The Social Network | Review

And.... we have ourselves a Best Picture nominee.

You know when I heard David Fincher was directing a movie about Facebook.. I was like "...nawww." Cause he's a gritty director and he makes amazing dark dramas. For those who don't know Fincher is the dude that directed Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. And now he's got this one to add to his amazing portfolio. This is one of the best movies this year!

Okay so everyone's thinking.. movie about Facebook, seems like an alright idea, but what we really have here is a almost courtroom-like drama behind the scandals of the founding of Facebook. This is a a movie about teens in a very serious adult world. We have Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, the founders of Facebook going through the stories from the starting of the website, to the success, the scandals, and the screw-over; all told in one engaging courtroom plot.

The acting in this was actually surprising, one being that no performance in this was any less of spectacular and another being that all of it was coming from the most unexpected actors. Jesse Eissenberg was absolutely phenomenal as Mark Zuckerberg. I wouldn't go as far as calling his portrayal crazy but he was definitely channeling Sheldon Cooper on ADD. I don't know how accurate his performance was, but it was breathtaking watching him on screen, oozing extreme wit and humor in a non-humorous way which in itself is an awesome joke.

And he works so well with every actor he has a dialog with. Eissenberg drives the actors in the film with incredibly fast paced, heavy, witty dialog that exchanges from one actor to another in flawless execution. From the opening scene, every line is delivered bam bam bam, always with Eissenberg as the anchor. This may still be too early in the Oscar season but it;s safe to say that he will definitely get nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and in my personal opinion, he should win.

I am now partly into the new Spider-Man to happen because I loved Andrew Garfield in this. He was my favorite part of Social Network playing the poor guy who got screwed over by his best friend. You connect with him, you root for him, he's the audience's window into the visionary world of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, not good enough for any awards, but he's made a fan out of me.

Now the real shocker here is Justin fucking Timberlake. Who knew the faggo can act! He plays Sean Parker, the founder of Napster who comes in and destroys Zuckerberg and Saverin's relationship and I fucking hate this douchebag. Character-ly speaking of course. But the interesting arc to his character that I really appreciate Justin Timberlake for doing is that Parker really isn't trying to break people up or be the bad guy, he genuinely wants to help and his efforts just came out the wrong way in the end. But I still hated him. But great acting by Timberlake. And also special props to Armie Hammer for playing a set of twins in the movie.

And Oh My God, how great was the writing of this movie? For those who don;t know, the person who wrote the movie is Aaron Sorkin, one of my screenplay idols. He has done The West Wing, The American President and Charlie Wilson's War and his trademark witty writing truly shines with the actors in Social Network. I am hearing lots of criticisms about the accuracy of the movie but I don't think that will deter him from winning a shit load of writing awards.

And finally high praise to David Fincher for directing a masterpiece out of one of the most common human things. I really think it's down to a neck-and-neck fight between Fincher and Christopher Nolan for Best Director at the Oscars next year. My money's still with Nolan or the Coen Brothers but David Fincher's award recognition is really long overdue.

This is one of the best films I have seen with a mostly teenage main cast and just a small side note to the people who thought Social Netowkr was boring cause "it's all just talking," FUCK YOU AND GO WATCH SOME AMERICAN PIE. You know... movies that actually fit your limited mental capacity. Oh and friend me on Facebook. Hehehehehe.

RATING: 8/10

GOLDEN GLOBES NOMINEES

 

So check it out!!! Oscar season has just begun with the Golden Globe nominations being announced this morning. The list is pretty solid here, here really isn't much to argue with. Reviews for all nominated films will be posted once I get a hold of them.

MOTION PICTURE

 

Best Motion Picture - Drama
•The King's Speech
•Black Swan
•The Fighter
•Inception
•The Social Network

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

•Alice In Wonderland
•Burlesque
•The Kids Are All Right
•Red
•The Tourist

Best Director

•Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
•Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan
•Christopher Nolan - Inception
•David O. Russell - The Fighter
•David Fincher - The Social Network

Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama

•Colin Firth - The King's Speech
•Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
•Mark Wahlberg - The Fighter
•James Franco - 127 Hours
•Ryan Gosling - Blue Valentine

Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

•Johnny Depp - Alice In Wonderland
•Johnny Depp - The Tourist
•Paul Giamatti - Barney's Version
•Jake Gyllenhaal - Love and Other Drugs
•Kevin Spacey - Casino Jack

Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama

•Halle Berry - Frankie and Alice
•Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
•Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
•Natalie Portman - Black Swan
•Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine

Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

•Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right
•Julianne Moore - The Kids Are All Right
•Anne Hathaway - Love & Other Drugs
•Angelina Jolie - The Tourist
•Emma Stone - Easy A

Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture

•Christian Bale - The Fighter
•Michael Douglas - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
•Andrew Garfield - The Social Network
•Jeremy Renner - The Town
•Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech

Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture

•Melissa Leo - The Fighter
•Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech
•Mila Kunis - Black Swan
•Amy Adams - The Fighter
•Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom

Best Screenplay

•Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy - 127 Hours
•Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg - The Kids Are All Right
•Christopher Nolan - Inception
•David Seidler - The King's Speech
•Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network

Best Original Score

•Alexandre Desplat - The King's Speech
•Danny Elfman - Alice in Wonderland
•A.R. Rahman - 127 Hours
•Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross - The Social Network
•Hans Zimmer - Inception

Best Original Song

•Bound to You (written by Samuel Dixon, Christina Aguilera, Sia Furler) - Burlesque
•Coming Home (written by Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges) - Country Strong
•I See the Light (written by Alan Menken, Glenn Slater) - Tangled
•There's a Place for Us (written by Carrie Underwood, David Hodges, Hillary Lindsey) - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
•You Haven't Seen the Last of Me (written by Diane Warren) - Burlesque

Best Foreign Language Film

•Biutiful
•The Concert
•The Edge
•I Am Love
•In a Better World

Best Animated Film

•Toy Story 3
•The Illusionist
•How to Train Your Dragon
•Despicable Me
•Tangled

TELEVISION

Best Drama Series

•Boardwalk Empire
•Dexter
•The Good Wife
•Mad Men
•The Walking Dead

Best Comedy Series

•Glee
•30 Rock
•The Big Bang Theory
•The Big C
•Modern Family
•Nurse Jackie

Best Actor in a Television Drama Series

•Steve Buscemi - Boardwalk Empire
•Bryan Cranston - Breaking Bad
•Michael C. Hall - Dexter
•Jon Hamm - Mad Men
•Hugh Laurie - House

Best Actress in a Television Drama Series

•Julianna Margulies - The Good Wife
•Elisabeth Moss - Mad Men
•Piper Perabo - Covert Affairs
•Katey Sagal - The Closer
•Kyra Sedgwick - The Closer

Best Actress in a Television Comedy Series

•Toni Collette - The United States of Tara
•Edie Falco - Nurse Jackie
•Tina Fey - 30 Rock
•Laura Linney - The Big C
•Lea Michele - Glee

Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series

•Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock
•Steve Carell - The Office
•Thomas Jane - Hung
•Matthew Morrison - Glee
•Jim Parsons -The Big Bang Theory

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television

•Carlos - Sundance Channel
•The Pacific - HBO
•Temple Grandin - HBO
•You Don't Know Jack - HBO
•Pillars of the Earth - Starz

Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television

•Idris Elba - Luther
•Ian McShane - Pillars of the Earth
•Al Pacino - You Don't Know Jack
•Dennis Quaid - The Special Relationship
•Edgar Ramirez - Carlos

Best Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television

•Hayley Atwell - Pillars of the Earth
•Claire Danes - Temple Grandin
•Judi Dench - Return to Cranford
•Romola Garai - Emma
•Jennifer Love Hewitt - The Client List

Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television

•Scott Caan - Hawaii Five-O
•Chris Colfer - Glee
•Chris Noth - The Good Wife
•Eric Stonestreet - Modern Family
•David Strathairn - Temple Grandin

Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television

•Hope Davis - The Special Relationship
•Jane Lynch - Glee
•Kelly Macdonald - Broadwalk Empire
•Julia Stiles - Dexter
•Sofia Vergara - Modern Family

Easy A | Review

People.. I present to you Emma Stone, the new Lindsay Lohan.

Aight so from the first looks at this, Easy A appears to be just another generic teen sex comedy and we all know how wonderful that genre is. But naw.. I love Easy A. Ever heard of The Breakfast Club? Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Sixteen Candles? Some Kind of Wonderful? You know... those 80's teen comedies that actually had a story and characters to them, yeah Easy A is that... plus the generic teen sex comedy bits.

So we have Emma Stone of Superbad and Zombieland picking up where Lindsay Lohan left off to do that line of cocaine in a surprisingly enjoyable love letter to John Hughes. We have Olive, a clean cut girl unpopular student that unintentionally starts a rumour that she had sex with a college guy which earns her notoriety status around school and she begins using her newfound fame to advance her social and financial standings.... until everything blows up in her face.

This is probably the first time since 10 Things I Hate About You that I have seen a teen comedy film draw inspiration from cultural and literal muses and turn it into an intelligent story of it's own. Easy A is a smart modern adaptation of The Scarlett Letter with elements of John Hughes and other iconic 80's films being referenced here and there. This is good. Cause see... in most teen flicks.. we just have fart jokes and lotso boobies, i.e American Pie, which is seriously think was the starting point of the youth of the world's degrading intellect.

