Define Dancing

 

I thought I would start sharing my favorite movie scenes. I’ll begin with some cinematic magic, the Define Dancing scene from Disney Pixar’s Wall-e. Visually inspiring, this waltz through space is an achievement in both aesthetics and emotion. I challenge you not to smile through this entire clip. There is more meaning in these three minutes of animation than there is in every moronic MTV reality show combined. The lack of developed dialogue by the two protagonists is wonderfully refreshing. The contrast between a filthy abandoned earth and the beautiful black frontier of space is stark but pleasant. Thinking of the plot and lack of dialogue I am reminded of a symphony, prancing around a central tune with intent. In fact, I would compare it directly to Fantasia, which is another visually inspiring Disney creation. Walt Disney was obsessed with Fantasia –he worked tirelessly within his studio for years to direct a film of insurmountable significance, both visually and musically. I think Wall-e does Walt Disney justice –if Walt made a movie today, it would look eerily similar to Wall-e. The spunky little robot is like the original Mickey Mouse. John Wayne would crack a smile for him. Wall-e uses a fire extinguisher to propel himself through space so he can “dance” with his lady-in-red, Eve. When they hugged I could have cried. When she gives him a little static shock he seizes up and tumbles over backward like a little boy fainting from his first kiss. Inexplicably, non-human characters are always more human than anyone I know. They have pure emotion and genuine personalities. Wall-e is like a little kid on Christmas in this scene, but at times he becomes exceedingly lonely and even nostalgic. A nostalgic robot! How delightful. Meanwhile, the captain becomes fascinated with earthly subjects and two passengers discover human contact; two seemingly unrelated but perfectly complementary scenes. The passengers look out on Eve and Wall-e performing a magnificent ballet through space. The choreography is astounding, and it is highlighted as the captain utters two words: define dancing. I think I understood then, that I was watching them dance with each other like animals do. Like puppies playing for the first time.   I am simply unable to describe the pure emotion and pristine beauty of this scene. It has to be the most heartwarming moment in Hollywood.

Just Google It!

            I discovered this artwork in my English 111 class in a discussion about rhetoric. Essentially the argument was that if Einstein was alive today, he would be driven into alcoholism by his frustration over the availability of information because of Google. I think graffiti is now the purest form of art, when done properly. Music is individual, but every band makes decisions about what their audience will like best because, well, that’s what sells records (or downloads from iTunes). Modern art is crap in my mind; it requires no skill. It really is just a contest to determine which artist can piss more people off. Contemporary art is dead, since most people just recreate pre-existing classics from Monet or da Vinci.  However, graffiti is meant to please no one except the artist. It exists to critique society or to pay respect to those who deserve it, but it is never created to be sold, and that makes all the difference.  Unfortunately, graffiti is often the work of misguided ruffians with nothing better to do than spray-paint explicit language on a highway overpass. I fully support the illegality of such action, but if there was a way to graffiti while abiding by certain laws, I think that we would see a burst of thoughtful and artistic youth creating art with meaning.  The greatest example must be the Berlin Wall. Sections of the Wall still standing are covered in extremely relevant graffiti, criticizing (and praising) religion, government, and society in general. The wall is the largest piece of artwork with any credibility. So, with my approval of certain graffiti explained, I return to Einstein. This wall is illustrated with Einstein clearly defeated, drinking straight from a liquor bottle. The caption reads, “Just Google It.” Google is the single most visited search engine in the world, processing over one billion searches per day. Google makes information freely accessible to pretty much anyone. And it’s fast –in the range of 25.3 billion results found in one fifth of a second. Google is perhaps the greatest thing in the world. It makes essentially all of the information published searchable to anyone. It is the largest collection of factual information in history. To criticize it would be stupid, since it does exactly what I want whenever I want it. I don’t necessarily agree with the message –that Einstein would be driven to such a state by Google –because the accessibility of information would likely excite him. I think he would find such a wealth of information useful and constructive to the new minds and ideas of today. That aside, I think this piece is astoundingly insightful, wonderfully original, and carefully critical. I quite like it.  

Some Words

This post acknowledges words about which I feel strongly. Let’s start with my favorite word phrase in the English language, to fall asleep. It’s a lovely little verb. It’s wonderfully succinct. It describes probably the most intimate moment of your day: when you finally lie down and rest your mind. You are defenseless, unthinking, and the wall between your subconscious and conscious is at its thinnest. It is within the last waking minutes of the day that many people have their greatest ideas. Stephen Hawking has had countless epiphanies about the universe just before falling asleep. No one shares your thoughts with you before you fall asleep. You are perfectly entranced within your own mind. You let your thoughts carry you away from every harsh reality and unfortunate truth in your life. It is undoubtedly my favorite time of the day. The verb fall asleep captures this so eloquently I have trouble not telling everyone how I feel about it. You are truly falling into unconsciousness; you don’t push yourself, you don’t put forth any effort, and you have nothing important to think about. In fact, if you do any of those things, you are unlikely to reach sleep with any effectiveness. Sleep itself is a lovely verb, noun, and adjective base. When you combine it with the verb fall, however, it becomes exponentially more meaningful. I think it is the most intimate, beautiful, and pure verb we have created thus far in English.

