which fit into the garage. Jared (Zach Woods (The Good Wife (2013-16))), the peculiar company assistant, has his own strange sleep pattern; the guys' invalid neighbor becomes another problem for them; and at Hooli, Belson once again promotes unsuspecting 'Baghead'.

6. Hooli's attempt at live-streaming a wrestling match crashes, which inspires Pied Piper to try something similar, and succeed! But the energy drink Homicide turns out not to be the ideal partner for the venture. Another company called End Game turns out also (as Hooli) to have stolen Pied Piper's technology.

7. Our friends pursue End Game, who for the moment turn out to be more commercially minded than Pied Piper. Pied Piper's tough programmer Gilfoyle (Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks (1999-00))) locates a way forward: A porn client. Meanwhile the less aggressive programmer Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani (Goosebumps (2015))) still can't get a girl interested in him.

8. Richard is caught in a paranoid funk because of a vengeful bastard by the name of Seth, but it turns out to be irksome investor Russ who gets a piece of truth from him and as a result may leave Pied Piper. The company mistakenly deletes 9,000 hours of porn from their first client. - Ouch!

9. The copyrights trial becomes an arbitration trial instead, and Pied Piper hires a really funny, disbarred non-lawyer lawyer (Matt McCoy (The Newcomers (2000))), but the case boils down to whether or not Richard is willing to lie about having initially used a Hooli computer for his work on Pied Piper, - which he refuses to do.

10. While a falling accident and Manny Pacquiao suddenly make Pied Piper's 'condor-cam' spike in popularity, Richard wins the arbitration trial due to rotten contracts at Hooli, where Belson is targeted for firing, and 'Big Head' for another advancement... But the party for Pied Piper is over before it begins, as Raviga's new CEO, Laurie (Suzanne Cryer (Get the Gringo (2012))) buys Russ out of the company and removes Richard as its director.

The first episode of the second season is astoundingly bad, beginning with a severely unfunny opening at a baseball stadium. The sudden real-life death of Christopher Evan Welch (Our Idiot Brother (2011)), who portrayed Peter Gabriel, who is killed off in the season's beginning, obviously hangs over the production for its entire second run. It begins by being both written, acted and lit without much motivation and presence. The fun only returns slowly to Silicon Valley, especially through the performances of Woods and Nanjiani, but it remains miles from the heights of season 1. Miller, who plays the charismatic Ehrlich as a key part of the entire show's formula, attacks the part with less persuasion and spirit in season two but returns to form towards its end.

Of the new characters, Raviga's CEO is played by Cryer with an autistic routine that becomes old fast. Russ seems to have more potential, but is also an aggravating character. We get more of the show's racially stereotypically drawn, but not completely unfunny, Chinese character Jing-Yang (Jimmy O. Yang (Those Who Can't (2016, TV-series))).

The storylines go in circles in season 2, centering on money and the same few companies, - for some reason not dealing with such obvious elements as romance or actual sex, (the characters talk about it plenty though.) Season 2 of Silicon Valley is more nerdy, very rocky, but still with some fun, although despairingly less fun and poignant than in its towering first season.

 

Best episode:

 

9. Binding Arbitration - written by Dan O'Keefe (On the Lot (2007, TV-series), Altschuler, Krinsky and Judge, directed by Judge

The trial moves to arbitration, and Pied Piper hires an unorthodox lawyer. Miller as Ehrlich is finally seems to be back in top shape.

Related posts:

 

Mike Judge: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
 

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Silicon Valley - season 1 (2014) - Judge and Co. introduce a hilarious tech-centric satirical sitcom

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) or, Uhh, Where's the TV?

A still from the terrible baseball-stadium set opening of the second season of John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley

Richard drinks tequila shots with Russ in season 2 of John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley

Watch a promo for the second season here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None - TV only

= Unknown

[Silicon Valley - season 2 was first broadcast on HBO from April 12 to June 14 and spans 10 28-30 minute episodes, totaling approximately 290 minutes. It was shot in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, California. The viewer ratings were up slightly from the first season: from 1.72 mil. to 1.8 mil. on average. The season was nominated for a Golden Globe and 6 Emmys, winning two. - Ironically, the show grew in audience and recognition for its much inferior second season. Silicon Valley - season 2 is fresh at 100 % with an 8.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Silicon Valley - season 2?

