Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share three movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each.For further details visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks
is The Internet
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Ahh...the internet. Increasingly a part of our lives and increasingly being featured in movies. Do you guys remember the dial-up days? The loud annoying dialing noises and bad connection...glad those days are gone. Can't say I like most movies that show the internet prominently so these are just random picks of the ones I've seen.
Chatroom (2010)
Released in 2010, this movie feels very outdated. By 2010 social media had pretty much taken over chatrooms as the place youths hanged out, and some popular chatrooms like MSN chat had already been shut down a couple of years before. While the movie has a psychological thriller element to it, it mostly feels like a "big scary internet" tv movie that feeds parents paranoia.
Men, Women & Children (2014)
Once again it feels a little dated and too heavy on the cautionary tale aspect. I thought it was funny how the synopsis of the movie had this "teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their relationships..." I thought that was odd; the internet isn't exactly a new phenomenon and especially for the teens in this, it's not like they ever had a "before there was internet" life.
Chef (2014)
Not exactly a movie about the internet, but it's one of the few I think that shows both the negatives and positives of the internet. The main character may have begun with a negative experience with the internet, but with the help of his tech/net savvy son, he gets a following for his new food truck business.
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I actually LOVE Chatroom. I think it's such a smart film and I liked how it felt like a play. Men, Women, Children disappointed me. I thought Disconnect was a far better film tackling the same issue. Chef is an inspired choice. I never would've thought of that.
ReplyDeleteIt seems more people like Disconnect. Can't say I prefer one from the other. Disconnect does deal with more difficult issues.
DeleteOh I SO nearly picked Chef! I wasn't sure if it would qualify. I haven't seen your other choices but I'd quite like to give Chatroom a try sometime :)
ReplyDelete- Allie
Chef - Haha it does.
DeleteChatroom - It does have quite a number of young recognizable actors, so that's one reason to see it, seeing one of their earlier film work.
I've only heard of Chef but I haven't seen it yet. I've heard it's great though.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of Chatroom until now and haven't seen Men, Woman & Children yet but Chef was a decent film, one I never would have thought of in connection to this theme. You mentioned that a couple felt outdated and I think that's the problem with movies about the net, it changes so fast that any film is almost instantly dated.
ReplyDeleteTrue that movies that deal with technology gets dated fast; but with Chatroom it's just way way late with the chatroom being a thing. Maybe I'm recalling it wrong but I only remember chatrooms being popular late 90's and early 2000's. I mentioned MSN chat in my post, they had begun slowly closing chatrooms since 2003 and closed completely in 2006.
DeleteI also think it's the tone of the movies and just the general negativity with the internet that feels dated. Sometimes it feels like watching a TV movie from the early 2000's about how bad chatrooms or message boards are.
I didn't even think of Chef. I saw it not even a year ago and I don't even recall the internet connection because this movie was just OK for me. I haven't seen the other 2 movies
ReplyDeleteThere was quite a bit. The lead character didn't understand Twitter and made a public comment that he shouldn't have. I think he also had a public meltdown that got recorded and uploaded on the net.
DeleteI picked something similar to Chef, which I didn't think of because I didn't really like it. I've only heard awful things about Men, Women & Children, so I've steered clear.
ReplyDeleteMen, Women & Children - yep not a lot of people like it.
DeleteChef has been on my Netflix list for months. I just haven't watched it yet. Soon, I hope. Haven't seen those other two. Can't say that you have me excited for either.
ReplyDeleteChef is the only one that feels very current in regards to the internet/social media.
DeleteI thought about Men, Women & Children for this theme but only after I had written the post. I thought it was a great film, it silently arrived and didn't receive much of a buzz. I think its because it looks, from the outside, like an ensemble film like New Year's Day all that but its well done, even though no one really wins in all this.
ReplyDeleteI never really thought about it as an ensemble piece but you're right it is with all its connected stories.
DeleteI guess I did heard buzz about it, but that it was just generally bad buzz - not a good movie which I mostly agree with.
Only movies about modern day technology can be dated after two years. Just goes to show the amazing rate of progress, doesn't it? Also speaks volumes of the general level of ignorance, some of whom are in government...
ReplyDelete