The Social Network

What does it take to get your life made into a Hollywood biopic? Oh, not much. Just create a website that addicts everyone and becomes essential to the lives of over 500 million people. Then add becoming a self-made multi-billionaire by age 26 and you're a shoe-in for a biopic.

Well, that probably does not describe your life. But it does describe Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.

The Social Network stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg (who clearly only got the role because of his last name) and tells the story of the creation of Facebook, from its origins at Harvard to its growth into the crown jewel of the social networking movement. The screenplay was written by none other than Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, Charlie Wilson's War) and the film is directed by David Fincher (Curious Case of Bejamin Button, Fight Club). It also features Andrew Garfield (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), Rashida Jones (The Office, Parks and Recreation), and everybody's favorite triple threat, Justin Timberlake.

Sounds great on paper. But is the creation of Facebook really compelling enough for a movie? Watch the teaser trailer below and decide for yourself.

The Social Network is in theatres October 1st.

Review: The New American Century

This is an incredible, eye-opening documentary that should be seen by all. It tells the story of the history of the Project for the New American Century through heavy reliance on archival footage starting from Spanish-American War of 1898 right up to the present. This film exposes how every major war in US history was based on fraudulent information, misleading claims, and black propaganda.

Incredibly well-made and insightful, The New American Century brings to light the often inexplicable motives of the United States of America and puts into perspective the often misguided actions of the world's most powerful nation.

Les Grossman gets his own picture

Remember that cameo role Tom Cruise had in Tropic Thunder as the overweight, obnoxious, hip-hop blaring movie producer Les Grossman? It was the role that completely redeemed Cruise in my eyes after the chair-jumping incident and subsequently-volatile decent into Scientology-induced insanity.

Well, the character was so popular that today Paramount Pictures announced that, in partnership with MTV Films, it is developing a movie for Grossman. There is no word yet on the cast, writer, director, or release date, but Paramount confirmed that both Cruise and Ben Stiller will produce.

Here is a classic Grossman moment from Tropic Thunder:

Let's all go to the lobby

Remember when movie theatres were actually theatres? When they had only a handful of screens? When they were designed by architects rather than retail design firms? When they blended in with downtown storefronts and facades rather than suburban strip malls and big box commercial developments? When they didn't have arcades and Pizza Huts? When they had unique names instead of brands?

Neither do I. I'm only twenty-three so I don't really remember any of that. But I know it existed. I know there was a time when the movie theatre was a place to dress up for, to appreciate not for its automated ticket kiosks and ample parking, its twelve screens or its 52-speaker surround-sound earthquake machine, but for its sophistication, class, its authentic experience.

It seems now that movie theatres are designed with the same principles as a Walmart Supercentre.

On the other hand, playhouses, God bless them, have for the most part managed to maintain their classic aesthetic. I marvel at stages like the Avon and Festival Theatres in Stratford, the Royal Alexandria, Princess of Wales, and Canon in Toronto. These theatres are still beautiful. And why shouldn't they be? The theatre is an icon of class and cultural sophistication. But so was the cinema once...

What happened?

Even from watching a film like Tarantino's Iglourious Basterds or "The Gum" episode of Seinfeld, I get small glimpses into the cinematic past - before multiplexes and big box-suburbia, before Judd Apatow and Michael Bay pumped audiences full of lowest common denominator-comedy and helicopters at sunset, before the popcorn and drink cost more than the ticket, when movie theatres were still theatres and not retail distributors of movies, butter, and Dance Dance Revolution.

Even in today's conglomerated, Wall Street, big-budget, digital-Hollywood, the cinema is still an art. And art needs a proper home. And there is something wrong when paintings still have their galleries, plays still have their theatres, but movies are forcefully-herded into these gaudy, warehouse multiplexes.

In 2010, the prevailing retail model is the Walmart one - high volume, low overhead, cheap product, cheap prices. On your next night out to the movies, ask yourself if your local Cineplex monstrosity is any different.