Silicon Valley - season 1 (2014) - Judge and Co. introduce a hilarious tech-centric satirical sitcom

♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best New TV-Series of the Year

 

The amusingly photo-shopped, Steve Jobs-satirizing poster for the first season of John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley

 

Silicon Valley is a satirical HBO sitcom about a struggling startup company in the tech world bubble that is San Francisco's Silicon Valley, created by John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky (The Goode Family (2009, TV-series, both)) and Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)), based on Judge's experiences working briefly in a Silicon Valley startup in 1987 and the general developments in the technological business.

The following episode run-through will contain SPOILERS:

1. Our hero Richard (Thomas Middleditch (Search Party (2014))) gets ridiculed at his job at tech giant Hooli for his Pied Piper website, but he also secures attention from a couple of big-shots, and suddenly he receives a 10 mil. $ offer. - Which he turns down, preferring a 200k $ offer that allows him to remain captain of the venture.

2. The executive who gave Richard the offer he accepted, Gregory (Christopher Evan Welch (Whatever Works (2009))) gives Richard 48 hours to write an elaborate business plan. Meanwhile, Jared (Zach Woods (Ghostbusters (2016))), an executive assistant at Hooli, changes teams and tries to clarify what roles the guys in Richard's home, who make up Pied Piper, play. Here Richard's best friend 'Big Head' (Josh Brener (Welcome to Happiness (2015))) comes up short, and Richard learns to be an asshole boss by insisting that the seemingly worthless component that is his best friend stays! But Big Head has already caught the drift and moved workplace to Hooli, - who have poached Richard's idea...

3. While Gregory meditates on the sesame seeds on Burger King buns, Richard fights to acquire the name Pied Piper from an agricultural business, although everyone in the company besides himself hate it. Ehrlich (T. J. Miller (Deadpool (2016))), the entrepreneur and self-proclaimed incubator of Pied Piper, who owns the house the guys work and live in, calls them all billionaires online and goes searching for a new name for them on a mushroom trip, returning with a Mexican boy, who he thinks is himself - from the future!

4. The issue of presenting the vision of the company becomes ever more pressing. Richard and Ehrlich attend Gregory's toga party, where rapper Flo Rida and rented party guests party, and Ehrlich manages to become a Pied Piper board member. That is later disputed, but as Richard experiences another panic attack, Ehrlich is graced back to the inside, - and vomited on.

5. Gavin Belson (Matt Ross (American Psycho (2000))), the in equal measures feared and worshiped CEO of Hooli experiences failing technologies during a call, while Richard and Co. find out that Pied Piper is still on track to a competition that Richard had signed into months ago. They decide to make the company's world launch at the event, 8 weeks away. Meanwhile Ehrlich has a Mexican graffiti artist create a logo, which unfortunately turns out wildly obscene.

6. Jared gets caught inside a self-driving car and lead into a container en route to Gregory's phony island! Richard hires a kid to help out with the company's immediate problems with the 'cloud'. - Unfortunately, the kid turns out to be unstable. Finally, sarcastic satanist programmer Gilfoyle's (Martin Starr (Hawaii Five-O (2010-16))) lets his girlfriend visit the house, which creates confusion and hilarity.

7. Time for the competitive conference: Jared's assistant role to Richard gets overtaken temporarily by Gregory's sweet, competent assistant Monica (Amanda Crew (Race (2016))), which makes him laughably miserable. Pied Piper's programmer with Indian ancestry, Dinesh's (Kumail Nanjiani (Life As We Know It (2010))) latent homosexuality flares up, as Ehrlich turns out to have previously had sex with one of the judges' ex-wife, which he now repeats with the judge's current wife.

8. The resulting attack from the judge during Pied Piper's presentation gets them directly into the finale. But a seemingly insurmountable problem presents itself as Hooli beats them to it, presenting a similar system that is simply a good deal better than Richard and the guys'. Every one are struck by the defeat, - Jared additionally hasn't slept for days, - when Ehrlich's grotesque suggestion inspires a new idea in Richard, which improves Pied Piper's compression rate significantly over-night, making them win the competition.

The first couple of minutes of Silicon Valley might elapse with some irritation with all the dopey characters but then ... the show turns out to be incredibly funny! All of the 8 episodes that make up the first season are hilarious, and the nerdy characters develop slightly, and definitely continue to show entertaining sides to themselves. - My favorite is Woods' character Jared, a hysterically awkward and sincere man.

The show hits the bull's eye in several directions. When a call goes terribly awry for the demi-God of Hooli, (episode 5) it reminds us of the many everyday experiences we all have with failing technologies, which we often ignore socially to seem more with the beat. The anxiety involved in our ever-expanding relation with technology is also probed for humorous effect, especially in the episode (#6) in which Jared essentially gets kidnapped by a highly 'intelligent' vehicle.