The writing for Easy A is wonderful, walking that fine line between witty, sublime, sassy and honest; with great comedy that isn't "in-your-face" nor crude to draw quick laughs. However I do slightly condone Easy A's ultra liberal stance, through no fault of me being a bible hugging Jesus freak but it does go way in to libertarian-ism that it just becomes flat out dumb in most parts. Ahem. Stanley Tucci.

The best bits of Easy A could also be the most controversial ones which were the crazy Evangelist Christians led by Amanda Bynes in this. These guys are freaks. Crazy. Insane. But they are just so hilarious to watch. And I can defend this movie because I used to be a Christian from a crazy Evangelical church that all of the crazy racist religious comments that Amanda Bynes make in this are absolutely 100% plausible. We Christians are some pieces of work I tells ya. Btw, what the hell happened to Amanda Bynes. She's so... fat now. Not to mentioned tanned. But it's great seeing her out of retirement doing what I've always loved about her.

However that star of the film is Emma Stone who is literally on the cusp of becoming America's newest teen goddess. Stone gives a terrific performance of implied intellect, wit and indifference with underlying warmth and honesty. Not so often do we get a character in a teen comedy that actually acts like a real human being, making real rational decisions and being funny doing real rational things. Emma Stone is probably the most bankable teen star out there now, I just hope to God she doesn't fall into the Katherine Heigl trap.

The film is enjoyable, smart, charming, character-central with amazing cross-generational appeal that will certainly elevate Emma Stone and the director to awesomeness. Power to ya'll. Now I'm gonna go listen to some Simple Minds.

RATING: 7/10

Tangled | Review

Old Disney: Nicholas! I'm back buddy!

Nicholas: Old Disney! Oh I missed you so!

Hannah Montana: Crap.

The thing I really gotta know after seeing this is what is Rapunzel's hair like down there? I mean.. is it outrageously long or does she cut it or trim it at least or is it braided or something? What? What's down there? Don't tell me you've never thought of that.

But Jesus I love this movie. Now I wouldn't say Tangled was a better film that The Princess & the Frog but this was definitely much funnier. So we've got the classic tail of Rapunzel with a few tweaks here and there. We have this kingdom where the queen almost dies in childbirth but is given a magic flower that heals her but also gives her daughter magic hair that possesses healing abilities when it is sung to. But she was stolen by Donna Murphy and locked in a tower to keep herself young but everything changes when a dashing thief stumbles upon the tower and the two of them reluctantly go on a journey that will change both of them.

The premise though interesting and well thought out is very generic Disney but the animation and script for Tangled is anything but. Here we have a lot of set pieces and a lot of jokes done with fantastic snap and wit of a Dreamworks film. I mean the humor in this is over the top and hits you one after the other throughout then film. Think The Emperor's New Groove with better hair. Yeah.....

And the humor in this is mostly faulted to the animators who did a great job animating the characters' expressions in Tangled. There were two characters, Flynn Rider and a horse, whom I felt just stole the show because they were just so gut busting hilarious.Their facial expressions did go into retarded looking territory but hey, it served it's purpose. And thankfully they weren't overused. They come in. Flash out some retardation for one and all to laugh at. Hit a home run. And then disappear.

And the visuals in this are gorgeous. I like this whole art direction of having the animation look almost like moving paintings though they are technically CG. And there are a few action set pieces that is gonna look terrific in 3D particularly the dam breaking scene and the lantern scene. People, if anything.. the price of your admission ticket is worth the 5 minute lantern scene in this movie which i felt was beautiful in classic Disney animation fashion. I'm fucking buying the DVD just for that scene alone.

But I did wish Tangled had a better pacing in it's story. The first 15 minutes of the film felt a little too generic and geared more towards children and to be honest, kinda boring. It's only until they leave the tower did I feel the movie kicks into 3rd gear and after that it becomes awesome. And then towards the end where they have hit every note, it goes back into that classic, predictable children Disney ending that made me groan out loud in the cinema. So it's really a mixed bag of opinion here.

And I did wish the songs were better. Alan Menken, the man who wrote the music for Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules was behind this and I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed by the songs of Tangled. Sure, they were all still great and had purpose to the story, they weren't boring or anything, they just weren't epic in the scale I remember Alan Menken's songs to be. There is only one song that takes place in a bar and is sung by Brad Garrett and a bunch of piss drunk Vikings of all people that were remotely memorable.

But hey, you know what.. with recent Disney movies like Chicken Little and Meet The Robinsons, Tangled is a huge step up in Disney's triumphant return to being what I have always remembered them to be. Magic. Happy days are here again people.

RATING: 7/10