You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.

With his most recent work David Fincher explores the world’s most popular social networking site Facebook. In this internet age we live in it’s difficult to remember a time before Facebook. A time before you would check your account every 10 minutes for updates. Before you would untag yourself in certain pictures, crop people out of them or make somewhat “ambiguous” status updates that indirectly refer to someone else. Before you would tell someone to just “Facebook me” or “just add me on Facebook.” Yes, it’s hard to believe that Facebook is still quite a new phenomenon, and the film The Social Network explores how a Harvard student changed the world and guaranteed himself a place in history. When I first heard the rumors of a Facebook movie I was quick to laugh off what I assumed would be some lame teen comedy with no substance. The idea itself was just so absurd, much like someone trying to make a film about Twitter or even MySpace. It wasn’t until I found out that David Fincher was signed on as the director that my interest began to rise. Given his previous works I was sure he wouldn’t disappoint. After seeing the film my fears were laid to rest as once again Fincher has lead the audience through an emotional rollercoaster filled with highs and lows. A lot of credit also has to be given to Aaron Sorkin for penning a well crafted script that really keeps the viewer riveted throughout the entire film. Also, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross deserve a lot of credit for creating the hauntingly yet beautifully dark ambient score to the film. This matched up perfectly with Fincher’s style of using washed out colours and low lighting in scenes, similar to Fight Club. The film also had a great performance by the cast, including a solid Jesse Eisenberg. While I still feel he could use some improvement in his acting, The Social Network shows he is ready to break free from being compared to Michael Cera. However, the best performance was given by Andrew Garfield playing Eduardo Saverin, the co-creator of Facebook. I felt that he really connected with the character and portrayed a naive innocence towards the world that would be hard to top. I am very excited to see how he plays Peter Parker in the upcoming Spiderman reboot. The Social Network takes the viewer on a journey involving trust, betrayal, greed, sacrifice, isolation, loneliness and wanting to belong. The film runs about 2 hours and 30 minutes and my only real complaint was that it seemed rushed. Hopefully there will be a director’s cut released on DVD that will flush out some more of the story. Well it’s been about 20 minutes since I last checked my Facebook and I can already feel the itch coming on, so while I check my Facebook you go see the movie. Then update your status about it.

Can this modern man survive in a Stone Age world?

Most people remember Ruggero Deodato for his 1980’s film Cannibal Holocaust which caused quite an uproar and almost lead to Deodato being convicted of murder. What some do not realize is that Cannibal Holocaust was part of a cannibal trilogy, which started with Jungle Holocaust. Jungle Holocaust was released in 1977 and received little attention it wasn’t till the release of Cannibal Holocaust that people started to take notice. What is interesting about Jungle Holocaust is that it is one of the first Cannibal horror films and it kick started the cannibal trend. The film follows Robert Harper a wealthy entrepreneur who is travelling to a jungle located in New Guinea, although we are never really told his reasons for going. All we know is that there is a team of scientists waiting for him and they’ve discovered a tribe of natives thought to be extinct. Of course this tribe happens to be cannibals obsessed with consuming everything they come across.
After Roberts’s plane crashes he is left stranded in the middle of jungle and finds himself being stocked by a cannibalistic tribe of natives. It doesn’t really take much thought to realize that what this movie will amount to, which great gore and silly situations and over the top killings. Now if you are like me and love your movies with lots of guts and mayhem Jungle Holocaust does not disappoint. From man eating ants to human barbeque this movie will gross out even the most jaded fans, to some degree. Personally I found the sequence where a woman gives birth and immediately drowns the baby to be one of the more intense scenes. But what really stood out was when Robert rapes and beats one of the female tribe members and then she becomes his “wife.” This was my “what the fuck?” moment in the film.
Anyway if you want to see a half naked man run through the jungle being chased by even more naked natives then Jungle Holocaust is your movie. If you want to see half naked women also in the jungle this is your movie. If you want gore and senseless killing well I am pretty sure that you get the idea at this point so just go watch it already!

The Ultimate Experience Of Inner Terror

During the late 70’s and into the 80’s David Cronenberg was one of the leading horror directors and writers. He became known for his body horror films and his 1979 film The Brood continued this exploration.
The Brood is a film about Frank Carveth a father trying to take care of his young daughter Candice Carveth. Her mother Nola Carveth spends the film in a psychotherapy clinic deep within the northern woods of Ontario. She is being treated for an unexplained illness by Dr. Hal Raglan, a psychologist with an obsession with the power of human rage.
AS the film starts as we are introduced to Dr. Raglan who is giving a demonstration of his hypnosis style of psychology between him and another patient.
Shorty after this the film quickly takes a dark turn when Frank finds severe bruising on Candice. Suspecting that her mother is the aggressor he confronts Dr. Raglan. After unsuccessfully trying to get answers from the doctor, Frank forbids anymore visitation between Candice and Nola.
As Nola continues her therapy Dr. Raglan is able to help her manifest her rage into deformed creatures, using his knowledge of Psychoplasmics.
Fueled by Nola’s rage these creatures whose appearance is similar to Candice begin to murder. The first victim is Nola’s mother as we are lead to believe that she hit and abused Nola while she was a child.
The attacks of the rage creatures become more frequent as the therapy between Dr. Raglan and Nola continue. The attempts made by Frank to stop the treatment are met with additional attacks by these creatures.
It is during the last act of the film that we are introduced to the type of physical horror Cronenberg has become known for. As the final confrontation takes place between Frank and Nola we learn that the rage creatures are birthed externally. They are created within an amniotic sac located on the lower abdomen of Nola. This sequence is very disturbing and is a precursor to later works of Cronenberg and his exploration of the body.
Although the film looks very dated I still found The Brood to be an interesting and engaging film. It’s quite progressive in that it deals with the issue of child abuse. It has been said that Cronenberg wrote this story while going through a divorce and custody battle with his wife. He has also said that Nola has similar characteristics to his ex-wife.
I would suggest this film to people who are already familiar with the work of Cronenberg but not as a starting point for those just discovering his films.