RATING: B-
Everyone loves a good Big Brother tale, right? George Orwell and all that stuff? I know I do. Some people view them as far-fetched science fiction that "will totally never happen." And hopefully they're right about them never happening. I like to view them as cautionary tales or warnings. Obviously some scenarios that we are given are more plausible than others. This is one of the more relevant ones in recent years, though--because some of what is going on in this movie is already happening to a lesser extent and is already relevant.
This particular one centers around one Mae Holland (Emma Watson) who gets a job at the famous tech company "The Circle"--which is one part Facebook, one part Google and one part Ultimate iCloud. Their latest product that gets introduced by spokesman Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks) shortly after Mae joins? "SeeChange"--which is basically an initiative to put cameras everywhere that produce real time video all for the public. Bailey's mantra (and the film's terrifying tagline) is this: "Knowing is good. Knowing everything is better." You can imagine things only spiral from there.
On its outward dealings, The Circle is a big brand corporation that cares nothing for privacy--and even sees privacy as one of humanity's greatest flaws. On the inside, the workers are almost a weird cult-like community--one where they are encouraged to be on the property as much as possible "participating" in whatever activity and where this community wants to be involved with everyone in their "circle"--no matter what they're doing or where they are. Creepy, no?
It gets better. Particularly when Mae goes "transparent"--having a first person camera on her at all times viewable to the entire public while the social reactions pop up on the screen repeatedly. Those might be a slight annoyance at first as many of them are cliched Internet phrases, but some of them are actually kind of interesting and serve as a further indictment of the heavy reliance on social media. But yes, a person's entire life is livestreamed and available for the public to watch and react to. Repeatedly. And the idea is to get more and more people in on the act, of course--livestreaming their entire lives. Creepy indeed.
All of that to say that The Circle is a cautionary tale indeed. Perhaps intended to warn us of what we could become one day. As such, many of the concepts presented are pretty enthralling and we're giving a pretty interesting movie with quite a bit of food for thought (often presented from the movie kind of playing devil's advocate).
While I do not understand fully why this film has gotten panned, it is still rather flawed at times. The direction is a bit sloppy and at times it feels like some footage was cut out (particularly near the ending). For example, we're not given much background about the "Circle" company before we're hurled into it. There are also some things that make no sense. Namely John Boyega's character--despite an early scene with him clearly being troubled by the Circle, his motivations and what not are just all over the place. He's a difficult one to figure out. The script is also up and down--and while most of the star-studded cast that includes Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, Patton Oswalt, Karen Gillan and Boyega is mostly able to make the best of it, Bill Paxton is sadly wasted in his final (and posthumous) film role.
And then there's the ending... and the fact that there's not really much of an ending. Shortly after the final of the film's many "press conference/presentation" scenes, a rather alarming pull-back "reveal" shot happens. And then it ends--boom. But there's quite a bit that's not answered--like what happens to certain characters or how they react to the final events of the movie. Again, it feels like some footage was cut out.
While none of these flaws really ruin the movie, at times they can bring it down a little--making the film feel a bit underwhelming. It really does feel like the film could've been even better with a bit more coherence and better direction. Heck, with a super-relevant storyline like that and the all-star cast, it should've probably been one of 2017's better films.
And while it's definitely nowhere near as awful as most would have you believe and it's actually still above average, you still can't shake the feeling at times that they probably could've done better. This makes one of the film's earlier lines more ironic. During Mae's interview for The Circle, she is asked (among other questions) this: "What is your greatest fear?" Her response (this apparently being the one that lands her the job)? "Unfulfilled potential."
Indeed, Mae. Indeed.
On its outward dealings, The Circle is a big brand corporation that cares nothing for privacy--and even sees privacy as one of humanity's greatest flaws. On the inside, the workers are almost a weird cult-like community--one where they are encouraged to be on the property as much as possible "participating" in whatever activity and where this community wants to be involved with everyone in their "circle"--no matter what they're doing or where they are. Creepy, no?
It gets better. Particularly when Mae goes "transparent"--having a first person camera on her at all times viewable to the entire public while the social reactions pop up on the screen repeatedly. Those might be a slight annoyance at first as many of them are cliched Internet phrases, but some of them are actually kind of interesting and serve as a further indictment of the heavy reliance on social media. But yes, a person's entire life is livestreamed and available for the public to watch and react to. Repeatedly. And the idea is to get more and more people in on the act, of course--livestreaming their entire lives. Creepy indeed.
All of that to say that The Circle is a cautionary tale indeed. Perhaps intended to warn us of what we could become one day. As such, many of the concepts presented are pretty enthralling and we're giving a pretty interesting movie with quite a bit of food for thought (often presented from the movie kind of playing devil's advocate).
While I do not understand fully why this film has gotten panned, it is still rather flawed at times. The direction is a bit sloppy and at times it feels like some footage was cut out (particularly near the ending). For example, we're not given much background about the "Circle" company before we're hurled into it. There are also some things that make no sense. Namely John Boyega's character--despite an early scene with him clearly being troubled by the Circle, his motivations and what not are just all over the place. He's a difficult one to figure out. The script is also up and down--and while most of the star-studded cast that includes Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, Patton Oswalt, Karen Gillan and Boyega is mostly able to make the best of it, Bill Paxton is sadly wasted in his final (and posthumous) film role.
And then there's the ending... and the fact that there's not really much of an ending. Shortly after the final of the film's many "press conference/presentation" scenes, a rather alarming pull-back "reveal" shot happens. And then it ends--boom. But there's quite a bit that's not answered--like what happens to certain characters or how they react to the final events of the movie. Again, it feels like some footage was cut out.
While none of these flaws really ruin the movie, at times they can bring it down a little--making the film feel a bit underwhelming. It really does feel like the film could've been even better with a bit more coherence and better direction. Heck, with a super-relevant storyline like that and the all-star cast, it should've probably been one of 2017's better films.
And while it's definitely nowhere near as awful as most would have you believe and it's actually still above average, you still can't shake the feeling at times that they probably could've done better. This makes one of the film's earlier lines more ironic. During Mae's interview for The Circle, she is asked (among other questions) this: "What is your greatest fear?" Her response (this apparently being the one that lands her the job)? "Unfulfilled potential."
Indeed, Mae. Indeed.
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