Been making regular trips to the cinema of late...
THE SOCIAL NETWORK- 4/5 Being such a (on the face of it at least) departure for both Fincher and Sorkin, they handle this new material incredibly well. Sorkin works his way through the internet code jargon (which may lose a fair bit of the audience for a while, but it is not only worth persevering through but also demonstrates the level of Mark Zuckerberg's computer-savviness) and manages to create a world and characters in which we can invest ourselves, no mean feat with regards to a film detailing the creation of a website. Fincher has always been a master of the character study, and The Social Network is nothing if not an accomplished study of a character driven by the idea of success, a study of the psychology of greed and desire and its often hugely detrimental effect upon those around it. Jesse Eisenberg gives a fantastic performance as Zuckerberg, unveiling unseen depths as an actor and somehow managing to strike some empathy within the audience for such a deeply unlikeable character. It is easy to see why Mark Zuckerberg wasn't too happy about the release of this film, but whatever the truth may be about him or the court case, this is still a compelling film very much of its time. It is far from a perfect movie, but I would urge anyone to see it simply, if for nothing else, for the fact that it is a film that represents a whole generation, a whole movement towards a completely new social culture. And those that consider the creation of Facebook unsuitable for the plot of a film, think again, because it is an event that has quickly impacted massively on our culture, on our methods of communication, and has come almost to define a generation. ------------------------------------------------------
EASY A- 4/5 Not only the best teen flick since 2004's Mean Girls, but also probably the chick flick most likely to appeal to male audiences since that Lindsay Lohan-starrer too. Emma Stone leaps from fantastic comic supporting actress (Superbad, Zombieland) to a bona fide star with her hugely likeable turn as Olive, a high-school student who finds her life paralleling that of the book she is reading in class, The Scarlet Letter, as one white lie spirals into an out of control assault on the high school rumour mill. Easy A is not only very funny, but also very smart, and could easily be said to sum up a generation as well as The Social Network has, its events almost intrinsically linked to the all-social networking, all-blogging world of today. The film also benefits from some great supporting turns from Amanda Bynes, Thomas Haden Church, Lisa Kudrow and Malcolm McDowell, though the most special mentions must go to Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive's very funny and very open parents. ----------------------------------------------------
I should be hitting the cinema to see The Kids Are Alright, Winter's Bone and possibly Let Me In over the next week or so, so I'll try and put up reviews of those soon too.
Finally, I've decided to start up a Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/dburtonwood), for my own personal pleasure but also so that I can begin to upload any short pieces of film I have shot, as I have maaaaaany ideas rattling around and ready to make the move onto camera. The first video I've uploaded was part of the larger project I began over the summer, but seemed to work quite well as this smaller piece, just showing myself and my friends waking up and getting ready after a (heavy) night out. Have a look!
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