Vidrec: "Handlebars" by chaila and "The Social Network"
Handlebars by 
chaila.
I debated whether I wanted to make a West Wing vid to this song for a while and ultimately dismissed it because I decided it was a. overplayed in fandom and b. pretty dark.
Now I wish I had.
chaila has focused it strictly on Bartlet and it's an absolutely chilling look at the character. Go watch.
Which reminds, me, I saw "The Social Network" Thursday on screener passes. I tweeted about it but I never got around to writing an entry on it. Let's do that now, shall we?
Non-spoilery: While maybe not the 'greatest movie of the year', the glowing reviews have been fairly on the money. Easily the best thing Sorkin's written since 'The West Wing' and in many ways the apogee of a lot of things he's been working through. Thus I recommend highly that you see it, especially if you are a fan of his and on the fence - it's always good to see an artist finally LAND the theme they were circling around for ages.
The performances are really great, particular kudos to Justin Timberlake who probably has the hardest role in the film as Sean 'Napster' Fanning. He has to be both magnetic and in-control - so that Zuckerberg and the audience believes what he's selling (and he's right, by the way) while also tipping on out of control. Jesse Eisenberg has the interesting job of being a leading man who isn't - he's a cold, awkward bastard at best.
Fincher, who's work I am familiar with but not enough to do in detail - his direction in this is great, though. The actors are cold in all the right places. There's some distracting camera work in an action sequence using the tilt-camera technique which annoys but the tilt-camera technique in and of itself is so 'of the internet age'... and for a film which is trying to capture this moment, may be the sort of thing which ages gracefully.
What makes this film a monumental step forward for Sorkin is that while it's ostensibly about the creative process - something he's been obsessed with since the beginning, it really has fucking nothing to do with Facebook, or making Facebook. It's about a thoroughly unlikable genius with an Ivy League obsession, just like everything else - only there's no pretense here.
You may like Zuckerberg, but for the first time in a Sorkin work there's no real pretension about what's going on there. There's no woobie excuse for his behavior: if his parents hit him, or his sibling died drunk driving, we don't hear about it. There is, at first, no high powered job to hide behind - he's an antisocial asshole who ultimately substitutes quantifying socialization for the world he seems thoroughly unequipped to understand or live in.
There is no romance to this movie, and now Sorkin's finally clearly discussed things which have been bothering him for some time.
One of the major flaws (I'm not convinced it is one, but this film doesn't even bother to pretend to pass the Bechdel test) is that there are almost no female characters in this movie and with two notable exceptions, they're almost all characterized as ditzes and bimbos. I didn't think it a flaw so much as telling that Sorkin bookends the film with women who see through Zuckerberg's bullshit. It's as much a movie about Facebook as it is about the disposable comodification of people - if the girlfriends are Asian and disposable, it's only the symptom of a universe in which all people are objects to be used for gain and then discarded. The fact remains that his lawyer and his ex saw through it, and presumably exist in the real world where people have value beyond their metrics... which is a world that the film version of Zuckerman, at least, is incapable of reaching.
Also, any film where part of the plot involves drunken emo break up Livejournaling? You guys should all be lining up for it.
chaila.
I debated whether I wanted to make a West Wing vid to this song for a while and ultimately dismissed it because I decided it was a. overplayed in fandom and b. pretty dark.
Now I wish I had.
chaila has focused it strictly on Bartlet and it's an absolutely chilling look at the character. Go watch.
Which reminds, me, I saw "The Social Network" Thursday on screener passes. I tweeted about it but I never got around to writing an entry on it. Let's do that now, shall we?
Non-spoilery: While maybe not the 'greatest movie of the year', the glowing reviews have been fairly on the money. Easily the best thing Sorkin's written since 'The West Wing' and in many ways the apogee of a lot of things he's been working through. Thus I recommend highly that you see it, especially if you are a fan of his and on the fence - it's always good to see an artist finally LAND the theme they were circling around for ages.
The performances are really great, particular kudos to Justin Timberlake who probably has the hardest role in the film as Sean 'Napster' Fanning. He has to be both magnetic and in-control - so that Zuckerberg and the audience believes what he's selling (and he's right, by the way) while also tipping on out of control. Jesse Eisenberg has the interesting job of being a leading man who isn't - he's a cold, awkward bastard at best.
Fincher, who's work I am familiar with but not enough to do in detail - his direction in this is great, though. The actors are cold in all the right places. There's some distracting camera work in an action sequence using the tilt-camera technique which annoys but the tilt-camera technique in and of itself is so 'of the internet age'... and for a film which is trying to capture this moment, may be the sort of thing which ages gracefully.
What makes this film a monumental step forward for Sorkin is that while it's ostensibly about the creative process - something he's been obsessed with since the beginning, it really has fucking nothing to do with Facebook, or making Facebook. It's about a thoroughly unlikable genius with an Ivy League obsession, just like everything else - only there's no pretense here.
You may like Zuckerberg, but for the first time in a Sorkin work there's no real pretension about what's going on there. There's no woobie excuse for his behavior: if his parents hit him, or his sibling died drunk driving, we don't hear about it. There is, at first, no high powered job to hide behind - he's an antisocial asshole who ultimately substitutes quantifying socialization for the world he seems thoroughly unequipped to understand or live in.
There is no romance to this movie, and now Sorkin's finally clearly discussed things which have been bothering him for some time.
One of the major flaws (I'm not convinced it is one, but this film doesn't even bother to pretend to pass the Bechdel test) is that there are almost no female characters in this movie and with two notable exceptions, they're almost all characterized as ditzes and bimbos. I didn't think it a flaw so much as telling that Sorkin bookends the film with women who see through Zuckerberg's bullshit. It's as much a movie about Facebook as it is about the disposable comodification of people - if the girlfriends are Asian and disposable, it's only the symptom of a universe in which all people are objects to be used for gain and then discarded. The fact remains that his lawyer and his ex saw through it, and presumably exist in the real world where people have value beyond their metrics... which is a world that the film version of Zuckerman, at least, is incapable of reaching.
Also, any film where part of the plot involves drunken emo break up Livejournaling? You guys should all be lining up for it.