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The Social Network (2010) 9/10 is the film about Facebook. Thanks to its heavyweight writer and director, Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher, and a cast that can deliver Sorkin's hundred mile per hour conversations this is a film that's far cleverer, funnier and just better than any film about any technological or computer-based theme should be. There's a rowing race scene halfway through set to Trent Reznor's demented reworking of Greig's In the Hall of the Mountain King that I've heard critics wail about - don't listen to them. My eyes were out on stalks almost and it provides a welcome break from the nosebleed-fast dialogue. Main cast is supported brilliantly by Andrew Garfield as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's buddy Eduardo Saverin; Justin Timberlake playing ambitious but hollow and insecure internet entrepreneur Sean Parker; Armie Hamer as both Winklevoss buffoons; and Max Minghella as their cohort Divya Narendra.
Easy A (2010) 9/10 is a high school movie that seemed to be better-received than they are usually so I checked it out, as I like high school movies that are both well-received and not so. If they are that's just icing on the cake. Whoever said that Easy A is good is bang right, it's the best high school movie since Clueless and that film is as old now as its protagonist Cher Horowitz was then. Part of what made Clueless wonderful was the fact that main character Cher Horowitz was instantly likeable even though she was a rich brat and went to a school full of vapid idiots, and was more or less one herself. It's a character we should have hated and wanted to see fail but because of the lines she got and the way Alicia Silverstone played it - warm and deceptively intelligent - we couldn't help liking her. The hero of Easy A is Olive Penderghast and she too goes to high school in California, but instead of a Beverly Hills school for the super-rich it's a state school in unglamorous Ojai, way out in Ventura County (this - thankfully - doesn't stop everyone from looking as attractive as we expect of an American high school movie). Olive's not a cheerleader and she's not a geek or some new girl from the east or any other cliche like that - she's just a girl who one day lies to her best friend about losing her virginity at the weekend, and things snowball. Soon she's labelled as the school harlot and everyone - boys and girls - is suddenly far more interested in her now than they were before. Thanks, one can presume, to a fantastically but not stupidly liberal California upbringing by her excellent and hilarious parents (Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson), Olive has a very relaxed, unselfconscious outlook on school life and takes everything with a pinch of salt. She She's pretty much bulletproof to the usual highschool nonsense, which is true to a large extent, which is why she doesn't really give a shit what the kids think about her. She knows how fickle high school is and she knows it won't last forever anyway. Such a constitution should make her a heronie/role model to real high school kids in the audience and will make her likeable to older people watching. This is the high school kid that's quickly matured past highschool bullshit but can still join in and have a laugh with it - mostly for her own amusement. Things only get a bit serious and out of hand once non-students start to be affected by the story's events. Emma Stone playing Olive is the tentpole of the film and makes the job look easy; the supporting cast has an easy time of it for the most part and do well and mostly convince, the writing's smart and funny and the direction's handled well. A lot of clever stuff is done with sound, music and background things that make me want to see it again already. There's a lot of irony/postmodernism and references to previous teen movies that might grate some people but not, of course, a fan of the genre.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010) 8/10. A 3D CG film about owls that can speak, fight with WEAPONS and have their own hokey legends and lore? Count me in! This film overflows with light fantasy/scifi cliches, and the Australian accents are difficult to get used to, and the story's been done so many times I fell asleep in the middle, but you've never seen it done with OWLS before and slow-motion has rarely been so awe-inspiring.
Trainspotting (1996) 6/10
Street Trash (1987) 6/10
The Elite Squad (2007) 8/10
Hot Fuzz (2007) 6/10
The Navigators (2001) 8/10
Food Inc (2008) 9/10
Hunger (2008) 9/10
Knight and Day (2010) 6/10
Agora (2009) 8/10
Matilda (1996) 7/10
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