The Social Network
(Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Josh Pence)
There are some people who use Facebook as a supplement to social interaction. They visit when they can, and they only post things they would feel comfortable the whole world knowing. At the other end of the scale are people who live through and for Facebook; they’re on every waking moment. Cofounder Mark Zuckerberg depended on these latter people, possibly because he was one of them—awkward at face-to-face interaction but brilliant with a keyboard in front of him. He was also, perhaps, a two-faced jerkwad.
The Social Network is the terse, fascinating history of Facebook, as told through a few key witnesses and a myriad of court depositions. Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) was a geeky Harvard student and a genius hacker and coder hired by twins Hammer and Pence to develop a dating site. Instead, behind their backs—and with the help of Garfield and Timberlake—he developed the legendary site. In a short time, Zuckerberg inspired a
dot.com money-grabbing frenzy. He was also at the center of corporate politics, vicious backstabbing and two nasty lawsuits.
Director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) and writer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) have crafted an intriguing biopic that doesn’t take sides and doesn’t make saints out of anyone. The acting is wonderful. Even better are the complex questions the movie raises—about how a nerdy savant created a social network, and about how life-changing technology is part inspiration, part perspiration, and a whole lot of BS.
Jack Goes Boating
(Starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John Ortiz, Amy Ryan, Daphne Rubin-Vega)
Seymour Hoffman’s first directorial outing is a congenial, sweet film which unfortunately piles on the quiet, quirky elements to make up for the fact that it doesn’t have much else going on. Only intermittently does it tap the indie cred of Little Miss Sunshine and Up in the Air.
Seymour Hoffman is a stoner limo driver in New York City. He makes a few friends just through proximity and a quiet, unassuming nature. When his best friend Ortiz and Ortiz’ girlfriend (Rubin-Vega) set Seymour Hoffman up on a date, they pick an emotionally stunted office worker (the wonderfully weird and discomfiting Ryan of Gone Baby Gone). This new relationship pushes Seymour Hoffman out of his comfort zone; he decides to learn both to swim and to cook to impress Ryan.
Seymour Hoffman does show an able air with directing actors, even though his editing cannot overcome the movie’s ponderously slow start. The acting is superb all around, but the characters’ ideas about love are sophomoric, lacking logic or insight.
Even with these faults, Jack Goes Boating still manages to be fairly charming. That’s quite a feat given the lugubrious start and the lack of mature characters.
Buried
(Starring Ryan Reynolds)
One actor, one set, one great film. Don’t see it if you’re at all claustrophobic, or if harrowing situations make you lose sleep. For the rest of us, this well-played gimmick is what horror films should be—realistic nail-biters.
And, yes, the entire thing takes place in a coffin buried under the Iraqi dessert.
Ryan Reynolds ably portrays an American truck driver in the middle of the war. It’s a great departure for the comedic actor. He’s been thrown in a handmade box and buried. He has a cell phone, a lighter, and about 90 minutes of oxygen. The rest of the grating, awesome film is his struggle to escape his small prison.
What would you do in such a situation? You can really sense Reynolds panic as he thinks through all of his options.
It’s blood-curdling stuff, expertly directed by relative newcomer Rodrigo Cortéz. The young auteur and his staff utilize their single set in surprising ways. It requires some intricate close-up work as well as a bevy of brilliant plot twists and set constructions. Even better, Buried also possesses small moments of humanity and humor. Finally, Cortéz borrows the best from Hitchcock, including the nifty opening titles.
A moment or two of Buried does get a little politically heavy-handed. However, these never decrease everything else this thriller achieves. In fact, perhaps what most makes Buried so captivating is that the film captures so much while never leaving the coffin.