The Social Network

    David Fincher’s The Social Network is a masterpiece. Too often we are blessed with a director who manages only one great film. Once in a very great while, however, there comes a director with a style all his own who creates art… repeatedly. David Fincher is one such director. He has given us legendary and dark films such as Fight Club and Se7en. I’m hoping his next film is just as good as his last.

                The Social Network is a film that seems long overdue to me. Facebook is perhaps the largest phenomenon on Earth right now, with 750 million active users. For reference, that is 50% larger than the entire European Union’s population. Nearly one half of United States citizens have a registered Facebook account, which means there are twice as many users of the site in the US alone than there are people in the United Kingdom. There have been approximately 10,590,687 movies about the U.K. and just one about Facebook. But that one movie makes up for all those years without one. Jesse Eisenberg takes his place as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, playing him with a wonderful cynicism. Justin Timberlake plays Napster creator Sean Parker, an arrogant dirtbag that runs Facebook’s co-founder and CFO Eduardo Saverin out of the company. The aforementioned CFO Eduardo is played by actor Andrew Garfield. Disney Channel star Brenda Song makes a surprising appearance as Eduardo’s unbelievably sexy (and batshit crazy) girlfriend Christy. With the exception of Sean Parker (Timberlake), all of the above attend Harvard in the fall of 2003. The movie begins with a visually relaxing shot of Zuckerberg and his then-girlfriend Erica drinking casually in a bar. Mark is spewing facts and thoughts relentlessly, rarely pausing, even to answer a question. He changes subjects randomly and confuses Erica constantly. This is my first impression of Zuckerberg, and immediately we can see that he is brutally intelligent and has a pretty restless mind. He strikes me as a character greatly influenced by James Joyce and his stream of consciousness. After a few ill-placed comments, his girlfriend dumps him and he jogs home through Harvard.

Mark gets dumped because he's "an asshole."

            This was my favorite part. Barely five minutes into the movie, Mark is being a total jerk and you can see his cold disregard for other people. On his run home, an eerily dark piano song plays and we see most of Harvard. Upon arriving at his dorm, Zuckerberg starts blogging rudely about Erica to make him feel better. Eventually he stumbles upon the idea to compare female undergrads at Harvard to one another online by hacking their photos from the university’s dorm “facebooks.”  Mark’s site eventually reaches most of the student body and the intense traffic (at 4 AM, mind you) crashes Harvard’s network. When called in front of the administrative board, Zuckerberg is apologetic in a calculated way, but obviously not sincere. He is also clearly proud of himself. The poor kid is placed under academic probation for six months. The middle of the movie is filled with Zuckerberg inventing theFacebook, dropping out of Harvard, meeting new partners for the site, and finally being sued twice. The plaintiffs are three Harvard students, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who claim that Mark stole their idea for theFacebook, and is former best friend and business partner Mr. Eduardo Saverin.

One of the Winklevoss twins in court against Mark.

              Essentially this is one big case of intellectual property theft. Together, Mark and Sean Parker write Eduardo out of the company (by diluting his shares within the company to practically nothing). Eduardo obviously doesn’t take this news well. Instead he charges Mark’s workspace and tears him a new one. His display of raw emotion is the best in the film. He is hurt, distraught, angry beyond words, and vengeful. Mark, in response, is calm, collected, and seemingly apathetic. Throughout the entire movie, Mark’s responses to emotion from others are identical. Despite facing serious anger, aggression, and hatred, Mark just sits there, even commenting on the weather in response.

Eisenberg and Garfield as former best friends Mark and Eduardo.

         The emotional diversity of the characters is outstanding.  I’m pretty sure Mark is the most introverted person I’ve ever seen. Every little detail is internalized. Nothing upsets him, and he rarely shows his own true emotion (except from perhaps glimpses of excitement over moments of power over others).  He comes across as highly apathetic, but in reality he is emotionally naïve and hides behind a false ego. Most of us can relate to this in some way, because his attitude is essentially human nature in society, only exaggerated greatly. It is his relevance to the audience that makes us like him at all. Despite being intelligent and inventing this website, he really only does one thing well: provoke and instigate others. Ordinarily this would make such a person the film’s natural antagonist (being as he antagonizes others). Here, however, he is the obvious protagonist, because we journey with him through intense emotional turmoil and loss.

Mark (Eisenberg) observes and calculates.

                Mark’s utter complexity is the movie’s triumph. His character ranks among my favorites in all of filmdom. He is charismatic, brutal, intelligent, witty, arrogant, quirky, devilish, relevant, inventive, confused, omniscient, mysterious, wonderful, innocent, informal, honest, deceitful, perfect, imperfect, apathetic, emotional, frustrated, calculating, cold, excitable, merciless, introverted, independent, dependent, welcoming, forgetful, awkward, comfortable, careful, careless, rational, and condescending. He is everything a college student and entrepreneur should be, and everything I want to be.

                Official Redrew: five out of five stars. A wonderfully refreshing movie about the most relevant topic on earth that deserves the recognition it has garnered. Jesse Eisenberg is flawless. Direction and Writing are equally impressive. My Favorite movie.