The Circle

First Hit:  Wonderfully interesting in many ways including how close we are to actually having this technology being available today. I grew up being much more private that I am today. Today’s technology makes being open and transparent much easier. This film is about technology and how it could be used to control, expose, and create full transparency among people. It also exposes some of the privacy and freedom of choice issues that we, as a race, may have to face.

In 1999 there was a Ron Howard film called 'Edtv' with Matthew McConaughey in the role of Ed, who was filmed by a camera crew while he lived his life and eventually got the girl despite being exposed this way. What made this interesting was how much equipment and production was required to film this one man.

It's all different in 'The Circle'. Here the company resembles a conglomeration of Apple, Google, and Facebook and the technology they develop is the star. It is a social media platform that also provides other services.

Mae (Emma Watson) is stuck in a part-time customer service department for a utility company. Her mom Bonnie (Glenne Headly) and dad Vinnie (Bill Paxton) want their daughter to be happy, but she’s been hanging around because Vinnie has Multiple Sclerosis. Her high school boyfriend Mercer (Ellar Coltrane) still pines for Mae and is more interested in a life without technology.

Mae gets hired by ‘The Circle’ because her friend Annie (Karen Gillan), who has a high level position with the company, gets her an interview. Drinking the Kool-Aid of ‘The Circle’ philosophy, Mae slowly gets inducted to the group by going to the company parties, staying in the company dorms, eating the company food, and participating online with the supposed “friendships”. Getting a company physical, she ingests a small device that will track her and provide the company with her vital data.

At a company meeting they announce a small inexpensive camera which they begin placing all over the country. The camera provides 'The Circle' clients with ways to view and experience lots of different places and never leave their seat in front of their computer screen or phone screen.

The founders, Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks) and Tom Stenton (Patton Oswalt), promote openness while there is a slight sub-current of wanting control and data on everyone and everything. The cameras are part of this data collection. By recording the camera data and the data from their employees ingested monitors, the collection becomes very personal very quick.

Because of the cameras, Mae is saved from drowning in San Francisco Bay. This emotional event further convinces Mae that ‘The Circle’ is on to something and volunteers to be the first person to be online fully transparent 24/7 except for the 3 minutes when she’s on a toilet or when she's sleeping. Of course now she has millions of followers and as people do today, many make snide, dumb or derogatory comments about Mae as well as others who make supportive comments.

Mae comes up with ideas to take this one more step and suggests that everyone become part of ‘The Circle’ and if you are, then you’ll automatically be registered to vote and will be required to vote. One of her co-workers, Ty Lafitte (John Boyega), shares information with Mae which supports concern for The Circle’s plans for the data they are collecting. She also discovers that Ty is the third founder who no longer has an active part in the company.

The ending scenes are great because it starts to bring up the concept and issues around true transparency for all people, including the founders. The questions this film brings up are important to all of us because almost all of the technology shown in the film is available. Would you act better, or as your better self, if everything you did was being able to be seen by everyone else? Would you be OK with everyone having the ability to view all your communications with anyone? Is total transparency of everyone the best path? Or, do we need to have individual privacy?

The film puts forth this question and actually it is a great question because the technology is just around the corner to make ‘The Circle’ happen soon.

Watson is great. She did a wonderful job of portraying her own questions about what she was getting into and then shifting to be the person who leads ‘The Circle’. She had great transitional moments and she performed them very well. Hanks was perfect as CEO because he’s just so nice and believable. You wouldn’t think there was an underlying theme that wasn’t transparent. Oswalt was excellent as the COO because he, more than Hanks, showed a sense of an underlying darker theme. Paxton was wonderful in his final film role. His performance as a man with MS was spot on. Gillan was strong as the overworked believer who started seeing her power fade. Coltrane was wonderful as Mercer the guy who just wanted to live his life his way. Headly was very good as Mae’s mother. Loved how she created support for her husband and empathy for her daughter. Boyega was strong as Ty, the architect of ‘The Circle’ and saw the issues early on. James Ponsoldt and Dave Eggers did a wonderful job of creating a script and screenplay that reflected the way people act today with their mobile devices and bringing up the deeper questions about transparence and control. Ponsoldt did a great job of using his actors to show how companies in Silicon Valley coddle their employees; with transportation, food, parties, concerts, and activities.

