Never Mind Pop Film

Who saw this coming as short as a month ago? The Social Network was cruising through the critic's circuit and taking award after award. Now, The King's Speech has taken the last three important steps: wins at the PGA, DGA and SAG. Only once has a film won those three awards and lost Best Picture, and that film was Apollo 13. So the question has to be asked: was The Social Network the game-changer the critics predicted it as, or simply a well-crafted film?
Either way I guess we should have all expected as much. The King's Speech is a period piece, a triumph over hardship and features Colin Firth. Realistically that film had it in the bag a long time ago. It comes as a shock to many because in past years the Academy has gone with non-traditional films for Best Picture.  While many lament this is just another example of picking the "safe, formulaic film", The Departed, Slumdog Millionaire, The Hurt Locker are hardly considered prestige films. This year the Academ…

Well the nominees are out and - just like every year preceding this one - someone deserving of a spot in the big dance is robbed (what does Christopher Nolan have to do?). Ryan Gosling, Daft Punk, and Barbara Hershey all come to mind, but in my mind these are the some of the lesser known snubs of 2010.

The most glaring snub this year has to be for Leonardo DiCaprio for Shutter Island. Creating a portrayal of psychosis that leads the viewer to invite themselves to his point of view without going into judgement is easily one of the hardest performances to create. That it is also easily one of the scariest descents into madness captured on film is due to Mr. DiCaprio. The Supporting Actor field was quite crowded this year with Bale, Rush, Renner and his own 'Social Network' co-star Andrew Garfield, but Armie Hammer made a large splash in his big debut. He has it all: strength, wealth, and rugged good looks. Thankfully, he also can appreciate the irony of himself and his twin cha…

Amazon is offering The Social Network on DVD for less than $13 and the Blu-Ray is $16.99 That is a great deal for those of us who love movies, but also have no money. This film is going to be a major contender for Best Picture and if you have not seen it in theatres this is your chance to watch it now!

2010 saw many things; the rise of more original scripts, the box-office flops of properties that were thought to be assured, and surprisingly films with adult audiences did well in a year that could have killed them. Mind-fucks seemed to be the theme of the year as Shutter Island, Black Swan and Inception stirred up audiences considerably. I myself needed two viewings of both Shutter Island and Inception to fully grasp what happened.
The Town took Affleck's sophomore effort into the realms of some of the best crime drama offered and the two weeks of December had Jeff Bridges go from neon-cloaked Zen Master to drunken Marshall with a penchant for killing.
Animated and foreign films did not make the cut for me personally, especially after Up and Fantastic Mr. Fox debuted strongly last year, but Toy Story 3 did make up for much of the slack. I did not get a chance to catch How to Train Your Dragon so that probably colored my opinion of the genre this year. However, documentaries wer…

Well, the critics have spoken and The Social Network is a force to be reckoned with come awards season. Indiana, Boston, LA, and New York have all deemed 'Social Network' the one to beat.
Eisenburg has netted a trophy for himself and I'm really hoping the Academy manages to look past his age and nominate him for Best Actor. David Fincher has also been causing a ruckus and I'm thinking we're looking at another sweep season this February much like The Hurt Locker last year when that film won Best Picture, Best Director and Original Screenplay.

Right now this is the front-runner. Many sites have pegged The King's Speech because of its prestige factor, but The Social Network has captured  the zeitgeist of our time and like The Hurt Locker last year that effect cannot be overstated. What has me interested most is whether Jesse Eisenberg will be nominated for Best Actor. The category has skewed toward older actors recently, but I get the feeling the Academy will make a splash this year.
(Courtesy: Awards Daily)

I've written a few pieces on The Social Network already, but Trent Reznor's cut of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" must be heard.

There was a time when the response to the word Facebook was only, "huh?" Now we live in an age where many cannot go without it. Social networking has been primed for a lampooning for a considerable while and who better to deliver that than Fight Club helmer David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin?
If there a difference between dedication and obsession Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) doesn't know it. He created Facemash to spite an ex-girlfriend (Rooney Mara). Said site later grows to become so popular he crashes the network at Harvard. The Winklevoss twins want him to create the most exclusive site for Harvard students, but Zuckerberg is beyond that. He wants a billion dollar entity. Zuckerberg then spends the rest of the time defending it from the man he thought was a good friend in Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). And a lurid lifestyle never before experienced offered by Napster founder Sean Parker sends Zuckerberg to unparalleled heights right before the fall.
It&#…

I imagine they must be busy at NullCorp with all the free tracks they are putting out for The Social Network. Is it too early to hold out hope that Reznor and Ross can get an Academy Award nomination for this?


In Motion by nullcorp

Five free tracks from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's The Social Network soundtrack are available here. Reznor's NIN influences are evident on "Eventually We Find Our Way" and "The Gentle Hum of Anxiety" definitely feels like something that will be featured in a mood-heavy scene in the film. I'm looking forward to the release of the rest of the score.

This year's lineup looks to be a lot better than the previous winter season. With few trips to the theatre over the past three months I should have more than enough funds to see my top five of the rest of the year.
The Town Could be the next Heat as far as I'm concerned. Ben Affleck was excellent in his direction of Gone Baby Gone and based on the trailer that premiered with Inception I have no reason to doubt him. An excellent ensemble cast featuring Affleck, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall and Chris Cooper
Black Swan Darren Aronofsky has always chosen peculiar materials for his films and Black Swan, on the surface at least, seemed like one of those projects. Until the trailer debuted last week. If Portman's performance and Clint Mansell's score are anything like in the small sample we have seen then we have a winner on our hands.
The Social Network Facebook. There was a time when that word wasn't even a blip on the radar of the American lexicon. Now, it's a way of life…

Columbia has launched a new site for David Fincher's The Social Network.
 It features 46 new photos (promos, and stills), the trailers released so far and a hint of former NIN frontman Trent Reznor's score for the film (shades of Why So Serious from The Dark Knight soundtrack). And if that weren't good enough for you there's a blurb of Rolling Stone's four star rave that suggests this could be the best film of the year so far.

This is the third trailer in almost as many weeks. I can appreciate Sony trying to get this out in the public consciousness, but it might become overkill.

Can't make a whole lot from David Fincher's upcoming film with the teaser so far, but it has a very ominous tone to it. My interest in the project was tepid until I found out Aaron Sorkin was writing the script and Fincher was directing, finding out Eisenburg would be the lead was icing on the cake. Let us hope that it does not end up a cookie cutter downfall movie.