Thursday Movie Picks: The Internet
1) The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz was a programming genius who is responsible for things like RSS and Reddit. He was also an activist that wanted all kinds of information to be readily available to anyone, and sadly, some trouble he got into lead to him taking his own life when he was 26. This is a fascinating doc, and in true Aaron fashion, the whole thing is on Youtube.
2) Me and You and Everyone We Know
There's a lot of interweaving stories in film, but one of the biggest involves two brothers in an internet chat room, with the youngest one striking up a relationship with someone on the other side of his screen, even though he's far too young to even comprehend the things he's typing.
3) Talhotblond
Another documentary, this is a hot mess of fucked up. So much so that it ended up being a Lifetime TV movie by the same name. (I can't speak to that, but the doc is fascinating) It involves an internet love triangle that leaves one party death and another in prison.
I've not seen any of these, but they sound intriguing. Those last two sound flat out creepy.
ReplyDeleteMe and You and Everyone We Know is a great little film, but the subplot is creepy. Talhotblond is just plain fucked up.
DeleteOh, both have been added to my ever-growing watch list.
DeleteMe and You and Everyone We Know has been on my watch list for AGES and I just never got around to seeing it. Had no idea it even had a subplot like that.
ReplyDeleteThat last one has my interest, mostly because I want to know what they heck happened.
It's a very disturbing subplot, but the movie itself is so good. I hope you watch it and don't hate it lol.
DeleteTalhotblond is wild, last I checked it was on Netflix.
Interesting choices, none of which I have heard of though the name Aaron Swartz.
ReplyDeleteThere's lots of films about the dangers of online chat rooms, aren't there? You never fully know who you're speaking to.
There are, and for good reasons, probably.
DeleteI REALLY want to see The Internet's Own Boy - the story is so intriguing. Me And You... is also on my watchlist, I've heard such great things about it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get to see them both. Internet's Own Boy is on youtube. I wish that would've made it into the final 5 Oscar noms for best doc. It was on the shortlist.
DeleteIntriguing choices, I've seen none of them though but have heard of You and Me etc. The first one in particular sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteI reached back to the beginning of the internet age for one of mine and it's still probably my favorite on the subject.
Untraceable (2008)-FBI Special Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) works in a division that fights cybercrime. World weary and jaded she is still shocked when confronted by a killer who posts live feeds of his crimes on his website, the more hits the site gets the faster the victim dies. Determined to stop him she and her team try to capture the killer before time runs out.
The Net (1995)-Virtual recluse Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a software engineer who works from home as a freelance expert with few friends outside of cyberspace. One of those friends sends her a program with a weird glitch for her to de-bug. She discovers secret information on the disk just before taking her first vacation in years. While on that trip she meets an mysterious attractive stranger, finds herself embroiled in a web of computer espionage and her life endangered.
WarGames (1983)-Young computer whiz David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) finds a backdoor into a system he mistakenly believes is devoted to games which he attempts to play. It turns out that he has accidentally infiltrated the US government’s computer and may have initiated the lead up to WWIII. Assisted by a young girl he’s sweet on (Ally Sheedy) and the inventor of the system he tries to stop the game before it’s too late. Made when computers on a personal user level were a relatively new phenomenon this is a solid adventure with a very winning Broderick in the lead.
Untraceable wasn't bad. That's the only one of your picks I've seen. I liked that it was a different role for Joseph Cross.
DeleteVery interesting choices and i have not heard of any of them. What a shame that this young kid killed himself. It looks like the FBI was coming down hard on him and he could not take the pressure (I did a quick read on him)
ReplyDeleteThey were, it's really unfortunate, especially since it seems they were going way harder than the law should've been in that area.
DeleteIn for all of these. Shit...I really have to stop watching baseball. And basketball. And sleeping.
ReplyDeleteToo many good films out there.
lol well I always approve of watching baseball. I just haven't been doing much of it this season because the Twins are terrible.
DeleteI've only seen Me and You and Everyone We Know in that list as I do like that film and thought that little moment was cute. It's a shame Miranda July's next film The Future was one of the worst films ever.
ReplyDeleteI never saw The Future, that's disappointing. She showed a lot of promise with Me and You.
DeleteI can't believe I've never heard of these movies before, but they sound interesting.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get the chance to check them out!
DeleteI'm very fond of Miranda July's film, its so odd in places. The two docs look intriguing - I never knew about Aaron Swartz.
ReplyDeleteI love that film so much. I didn't know much about Aaron Swartz before that doc either, it's very fascinating.
DeleteOh lord. I'd forgotten that you put me up to watching Talhotblond. I found it interesting. I do love me some bat crap crazy family dysfunction.
ReplyDeletelol yeah, it's a hot mess. Everyone should watch it for that alone.
DeleteI'm an internet addict too! I don't think I can function without it either, heck even my screenwriting tool is a web-based one, ahah. I haven't seen any of these, though the 2nd one sounds interesting, been wanting to watch that one for a while.
ReplyDeleteYou should check it out! I know I've mentioned it before, it's really a lovely film.
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