Social Network: Reality Hits the Wall

David Fincher’s Social Network is a dramatised account of the creation of Facebook and the lawsuits that followed. It’s primarily about Machiavellian intrigue: ‘You don’t get to make 500 million friends without making a few enemies’.

IMDb has thoughts on how accurate the story is. In the film FB’s creator Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) has no real friends or lasting romantic relationships. Apparently this doesn’t match the real-life person and since it is central to his character development, or lack of it, I’m treating it the story as fiction.

One aspect that has some legal ‘truth’ is the interweaving of legal depositions with connected flashbacks. They are cleverly scripted by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, but unfortunately there are just too many of the Q&A scenes.

It’s a highly competent cast. Eisenberg does silence extremely well with a great combination of brooding genius and arrogant back-stabber. Armie Hammer does a sterling, nay an Olympic, job as identical twin rowers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. I can now put a face to Justin Timberlake who plays villain Sean Parker, but was unmoved by the encounter.

This is a boys’ own film. Harvard of the 21st Century is not presented as the home of sensitive new age guys. Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), the catalyst for Mark’s initial anti-social website Facemash, is the only female character who would not feel at home in a fraternity movie.

There is a new twist – the advent of geek groupies. Money and power have always been sexy. It’s no coincidence that we’re led to believe that FB’s early success was based on the desire of young men to get laid.

Social Network is memorable for its final scene and last lines: “Mark, you’re not an arsehole, you’re just trying very hard to be one.”

We can only hope that the real Zuckerberg is a much more interesting character than the one portrayed. Otherwise those billions are going to waste.

(Thanks to Cinetology for the tickets.

I have 223 Facebook 'friends'. None of them are characters in the film.)

Boy: Realising Potential

Boy recreates a time when young boys and Michal Jackson were not a sniggering matter. This delightful, insightful Kiwi film proves what can still be done on a small budget. It is funny, moving and disturbing at times. Its Mature Audience classification in Australia belies the cast of children who seem to have little difficulty dealing with so-called adult themes that bedevil the oldies.

Set in 1984, Boy is thoroughly modern in its exploration of their world. Writer/director Taika Waititi has drawn on his schooldays in New Zealand and his Maori background. He also very entertaining as the tragi-comic adult lead Alamein, leader of his 3 man Crazy Horse gang.

Waititi's light touch makes for a mostly gentle and genuinely funny journey with Alamein’s two sons and their whimsical collection of cousins and schoolmates. Some of the lesser lights struggle with their lines but it doesn’t really matter. The really young ones basically do everything without dialogue and don’t miss a beat.

The three make a quixotic family. 11 year-old Boy, is the idealist. James Rollston is a natural in this part. His bumbling innocence reminds me of the boys in Stand By Me, as he knocks on the door of puberty. Younger brother Rocky is the dreamer and fantasist. It’s hard not to be captivated by Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu’s performance. Taika makes a flawed, roguish but likable knight as Alamein.

Do yourself a favour. Spend a little time in Waihau Bay. Like Boy, it realises lots of its potential.

MIFF 2010: City of Life and Death

1937.

Japanese troops beseige and conquer the Chinese captial Nanking.

City of Life and Death is fiction but is based on the experiences of real people who were caught up in this shocking tale of war and inhumanity. It has the feel of a documentary and recreates in black and white, the horror captured on film at the time. Mass executions, brutality, rape, and forced prostitution are presented in the matter of fact way that they were carried out.

This isn't anti-Japanese propaganda though the shame of their actions should not be forgotten. Kakodawa (Hideo Nakaizumi), a young soldier, represents the human side of the invaders. Just as Mr. Tang (Wei Fan) shows the desperate attempts that some locals tried to protect their families.

If there are heroes in this story, they are the women. Plus one child, Xiaodouzi (Bin Liu), who is still alive today. The dramatic focus is the International Safety Zone, where an illusory attempt to help refugees from the slaughter takes place.

This film should be compulsory viewing in a world that still seems obsessed with going to war.

MIFF 2010: The Killer Inside Me

Perhaps you have to be in the mood. Michael Winterbottom's The Killer Inside Me was disappointing. This portrait of evil will suit fans of gratuitous violence but as a character study it fell way short. It's part crime thriller, part horror, part psychological drama.

It may have been because Casey Affleck plays bad cop Lou Ford with his cowboy drawl that is impossible to understand at times. Is this great acting or poor elocution?

The plot was both unlikely and predictable. We are asked to accept that Ford has suddenly come out in his late twenties as a nasty after years as a nice guy. The trigger of a slap on the face hardly explains the sudden emergence of Mr. Hyde.

The law enforcement people, led by DA Howard Hendricks (Simon Baker), are not the brightest bunch. Even basic forensic science of the early 1950s like fingerprinting seem beyond them. Their extraordinary lack of any sense of smell at the final confrontation is amazing.

This film is pretty pedestrian pulp fiction. Perhaps the storyline of the original crime novel was fresh in 1952. It just seems to have been done to death on film and television.

Of the victims, Jessica Alba performance is much more memorable as Joyce Lakeland than Kate Hudson as girlfriend Amy Stanton. The rest of the male cast had the appeal of a telemovie.

As a longime Tarantino follower, the blood saturation point may have been reached for me.

MIFF 2010: The Day Will Come

The Day Will Come (Es kommt der Tag) is a mystery of sorts. Director/screen writer Susanne Schneider has crafted a suspenseful and tense drama but the plot is rather transparent.

Katharina Schüttler gives a powerful performance as Alice, a young woman in search of her identity. Her self-destructive, sometimes violent nature seems wrapped in her genes. Iris Berben as Judith has to keep her passionate beliefs bottled up for self preservation. Anyway, enough spoilers.

Judith's family are very effectively portrayed by Jacques Frantz (husband) Sebastian Urzendowsky (son) and Sophie-Charlotte Kaissling-Dopff (daughter). They are all very convincing in the crisis that overwhelms them.

This is dual language (German and French) film. It's bilingualism is central to its heart of darkness. This exploration of evil, personal betrayal, and healing is well worth the effort.