Social Network Connections

After reading about it for weeks, I finally saw "The Social Network," the movie about Facebook's founding by Mark Zuckerberg (and some other people) - and if you've seen it too, maybe you'll know why I'm giggling just a little about blogging my thoughts on it. Here's everything that came to mind, short and sweet like a status update:

- Bravo Jesse Eisenberg! Ever since I saw "Adventureland" (also starring Kristen Stewart. Gross.), I though he was poised to take up Michael Cera's mantle of awkward, ill-fitting T-shirts. Turns out the guy has some acting chops afterall. If this doesn't break him out of the Cera-on-a-budget roles, nothing will.

- I knew the Winklevoss twins, aka Armie Hammer, looked familiar! Hammer played scam artist/Serena love interest Gabriel on "Gossip Girl!"

- After the movie my boyfriend and I stormed Wikipedia to figure out who the hell Sean Parker is. In the movie, he was fairly instrumental in getting Zuckerberg to think bigger with Facebook. Drew insisted Shawn Fanning started Napster and that Justin Timberlake acted nothing like him. I said Sean Parker sounded familiar. Turns out, Sean Parker was Napster's business guy (which I guess says something about his business skills...) and Shawn Fanning was the programmer. Why was no one else confused by this?

- This is a movie of soon-to-be stars - like a concert when the opening band is booked before they score that big hit. I saw Andrew Garfield at a screening of "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" last year at TIFF. He was excellent as Facebook CFO Eduardo, and now that "Never Let Me Go" is finally showing in Buffalo, I'll be able to get my fill of the next Spiderman. Rooney Mara, here playing Zuckerberg's ex-girlfriend Erica, is set to take off, too, with the American version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" as, well, the girl with the dragon tattoo, Lisbeth. This year is quite the introduction to these two.

Summer isn't smart?

Today, the first day of school for many of the kiddies in my area, is a good day to reflect on how film companies assume that out of school, we're all stupid. Brooks Barnes wrote a great piece this week in the New York Times about "Inception" breaking the stereotype of the summer blockbuster - or, at least what Fox, Universal, Sony and Disney percieve as summer blockbusters. They force fed us "The Other Guys," "Sex and the City 2" and, dare I mention, "Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore," all while Christopher Nolan - whose style is better represented in "Momento" than "The Dark Knight" - took a chance that the average American wanted to see a well-crafted movie, not just something mindless.

Now don't get me wrong, I saw "The Other Guys" (and considered walking out) and "Sex and the City 2" (out of pure respect for the series, which I recently watched from beginning to end). I bought in to the summer madness, the rainy nights that needed to be filled with something other than sitting at home, staring at my Facebook feed. There is a place for the "Transformers" of the world. But when that movie, the over-hyped, star-studded, action-packed thriller/comedy/shoot 'em up, becomes every movie released that summer (disguised as a children's movie, a Nicholas Sparks movie, what have you), it tires even the most mindless of middle-America. How in the world, looking at the fare we've been offered this summer at the movies, could studios be baffled at why no one went to the show? Or, when "Inception" - which was star-studded and quite the shoot 'em up, by the way - topped the box office? It was well acted, smart and really needed repeat viewings for many to be understood.

What baffles me is that if that formula - or lack thereof, thank you Mr. Nolan - worked, maybe some of those award season-caliber films should be released in the summer. Afterall, if it's an award you're after, look to this year's statue winner: A summer movie with substance, "The Hurt Locker."

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