The Circle (2017)

The Circle premiered in Italy one day before it did in the US. It’s like Tom Hanks movies just get earlier release dates in Italy. He is probably one of the best parts about this movie. There was a lot of potential for The Circle. But it does not meet its potential. The questions it asks may be interesting, but they’ve apparently been done much better by Black Mirror. What this movie lacks is a satisfying ending, and character development, and thrill. I’m not sure what genre it would categorize itself as, but I found myself laughing at parts that probably shouldn’t have been funny (but Patton Oswalt is in it), but not thrilled enough in what would’ve made a cool thriller. The score is the most thrilling thing about the movie. Danny Elfman tries to channel Reznor and Ross (a la The Social Network, from which the movie certainly took some atmospheric cues). Emma Watson puts on an American accent, which I simply cannot take seriously. It’s not a bad accent necessarily, but I know she doesn’t sound like that, and it seems forced. I don’t think her British accent would’ve detracted from the character at all. If anything, I’d fault poor writing. It all seemed so unnatural. Maybe that was the point, but it made for some very awkward scenes. John Boyega has a small role that is never really fleshed out. He is reduced to two scenes and is essentially inconsequential to the plot. He is wasted. Reviewers will point to the allusions to Google and Apple and Facebook, but the real life company that most closely resembles The Circle is actually WeChat, which has integrated every aspect of Chinese life into one convenient app. We’re not talking about hypotheticals. WeChat is already doing it. I wonder if this movie will make it to China. I think they like Emma Watson and Tom Hanks, but I can’t imagine it being allowed.

The End of the Tour (2015)

This is a really brainy movie, filled with effortless, thoughtful and intelligent dialogue.  The conversation is mesmerizing, almost on an Aaron Sorkin level.  But they're not talking politics--they're simply musing on life and humanity.  They have really insightful and thought provoking ideas.  The film follows David Lipsky of Rolling Stone as he interviewed author David Foster Wallace for a profile in the magazine following the success of his novel Infinite Jest. Lipsky says "You don't open a one thousand page book because you've heard the author is a nice guy.  You read it...because you understand the author is brilliant."  This movie features two brilliant portrayals of two brilliant people. It is the sort of character with the quirky fast-talking mannerisms that we have come to associate with Jessie Eisenberg, but Jason Segel is a revelation in this far cry from the comedy of How I Met Your Mother. He is at once calm, yet flustered, private but open, friendly yet off putting. Wallace is enigmatic, but that is what makes everything he says so interesting--it is always a pleasant surprise.

The film ends with Brian Eno's The Big Ship.  I wasn't sure when I had heard this song before but after some digging online, I recalled that it was used in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl in the homemade film.  Both films punctuate a death scene rather poignantly with this song and while they are different types of scenes (one of sorrow and the other of fond remembrance), the music works in both.