Overall:  A very interesting story and it brings up questions that will have to be addressed and resolved soon.

The End of the Tour

First Hit:  Intelligent dialogue in a very well-acted film.

This is a simple intelligent film about David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) a Rolling Stone reporter who works his boss to get an assignment to interview the current hottest writer David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel). Wallace has a past and history that Lipsky wants to better understand but mostly, because Lipsky, a writer himself, wants to find out why Wallace’s book is so much better than his  recently published book.

A number of their conversations take place in the car driving to various book readings, café’s, and Wallace’s home. Because of the physical closeness, their relationship grows to reveal a lot about each of the men. Wallace talks about learning about himself the hard way. He’s deeply explored his depression, has and continues to learn what is important to him, and how to deal with how the public views him, which often is far from the truth. He’s learned what his reality is and how to reconcile all of his life’s difficulties.

Lipsky gets challenged by someone who is as smart (maybe even smarter) as him. His respect and admiration occasionally gets in the way of interviewing Wallace, but those items also create a way to deeply learn more about Wallace and himself.

Eisenberg was his usual high intensity, high speed intellectual self. He’s is smart that he picks roles that display his natural strength. Segel gives a performance of a lifetime. He is stupendous, superb, and sublime. He embodies the character and dialogue. Donald Margulies wrote an incredibly strong script. James Ponsoldt created a great watchable film through his direction.

Overall:  This was a very watchable film by having intelligent dialogue.

The Spectactular Now

First Hit:  I thoroughly enjoyed this film and thought it was well crafted.

I had a friend in high school who acted a lot like Sutter (played by Miles Teller). My friend had a quick smile, drank quite a bit to become the life of the party, and didn’t seem to want to plan something for his future. He became a drunk and died, for the most part, alone.

Sutter drinks all the time. He’s a very young functional alcoholic. He goes to school, he works and attempts to have relationships, but all his girlfriends end up seeing the light that there is no future for them with him, so they drop him and move on.

This film is about his beginning to see how he is screwing up his life. What helps him? Aimee (Shailene Woodley) is a girl he actually begins to care about. In helping her stand up to her mom, she helps him find out about his dad Tommy (Kyle Chandler) as he begins to reconcile the truth and his mom’s version of the truth of his father.

His mom Sara (Jennifer Jason Leigh), had kept Sutter sheltered from his father because, his father didn’t care, drank too much, and never cared about the future. When he glimpses his future through his father he begins to realize that his life of drinking, blackouts, and non-commitment won’t work.

Teller was fantastic as the guy who doesn’t care except to have a good time, only to find out his life may add up to little in the end. Woodley is sublime. Her subtle opening up as the plain unpopular girl have her first time boyfriend was extraordinary. Chandler was perfect as the good-time guy who didn’t and won’t make anything of his life. Leigh was great in her one major scene as her son begins to figure out that if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’ll keep getting what he is getting. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber wrote a very strong pointed screenplay. James Ponsoldt crisply and confidently directed this story and the actors.

Overall:  This was a very thoughtful film and experience.

Smashed

First Hit:  For my money, this was one of the better films depicting the struggle to lose an alcoholic addiction.

Kate and Charlie Hannah (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul respectively) are a good time couple. They go to the bar, play pool and drink every night. They love each other but it is all through the haze of alcohol.

Kate is an animated school teacher teaching young kids. One day because of her excess the night before she throws up while teaching class. To cover the incident she tells the school and class that she is pregnant.

This lie, of course, will be uncovered in the end. Kate decides to get sober and her teaching peer Dave Davies (played by Nick Offerman) and her AA sponsor Jenny (played by Octavia Spencer) give her the support and drive to get there. When she and Charlie go visit her Kate’s mother Rochelle (played by Mary Kay Place), we see the history of her illness.

How alcoholism is represented in this film is excellent and the audience is given insight to what can happen.

Winstead is outstanding and give a truly strong performance. Paul is very good as the husband who loves his wife, but loves drinking as well. Offerman gives a great performance of the friend who also breaks the AA rules and has to look at himself as well. Place is very good as the enabling mother. Spencer is wonderful as Kate’s sponsor. James Ponsoldt and Susan Burke wrote a very strong script. Ponsoldt did a wonderful job of directing this film with realism and sensitivity.

Overall: A well-acted film.