Category Archives: Reviews

Christopher Nolan’s Quarter-Billion Question Mark

Tenet review: Christopher Nolan time-twister isn't as clever as it thinks - CNET

Tepatlaxco de Hidalgo The consensus is pretty clear: Tenet is a solid film.

notwithstanding The latest Christopher Nolan opus is a time-leaping thriller with a plot as convoluted as Inception and a look that’s just as polished. The movie earned a thumbs-up from three-quarters of the nation’s critics and earned positive reviews from 77% of America’s moviegoers, according to RottenTomatoes.com

It also cost a quarter-billion dollars.

That last point is a stickler for Hollywood, which is trying to make sense of the tea leaves left in the wake of the Labor Day opening for the film. Tenet was to be the litmus test of moviegoing since the pandemic.

“The movies are back!” Warner Bros. proudly exclaimed in advertising the film.

Moviegoers, however, were another matter. The film has made $30 million since its release, and more than $200 million overseas, bringing it near its production costs.

But in today’s Hollywood, a film needs to make about twice what it cost for the industry to consider it a success, much less a sequel. And it’s hard to see Tenet nearing the $500 million mark.

To be fair, Nolan’s film was facing an uphill battle since its release. Only 70% of the nation’s theaters are even open for business, and they can only accommodate 25% capacity due to social distancing.

In response to expectations, Warner Bros. has quit reporting daily box office for the movie — never a good sign. And they are, as expected, mum on how much they’re spending on their next tent pole picture, Dune, due December 18.

But clearly, summer 2020 was a graveyard for Hollywood films. And like the nation, U.S. theaters cannot be forced to open, even with as elegant a crow bar as Christopher Nolan.

Here’s hoping for better holiday tidings.

The Software Error of ‘The Social Dilemma’

The Social Dilemma is a terrifying look at what tech engineers have done to make social media a deadly addiction. So it’s more than a little ironic the film couldn’t make itself more arresting.

That’s not to say the new Netflix documentary isn’t interesting and, at times, enlightening and downright terrifying. Directed by Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Coral), Dilemma dutifully examines the retardation effect of social media: YouTubers peddling conspiracies; dolts informing themselves with Facebook news feeds; cell phone junkies fixing from the toilet.

Dilemma goes a layer deeper, collecting the tech wizards who helped create Silicon Valley titans such as Google, YouTube, FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. They tell a Frankensteinian story of their gambit with Artificial Intelligence, in which they literally turned AI on themselves — and the world at large — with no idea the outcome.

Too bad the film is loaded with needless dramatizations to illustrate its points, as if producers decided the old, Ken Burns-style of non-fiction filmmaking (interviews, real people, news footage) needed a software update.

It didn’t, and the film suffers for it.

Which is a shame, because Dilemma has some doozie anecdotes. Like when early engineers talk of programming AI to keep readers locked on screens, even if it meant feeding them fake news. Or the engineer who came up with the idea to allow users to “tag” and alert other users that they’ve been named in a social media post, making it impossible to resist.

The most enthralling, though, is the Faustian bargain engineers made with AI. Technicians talk of giving AI a simple goal in their social media strategy, similar to teaching a computer to play chess. In this case, they programmed AI to send alluring alerts to social media users in dopamine- dosed chimes and crimson notifications.

Even technicians admitted they underestimated AI’s learning curve, and have had to battle their own addictions to mobile devices.

“If it’s free,” an engineer flatly says of social media (and its itinerant games, apps and services), “you’re the product.”

The Social Dilemma — this is how the world ends | Financial Times
Social media architects after Congressional testimony.

So how did Netflix let this gem slip through its fingers? Namely, with its silly and necessary stage flourishes. Instead of sticking with interviews, Dilemma assigns actors to play some of the engineers (and their families). It even has an actor to play Jaron Lanier, considered the godfather of virtual reality. He’s more striking than the actor playing him, and the drama undercuts Lanier’s insight.

