Thursday, May 26, 2016

Thursday Movie Picks - The Internet

Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. You should join in the action by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and writing a bit about them - it's easy and fun!

This week on Thursday Movie Picks: THE INTERNET. Meaning, the thing that I'm writing on, and you're reading on at this very moment.

Well, I'm writing now, and you're reading in the future.

Wait. Or you're reading now, and I'm writing in the past?

Is this how time travel starts?

Anyway, there's one very specific movie about the internet that I'm sure everyone will pick this week, because blah blah blah GREATEST MOVIE EVER yadda yadda yadda.... and I just don't feel that way about it, so.... I'm just not going to pick it.

So there.

Unfriended (Leo Gabriadze, 2015) Cyberbullying, meet the found-footage horror film. Unfriended is completely ridiculous, and honestly not all that scary, BUT when watched late at night, with the lights off, on your laptop.... it really does become almost unbearably creepy at points. The premise - a group of friends chatting via Skype become haunted by a malevolent ghost in the machine, possibly their friend who recently committed suicide after an explicit video of her was posted on Facebook - is kind of genius, and if you want an idea of what the youth of today are up to when no one's looking, this is pretty hard to beat. But... a great idea does not make a great movie.

We Steal Secrets (Alex Gibney, 2013) I mean, you COULD bother with Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate, but other than Benedict Cumberbatch.... WHY? Especially when you have the real thing right here? Gibney's incredibly engrossing documentary wades deep in the moral muck surrounding the website WikiLeaks and its divisive founder, Julian Assange. It's fascinating, depressing, and deeply, deeply cynical all at once. An essential film for anyone currently living on planet Earth.

Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron, 2010) OH, the lengths to which I will go in order to NOT pick THAT movie this week, ladies and gentlemen! I know what you're thinking. "This movie isn't about the internet, it's about cooking!" To which I can only say, "Well, yeah, but it's ALSO about BLOGGING about cooking!" I don't know that Julie Powell was the first celebrity blogger, or the first to have her blog lead to a book deal, but Ephron's deliciously entertaining trifle is as much about being a blogger as it is about being a chef, or being a woman, or being an American abroad. And as such, it really feels like the best possible choice for a blogger to pick when picking films about the internet!

17 comments:

  1. LOL at you avoiding the Social Network like the plague :P

    I haven't seen any of your picks this week, but We Steal Secrets sounds fascinating, I'm going to throw that one in my Netflix queue.

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    1. We Steal Secrets really is fascinating. Thank God for Netflix, otherwise I wouldn't have seen it.

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    2. Since I've seen The Fifth Estate, I going to see if We Steal Secrets is available on the local Netflix.

      I want to watch Unfriended but am a little afraid of the jump scares. I suppose it'd be extra scary if one is to watch from the computer.

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  2. BAH!

    Blah blah blah The Social Network is better than these blah blah blah

    ;-)

    I love that you stooped to picking that horrid Julie & Julia movie just so you didn't have to say that film's name! Love it, bro...Love it!

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    1. Blah blah blah The Social Network is INSANELY overrated blah blah blah

      And Julie & Julia is DELIGHTFUL. ;-P

      Glad you enjoyed, bro!

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  3. Your opening is perfect. I like to think I'm reading in the present, but who knows for sure. Lol on your avoidance of THAT film. Julie & Julia was a cute little film and definitely qualifies. I need to see We Steal Secrets ASAP. Hope it's on Netflix. Couldn't stand Unfriended. The only thing I found unbearable about it was how boring it was.

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    1. We Steal Secrets is ESSENTIAL. I love Julie & Julia - it's just so warm and heartfelt. The word I always use is delightful. Yeah, Unfriended is not good. There's the germ of a good idea, but it just doesn't work.

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  4. Interesting choices and I'm with you on the film that cannot be named, horrid movie that it is I agree.

    I've had several people tell me how terrible Unfriended is so I've avoided and looks like I'll be continuing to do so. We Steal Secrets is one I'd not heard of but will have to seek out. I don't like Amy Adams, I find her irksome to the extreme, so her part of Julie & Julia was annoying but I thought Meryl and Stanley Tucci as Julia and Paul Child were swell.

    Films with this theme aren't something I seek out so I had to cast around a bit to come up with three and one of them, Untraceable, I don't even really like very much outside of Diane Lane but I also was determined not to choose that other film.

    Untraceable (2008)-FBI Special Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) works in a division that fights cybercrime. World weary and jaded she is still shocked when confronted by a killer who posts live feeds of his crimes on his website, the more hits the site gets the faster the victim dies. Determined to stop him she and her team try to capture the killer before time runs out.

    The Net (1995)-Virtual recluse Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a software engineer who works from home as a freelance expert with few friends outside of cyberspace. One of those friends sends her a program with a weird glitch for her to de-bug. She discovers secret information on the disk just before taking her first vacation in years. While on that trip she meets an mysterious attractive stranger, finds herself embroiled in a web of computer espionage and her life endangered.

    WarGames (1983)-Young computer whiz David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) finds a backdoor into a system he mistakenly believes is devoted to games which he attempts to play. It turns out that he has accidentally infiltrated the US government’s computer and may have initiated the lead up to WWIII. Assisted by a young girl he’s sweet on (Ally Sheedy) and the inventor of the system he tries to stop the game before it’s too late. Made when computers on a personal user level were a relatively new phenomenon this is a solid adventure with a very winning Broderick in the lead.

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    1. It's not so much that I think THAT film is horrid, just that it's not NEARLY as good as everyone else seems to think. I've heard that criticism of J&J a lot - that the Julie half is kind of insufferable, but I enjoyed them. Possibly because I was around the same age and experiencing a similar sort of quarter-life crisis. Streep and Tucci's chemistry is just incredible as the Childs.

      I haven't seen Untraceable but I heard it was not very good despite a pretty good hook. I LOVE The Net but I haven't seen it in so long I forget whether it's actually any good or not. And I LOVE that you picked WarGames! So good.

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  5. Oh...I actually picked that film you refuse to mention...and I don't like it-hahahaaa. I think I will skip Unfriended. The Documentary sounds quite good and I enjoyed Julie & Julia even though it wasn't a great film by any means

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    1. HA! I even KINDA like that film, but it's just not some unassailable masterpiece, no matter what the rest of the world says! Your assessment of J&J is perfect: enjoyable, even if it's not a great film.

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  6. It's 'you're reading now, and I'm writing in the past?' cos I'm reading it now and your writing it in the past.

    Anyway, I've seen Unfriended which I thought the scariest part was how cruel kids are and how much easier the internet can make bullying. Each of those kids were horrible people.

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    1. Ah yes, but when I was writing it, I was writing in the present, and you were (hopefully) reading it in the future! PARADOX! CONUNDRUM!

      What you say about Unfriended is SO true - and I really hated how the ending confirmed that they were all terrible people - why should we give two shits about any of them?

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  7. I picked - and loved - that movie you refuse to mention. Anyway, Julie and Julia is a great pick, and it's definitely about the internet

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    1. YAY for Julie & Julia love! I liked THAT movie well enough, but I just don't understand all the ridiculous praise - it's fine, but nothing more.

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  8. I was very late to the Julie & Julia party - I did enjoy it though. I thought it inspiring more than anything. A blog to a book to a film. Streep is great in it too.

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    1. It's one of my favorite Streep performances, actually.

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