What Movie Are You Watching Or Watched Today?

[firehazard]

The King's Speech.

Unashamed monarchist propaganda, which will doubtless add to the mythology surrounding the British royal family, as well as tapping into British mid-twentieth-century nostalgia.

Up the revolution!

But it's a clever, well-made film. And I'd have to admit Sir Colin Firth is damn good in it.

[Fr. McGreer]

My better half & I went to see "Black Swan" last night. We'd tried Friday, but it was all sold out. Had to go early afternoon on Sat to get a ticket for the 7:40 and get their at 7:15 just to get a decent seat! I guess it's doing well, this wasn't opening weekend or anything.

It was lovely just to watch, a beautiful film. The story was in some ways a typical psychological thriller about somebody in conflict with themselves, but it was very well done with it's own unique twists & what with it set in the world of ballet made it novel to me. I liked most everything about it. Even the losers next to us felt the girl-on-girl scene was "totally worth the $15 right there!"

We also went to see Black Swan and it's magnificent. If you sit back and emerge yourself in it, the corny and cliche'd plot doesn't matter as the musical score and cinamatography are incredible.

Philip, you should make time for it if you've not done so already. Your review could go here or the Theatre thread. Watch out for this new, up and coming guy who did the music. Don't know much about him but overheard some people say his name is Chy Kovski (something like that anyway) sounds Polish to me. He's gonna be big

[philipchevron]

Another Year (Mike Leigh, 2010)

Believe everything you read about this beautiful, deceptively gentle picture, and especially about Lesley Manville's memorable performance.

Meh! One lousy Oscar nomination - for Leigh's screenplay.

[philipchevron]

The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)

I watched this with the push and pull of contrasting emotions. The only modern capitalist more repulsive than Mark Zuckerberg is Sean Parker: just because these kids made their fortunes as cybersmartypants rather than as mere Darwinian predators does not make them any less loathsome. And that's the trouble with The Social Network - it's difficult to care much who prevails in this epic battle of the nerds. There are no good guys. But it's also what makes it such a fascinating movie - Aaron Sorkin's typically dialogue-strong screenplay and David Fincher's assured direction tell a story that is at once chillingly contemporary and the oldest tale in town. And Jesse Eisenberg is just terrific as Zuckerberg.

Watch it on the great 2-DVD version, which includes extensive behind the scenes coverage of everything from early table rehearsals to in-depth scrutiny of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's brilliant soundtrack - what about that Swarmatron!?

Ironically, news broke this morning that Mark Zuckerberg has just had his own Facebook page hacked.

[darrencp22]

Phil, I saw the movie too. One thing to keep in mind is that there are some accounts that the events in the movie are misleading, or even fictional. The movie was made completely without any feedback or conversations with Zuckerberg. One example is Mark's girlfriend in the beginning. This woman does not exist and Mark has been with the Girlfriend since before the events of the movie take place. Mark also claims that there was never any desire to make Facebook into a site to pick up women and had no interest in doing so as he was in a relationship... what's true? Hard to say... because Hollywood has the integrity of a injury attorney, but I have to give the movie this much.. It intriqued me enough to try and find out what was accurate and what isn't.

[philipchevron]

Phil, I saw the movie too. One thing to keep in mind is that there are some accounts that the events in the movie are misleading, or even fictional. The movie was made completely without any feedback or conversations with Zuckerberg. One example is Mark's girlfriend in the beginning. This woman does not exist and Mark has been with the Girlfriend since before the events of the movie take place. Mark also claims that there was never any desire to make Facebook into a site to pick up women and had no interest in doing so as he was in a relationship... what's true? Hard to say... because Hollywood has the integrity of a injury attorney, but I have to give the movie this much.. It intriqued me enough to try and find out what was accurate and what isn't.

Yes, you do wonder about these things while you're watching and it's interesting seeing actor Andrew Garfield (Mark's "only" mate and original business partner Eduardo) in the bonus materials, talking sincerely about how he set out consciously as an actor to Do No Harm to his real life subject. But the film is not really "about" Facebook, or Napster, or even Zuckerberg, really, but about the apparent social vacuum - I say apparent because I have never personally felt the need to have a social media outlet of my own - does Medusa count? - Mark isolated and filled. In many ways, it is more a critique of Facebook than it is of its inventor: what sort of need has it fulfilled exactly, when its inventor himself is seen repeatedly punching the Refresh key in the forlorn hope that his ex-girlfriend has responded favourably to his be-my-friend Facebook email? The fact that Gypsy Rose Lee's mother was an even bigger monster than she is portrayed in Gypsy does not prevent the show/film being a classic American parable. Getting the story out is primary.

Besides, what kind of guy tells his girlfriend that he is not interested in checking out other women because he is "in a relationship" with her, except because he knows that's what she wants to hear.

[DzM]

But the film is not really "about" Facebook, or Napster, or even Zuckerberg, really, but about the apparent social vacuum - I say apparent because I have never personally felt the need to have a social media outlet of my own - does Medusa count? - Mark isolated and filled. In many ways, it is more a critique of Facebook than it is of its inventor: what sort of need has it fulfilled exactly, when its inventor himself is seen repeatedly punching the Refresh key in the forlorn hope that his ex-girlfriend has responded favourably to his be-my-friend Facebook email?