Lanier blowing into a woodwind instrument with several chambers
The real Jaron Lanier

Most egregiously, though, is Dilemma‘s portrayal of AI, here played by actor Vincent Kartheiser. Kartheiser was vanity embodied wonderfully in Mad Men. Here, though, he plays a cartoonish virtual villain, pudgy and merciless like a rabid Wizard of Oz.

Vincent Kartheiser - Rotten Tomatoes

It not quite enough to make Dilemma unwatchable. The details are too damning too ignore. But for a story about the unrelenting threat of a burgeoning computer threat, Dilemma could have used more of a human touch.

The Spectrum Algorithm

If you happen to be reading this, do yourself a favor: Stop reading this.

Instead, go to Netflix and cue up The Speed Cubers, the streaming service’s new documentary. Don’t read plot synopses, recaps, analyses or first reactions. It’s only 40 minutes long, so carve out the same attentive time you would for your favorite TV show. Then come back here. We can wait.

Did you see it? Liar. Seriously, go see it first.

The reason we’re being so pushy is because Cubers is one of those rare movies that to review it is to lessen it. Reviews require the very synopses and analyses that will to ruin the wondrous surprise the film holds for us. Cubers is not about what it appears, making it one of 2020’s best cinematic revelations.

Cubers begins wordlessly inside the 2017 World Rubik’s Cube Championships in Melbourne. A title sequence informs us that it takes the average person three hours to finish their first Rubik’s Cube.

Cubers do it in 7 seconds.Rubik's Cube: Records broken at UK championships - BBC News

Or, if you’re Max Park and Feliks Zemdegs, less. They are at the center of Cubers, but the film is about so much more than their prodigious talents.  More than their unlikely friendship. Instead, Cubers is ultimately about paying attention and raising kids right. By Hollywood standards, that’s about as rare as a silent film.

The movie briefly addresses the prowess of speedcubers. While most puzzle players memorize a handful of algorithms to solve the square, professional cubers memorize more than 300. Add to that the dexterity of card magicians, and speedcubers see a 7-second solve the way runners view a 4-minute mile: the gold standard.

But director Sue Kim deftly moves from puzzle to portrait, specifically an artful capture of the Park family: father Schwan, mother Miki and 17-year-old Max, who was born with autism. The parents poignantly recall the difficulties connecting with their son and the joy in finding a tool for Max to focus, socialize, excel.max-park-the-speed-cubers-1595535046093.png

The scenes here, of parents grappling with a child “on the spectrum,” make the film. Schwan has the eloquence of a poet, and Miki’s determination to get through to her son is a near-ballet of mirroring, comforting and occasionally consoling. Normally, parents get short shrift in Hollywood. They’re  oblivious (American Pie), absent (Home Alone) or overbearing (Meet the Parents).

Here they’re perfect — on both ends of the spectrum. At the other end sits Zemdegs, an equally astonishing 23-year-old. Feliks is one of the founding fathers of speedcubing, one of the first to measure problem-solving in seconds instead of minutes.

He’s as remarkable as Max. Despite wunderkind talent, Feliks — empowered by mother Rita, who took a Zen-like approach to her son’s obsessive cube fetish — seems profoundly at ease with his diminishing skills. He holds a full-time job, moves within a circle of friends and, most importantly, is proud to be a role model for Max and other cubers who worship his career. Every great athlete in any sport could take a cue from him.The Speed Cubers' Dives Into the Competitive World of Rubik's Cube ...

Speaking of sport, Cubers has a competition build-up that’s as dramatic as any sports showdown.  This is Rocky meets Chasing Bobby Fischer.max-park-the-speed-cubers-2-1595535104236.png

We won’t give anything away in terms of the championships, but the contests really don’t matter in The Speed Cubers. What matters are the relationships that spring from the competition. And, like a solved Rubik’s Cube, The Speed Cubers is a perfect little diversion, on every side.