RftP: Buried, The Social Network

Buried is a movie one has to choose their words carefully to review 'cause there's only two possible outcomes to this story and the wrong ones will give it away. A high concept film, Buried takes place entirely from the POV of Ryan Reynold's character Paul Conroy; an American truck driver working for a third party contractor to deliver supplies in Iraq. We will open the film with him awakening in a wood coffin buried in the ground; hence the title. This will be essentially the only location seen in this film and really where it deviates from the norm where we'd have active cuts between all the invested parties.

From that point on, the film proceeds to ratchet up the tension as Conroy - finding himself with a cell phone through which his captors communicate and he's able to reach out for help with - goes through all the emotions someone under high stress would be expected to go through as he negotiates, tries to get help, and does everything conceivable to get out of the situation he's now in while running up against threats, barriers, and the simple reality of where he is now. It's here that Reynolds reminds us he can be more than just the guy you bring in to deliver a punch line and he's exceptionally good in the role.

Buried's probably not a film for everyone but its definitely unique and well done.

The Social Network... Huh... well, I'll say this: you've gotta give credit for taking something like the creation of a website and actually making it interesting and entertaining. It helps that, by all accounts, the events were actually interesting to begin with but that's still quite an accomplishment on behalf of the writer, director, and cast. The movie details the story of the birth of the now ubiquitous social networking site Facebook and the chaos and backstabbing that went on behind the scenes as Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg who's finally moving beyond his "can't get Michael Cera" phase as an actor, takes "his" idea from creation to fledgeling mega-corp. Sharply written by Aaron Sorkin from events detailed in the novel "The Accidental Billionaires" and testimony from the multiple lawsuits that surrounded the firm's inception it's probably as close you're going to get to the "truth" without having been there.

The movie is very much worth seeing. I'm also amused that Brenda Song is the latest child star to grab the "crazy slut" role as a "graduation strategy" to "adult roles". Oh, you wacky Disney Kids...