I can't speak to the accuracy (or lack of) about how the people involved interacted. I can speak to the niche that FaceBook identified and isolated though.

FaceBook and its precursors (MySpace, Friendster, Tribe, GeoCities, etc) to various degrees recognized that people who are not tech nerds want to be online. The allure of having an online presence, a place where you can post your photos and say Big Things and connect with friends and family, etc is a strong one. People like myself have the technical ability to stand up a server and create content, but an awful lot of people don't have the background (or time) to do this.

Initially sites like GeoCities attacked this niche by saying "people want to make a home page but they don't know how to make it or where to host it. Let's make publishing tools and host the result." What they lacked was dynamic content, social interaction, multimedia, etc.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s people realized that the niche wanted more than static pages. They wanted interactivity. They wanted a way to connect to their online (and off-line) social circle. Sites like Friendster and Tribe came about to fill this niche, but lacked the ability to really "publish" content. You could create a profile, and you could connect to friends and groups. These sites also suffered from fractioning. Consumers didn't really have a way of bringing together their entire social sphere in one place - if half my friends are on Tribe and half are on Friendster then I have two places I have to obsessively monitor and update things.

MySpace realized that people wanted the ability to customize their "page" quickly and easily, wanted to easily connect to people with a lightweight conversational structure (not threaded, often less than a paragraph), and have the ability to have pictures and music. They slapped together a system very quickly that was, by all accounts, vastly inferior to the competition but they empowered their users to do whatever the hell they wanted. MySpace also realized that the best social system in the world doesn't matter at all if there are no users, and that the best way to get a lot of users is to have a few high profile celebrity users. MySpace actively sought out users like Tila Tequila (an attention starved exhibitionist Internet celebrity) and made tools available for musicians to easily create "communities." MySpace built a core community of users that made other people "I want to be a part of THAT!"

FaceBook came from nearly the same inspiration as MySpace, but had at its core an elitism. When they began they limited enrollment to college students. The message was, essentially, "be elite, don't hang out with the proles on MySpace." As those students graduated and moved into the Real World they maintained their social contacts and structures from college through The Face Book. Eventually FaceBook through their doors open to the wide open Internet and had social webs already built in.

Etc etc. What the niche boils down to is that non-nerds want to be able to share their own life experiences with their friends and family, and have those people share back. FaceBook is the current king of the hill of these kinda of social sites because they have made it extremely easy for people to not have to go to other sites. Games from third parties are easily integrated. The user base is so massive that anyone you care to reconnect with is likely already a FaceBook user. The communication tools being provided increasingly make it unnecessary for users to ever go to other web sites. And at a technical level the amount of demographic information that FB gathers (not just what's in your profile, but "anonymous" data for non-FB users gathered from every site that inserts the "Like This" icon on their own pages AND using the "Like" buttons on those other sites to build more detailed and effective profiles for actual FB users) and can license to advertisers is, if you'll pardon the expression, pure gold. This give FB a massive war chest that they can use to continually create new sticky services.


I look forward to the day that FaceBook dies in a fire.

[cagliostro]

Besides, what kind of guy tells his girlfriend that he is not interested in checking out other women because he is "in a relationship" with her, except because he knows that's what she wants to hear.

By my reckoning, that makes him one of the majority.

[old barney greyheron]

Another Year (Mike Leigh, 2010)

Believe everything you read about this beautiful, deceptively gentle picture, and especially about Lesley Manville's memorable performance.

Meh! One lousy Oscar nomination - for Leigh's screenplay.

Haven't seen that yet..i'll probably wait till it's on tv..i'm watching 'Secrets and Lies' in a minute..another Mike Leigh gem.

[RoddyRuddy]

http://www.tg4.tv/main.aspx?level=Faisn ... 9594557441
Not a film but the documentary Redlegs."A dying community of Irish descents live in poverty on the rocky East coast of Barbados. The story of how they got there begins with their forced transportation by Cromwell..."
A bit of history I knew nothing about."A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell...."

[NewJerseyRich]

Just a few points...

I don't know where facebook is a place to pick up women came into the story. As the film and facts show, Zuckerberg set the original program up to "rate" two different pictures of Harvard coeds.
The film like all has some dramatic license but the root story is Zuckerberg is a douchebag. The minor issue of the gf has nothing to do with the way he actually treated his best friend.
MySpace focused itself on musicians, artists and pseudocelebities and left the mainstream nongeeks that weren't artistically inclined on the outside looking in again. MySpace recently started a karaoke ability so any user can share their cackling goodness.
Even though I promote there, I also eagerly await Facebooks demise.

[NewJerseyRich]

got a chance to DVR Sid and Nancy last night. That'll be staying on the box for awhile.

[RoddyRuddy]

The Punk Rock Movie [ Don Letts ]
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-punk-rock-movie

[Doktor Avalanche]

got a chance to DVR Sid and Nancy last night. That'll be staying on the box for awhile.

Great film.

[Doktor Avalanche]

The Punk Rock Movie [ Don Letts ]
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-punk-rock-movie

Another great film.