THE SOCIAL RECKONING****

I think most people would agree that Mark Zuckerberg is a deeply creepy profit-seeker whose social media empire has inflamed political division; spread misinformation through rage-bait; and harmed the mental health of our children. So what can writer-director Aaron Sorkin's film, THE SOCIAL RECKONING, give us?  First off, an appreciation for the old school hard yards of investigative journalism, without which none of the documents that underpin the current wave of class-action lawsuits and governmental limitations on social media for kids would have come to light. Second, an appreciation of the bravery of those who choose to whistle-blow.  Third, an appreciation of just how toxic and WEIRD the corporate environment at Meta is - or any company, or any country for that matter - held in thrall to a single owner-manipulator.  Fourth, a reminder that there is a deep-seated and visceral respect for titles in all of us. We may hate it, but when Jeremy Strong's Zuck is being asked to de-platform Trump, he quietly whispers, "but he's the sitting president".  There but for the grace of god go we all.

Sorkin's exceptionally brilliant screenplay runs on two tracks and timelines.  First off, we have the heroes and protagonists who are trying to bring Meta's malfeasance to light.  The Bear's Jeremy Allen White plays the Wall Street Journal's investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz as a quiet, humourless, earnest nerd.  And ANORA's Mikey Madison plays the Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen as a quiet, humourless, earnest nerd. And yet, and yet, it's just fascinating to see old and new media - tech naif and tech literate - clash in a common goal - and to see the relationship between the two of them pay off. There's a final moment - a glance between the two of them at the Capitol - that is really affecting because of the slow build of their mutual respect and friendship.  Both performances are strong.  This is their film

Sorkin is wise to withhold the second strand of the film, and our Big Bad, Mark Zuckerberg, until half an hour into the film.  Like the shark in JAWS, he lets the tension build, and Jeremy Strong's uncanny impression of the older, even more menacing Zuck, is truly breath-taking. His scenes are all centred around the preparation for his testimony to Congress on the day that the Capitol Riot breaks out.  Bill Burr is superb as the Voice of Sorkin and Righteousness, trying to appeal to Zuck's morality, such as it is.  But I also really liked SINNERS' Wunmi Mosaku as the PR advisor hired to drill Zuck for his testimony.  Both are with Zuck in the situation room as the riot unfolds and it's from them that we get the human reaction - pull the plug on the President (who remains unnamed).

Sorkin reminds us what broke that day.  And he shows us how citizens around the world have been deliberately enraged and radicalised for profit.  We already knew all of this, but seeing it play out to its logical conclusion of trampled policeman and death is visceral and brilliant. The resulting film is superbly written and acted. The direction is fine.  One cannot help but wonder what Fincher might have made of it though - especially those final scenes in the Capitol.

THE SOCIAL RECKONING has a running time of 1hr 52 minutes and is rated 15. It goes on global release on October 8th.

GONE GIRL

GONE GIRL isn’t as frightening or as visually inventive as David Fincher’s previous films. It doesn’t deliver that gut-punch head-fuck of brilliance that stays with you over repeated viewings. The movie, though technically accomplished, doesn’t push the envelope technically or strike one as self-consciously modern. Worse still, it’s a movie based on a bizarrely popular and intensely badly written thriller by Gillian Flynn - a book so bad at the sentence level I only forced myself to read it to inform this review. The poor quality source material hampers Fincher in two ways. First, even those who haven’t read the book probably know whodunnit and how. Second, even with all of Fincher’s intelligence brought to bear, there are certain leaps of faith and improbability that trouble the careful viewer.

For the very few out there who don’t know, however, GONE GIRL is a contemporary thriller centred on the married couple Nick and Amy Dunne. They fall in love and marry but years later they have descended into mutual dissatisfaction - something that we might at first believe is caused by financial difficulties after they both lose their jobs and move back to Missouri, making Amy a fish out of water. However, as book-readers will know, the conceit of the novel and film is that for the first half both Nick and X are unreliable narrators. It turns out that he is adulterous and selfish and that she has a history of seeking extravagantly worked out revenge on men who get in her way.

