The Social Network Film Review

Three words: Casting, Conflict & Compelling. The triumvirate of film, oh yes and that is why the film, 'The Social Network' is so well done.



***SPOILERS****
In many ways, it is nothing special but that's precisely it's appeal; it doesn't try hard at all, it allows its characters to be on screen and breathe out their existence and conflicts without flashy film making. The biggest strength is easily the film's cast. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, with all the shades of a genius jerk without knowing that he is the latter half of that description; he displays a somewhat crumpled forehead as if he is constantly confused or just squinting out all the idiocy around him. What I loved was that the film starts with him getting dumped by his girlfriend and rightly so. Then starts the chain of events that leads to the phenomenon that is Facebook. Of course, it was because of girl! That's rather simplistic but it is what gets the ball rolling and there is some serious defiant determination in Zuckerberg - when he is approached by the Winklevoss twins and friend with their new internet idea, as soon as they admit they are from the rowing team, you got the distinct impression that Zuckerberg was going to bring them down, regardless. Underneath it all, he's just an insecure nerd who hates the popular and exclusive, desperate to get into secret clubs like Phoenix, right? So he creates his own exclusive club online (for all of those who remember Facebook starting the year they began uni in 2004 - and I was one of them - will recall how blissfully cool it was that it was only open to universities and not the rest of the world). Zuckerberg even holds a seemingly invisible grudge against his one true friend, Eduardo Saverin, who does get into Phoenix, played brilliantly by Adam Garfield, who I was already impressed by in his performance in 'The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus'. Even Justin Timberlake playing Sean Parker of Napster fame, was strong -  not to mention the content was very comedic; watch out for the chicken eating chicken - again, not shown to us but the telling alone had the audience in stitches.

Film review of 'AGORA' by Alejandro Amenabar

Of course I wanted to see this film as soon as I stumbled upon it on IMDb. It’s set in Ancient Egypt and that was enough for me right there. The fact that it starred Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella were just bonuses really.

***SPOILER ALERT****
I had high expectations of this film, part of a reaction to the nonsensical idiocy that was The Clash of the Titans. I wanted to enjoy an epic that portrayed the ancient world as it was. It hasn’t been a disappointment – I think it’s a must see, simply because of what it portrays. Moreover, the way the film brings Alexandria to life is splendid, though I would have loved to see a scene set in the infamous lighthouse, just for the hell of it.

One thing I will warn others of though is that it is rather a brutal telling of the events surrounding the fall of the Empire and the rise of Christianity within Alexandria, so this isn’t for the faint hearted.

The film follows Hypatia, a philosopher and teacher and it opens with her musing about the force that allows our feet to stay on the ground and brings a cloth floating down; centuries ahead of Isaac Newton we see. She is talking about it with her group of students in the ‘agora’, the Greek word for a place of assembly – think Roman forum. Rachel Weisz is brilliant in the lead role, with a perfect balance of scholarly, wide eyed excitement and heavy eyelids filled with disappointment and veiled horror at what is being allowed to happen in the city. Alongside her story, the story of Alexandria unfolds, where the Christians begin to brazenly mock the previous pagan religions (I despise using the word ‘pagan’, simply because of its connotations; I’d rather use a word that doesn’t denote such disrespect). This incites the followers of the Egyptian religion and so ensues a horrible back and forth which sees the Christian majority driving out the Jews and banning the practice of anything ‘pagan.’ It makes for very uncomfortable viewing. I think I must have had a past life around that era, because the scene where the Christians run into the library – the most famed library in the world at that point, for it held knowledge untold, where Hypatia and her father study - and destroy it and its scrolls, really hit me in the chest. I had to hold back cries of outrage (yes, I know it’s a film but it did happen and the film scores points for being able to pull me in so relentlessly). My heart wept as Hypatia cried over the loss of the library.