Silicon Valley is an unmatched, fresh and deeply funny sitcom. After its awesome first season, I couldn't wait to get more of it.

 

Best episode:

 

6: Third Party Insourcing - written by Altschuler, Krinsky, Judge and Dan O'Keefe (The League (2010-15)), directed by Alec Berg (Curb Your Enthusiasm (2007-11))

Jared is imprisoned inside a high-tech car, while Richard tries to solve cloud-problems with the help of a teenager.

 

Related posts:

 

Mike Judge: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) or, Uhh, Where's the TV?

From the left: Characters Ehrlich, Gilfoyle, Dinesh, Jared and Richard, in John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley season 1

Richard's 'boss' Gregory in John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley season 1

Watch an official trailer for the first season of the show here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None - TV only

= Unknown

[Silicon Valley - season 1 was first broadcast on HBO April 6 - June 1 and spans 8 28-30 minute episodes, totaling approximately 232 minutes. The pilot was shot in March 2013, with HBO green-lighting a season in May. Shooting took place in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, California. Read more about Judge's work on the show here. Welch, who plays Gregory, died suddenly of lung cancer in December 2013 after having shot the first 5 episodes. The team behind the show decided to push the fate of the character to the second season, which as a result had to be rewritten. The season averaged 1.72 mil. viewers, which is generally considered to be an unimpressive rating, especially since it played upside HBO's massively successful Game of Thrones. The season was nominated for 5 Emmys, winning none. Silicon Valley - season 1 is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Silicon Valley - season 1?

The Social Network (2010) - Fincher's a-hole biopic leaves me cold (and more anti-Facebook than ever)

♥♥♥

 

Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg behind the huge tagline for David Fincher's The Social Network

 

The Social Network tells the story of how a group of assholes created the platform that made the rest of the world a bit more socially distanced, unsympathetic, frat-boy-like assholes like themselves: Facebook.

The film is written by Aaron Sorkin (Moneyball (2011)), based on (but apparently more accurately; written around the same time as) Ben Mezrich's (Reaper (1998)) The Accidental Billionaires (2009), and directed by Coloradoan master filmmaker David Fincher (Se7en (1995)). Like many of Fincher's films, The Social Network is deeply competently made and phallocentric. He brandishes a peanut-sized heart here with a film that doesn't really awaken any emotions, despite dislike for several of its characters. It races towards the finish line and in doing so feels pretty shallow, not unlike the invention it portrays.

The actors do fine jobs, although it is sad to watch Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale (2005)) as alienated and humanly blunted as we get him here. Armie Hammer (J. Edgar (2011)) plays a pair of twins, which are the film's most sympathetic and funniest characters.

The Social Network is without a doubt among the most overrated films of the year.

 

Related reviews:

 

David Fincher: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - Fincher's Nordic noir is technically astute but overlong and redundant

Alien 3 (1992) or, The Monsters Go to Jail!

Watch a teaser trailer for the film here

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 224.9 mil. $

= Huge hit

[The Social Network premiered September 24 (New York Film Festival) and runs 120 minutes. Sorkin began writing and researching based on a 14-page book proposal, while Mezrin was also writing his book. Filming took place in Massachusetts, Maryland, California and England, beginning in October 2009. The film opened #1 to a 22.4 mil. $ first weekend, staying atop for another week and spending a total of four weeks in the top 5 in North America, where it grossed 96.9 mil. $ (43.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 16.9 mil. $ (7.5 %) and the UK with 16.8 mil. $ (7.5 %). Several people portrayed in the film, including Zuckerberg, found that it was historically inaccurate, especially in upping the drama of the lives of the main characters. The film got nominated for 8 Oscars: It won for Best Adapted Screenplay, Score and Editing. It lost Best Picture to The King's Speech, Actor (Eisenberg) to King's Speech (Colin Firth), Directing to King's Speech (Tom Hooper), Cinematography to Inception and Sound Mixing also to Inception. It was also nominated for 6 Golden Globes, winning 4, and for 6 BAFTAs, winning 3. It was on at least 78 critics' top 10 list of the year, topping 22 (including Roger Ebert's), reportedly the most for any film of the year. In its first week out on DVD and Blu-ray, it made an additional 13.4 mil. $ on that. The Social Network is certified fresh at 96 % with a 9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Social Network?