What carries this movie is the central performance of Rosamund Pike who has to play five shades of her character: the young girl who falls for the handsome writer; the disaffected and calculating housewife; the frumpy “gone girl” on the lam; the ultra-glamorous Sharon-Stone-esque murderer; and finally the icy cold but contained returned wife. At each stage, even thought we know what happens next, we are captivated by her narcissism, cruelty and slipperiness. It’s just plain impressive to see her alter her physicality and demeanour to encompass the roles.

Sadly everyone else in the film is just reflective paper for her to work off of. Affleck and Carrie Coons are credible and just fine as the twins upon whom the accusations of murder fall. Missi Pyle is just fine as the by now cinematic cliche of shamelessly ratings-seeking muck-raking journalist. And Tyler Perry is - well - himself. The most ill-used actor is however Neil Patrick Harris as Amy's obsessive high school boyfriend Desi. He’s just a cartoonish stalker in a classy suit. I mean, there was something melodramatically over the top and stupid about his final scenes, but was anyone still taking it seriously at that point? If so, only because of Rosamund Pike.

Ultimately, the film is worth watching. It’s compelling and well-made. Will it be remembered among Fincher’s cannon? No. It cannot surprise the rather thin and trite finger-pointing at the media and the decidedly implausible plot. But I guess at least Hollywood knows who to turn to when it comes to the inevitable BASIC INSTINCT remake.

GONE GIRL has a running time of 149 minutes and is rated R. It is on global release.

Late review - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011)

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is a perfectly well made movie that has absolutely no reason to exist.  It adds nothing to the Swedish original, despite being directed by the spiky, visually astute director David Fincher (THE SOCIAL NETWORK).  It feels like just another faithful retelling of Stieg Larsson's best-selling thriller (whose plot I won't bother to recount), albeit with a bigger budget and better production values.  Fincher's fingerprints were too subtly felt.  Let's be honest, if all we'd been given were a music video for Karen O singing Trent Resznor and Atticus Ross' reworking of The Immigrant Song with the wicked cool opening credits, we'd have gone home as happy as if we'd sat through the entire three hour movie. 

If I wanted to get more granular I'd point out the following - two positives and two negative.  I prefer Rooney Mara's Lisbeth Salander to Noomi Rapace, not because there was anything wrong with Rapace's performance, but because Rapace feels more like a woman, and Mara really does look like a girl (although I concede that in the novel she's 23).  That makes her victimisation worse, her toughness more impressive, her being a ward of the state more credible.  Second, I really liked Jeff Cronenweth's digital lensing using the Red One.

The first negative is a bugbear I have with many English language movies set in a non-English speaking countries.  Simply put, I want the director to decide what he wants to do with the accent in the film and then stick to it consistently.  I don't care if the Yanks and Brits are speaking English with some undefined mittel-europische accent, or some approximation at it, but I don't want half doing straight English and half doing cod-Swedish.   There's nothing that draws me out of a scene more than seeing Daniel Craig speaking straight English to Rooney Mara trying to do a Swedish accent complete with "hey hey"s and whatnot.

My second bugbear is the perfunctory manner in which the relationship between Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist is handled in the remake. In the original movie, the genuine chemistry between Michael Nyqvist and Rapace really did centre the film and make us hungry for the next movie.  But in Fincher's take it's all too superficial, and betrays what's meant to be a deeply emotional moment at the end of the flick.  In fact, the movie has a wider problem, which is the very dull, slightly bizarre (plot points changed for no real reason) ending, that drags on for 30 minutes.

Overall, a pretty banal retelling once the opening credits are done. Looks like Fincher did it for the paycheck and directed with a very light hand.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is on release in the UK, USA, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Israel and Slovenia. It is released on January 6th in Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, Bulgaria, Estonia, India and Australia. It is released on January 12th in Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Poland, Spain and Turkey. It is released on January 19th in Belgium, France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Portugal. It opens on January 27th in Brazil; on February 3rd in Italy and later in February in Japan.

Rooney Mara won Best Breakthrough Performer, tied with Felicity Jones for LIKE CRAZY, at the National Board of Review awards 2011.