By: Hayden Fitzsimons

In the conversation of the greatest films ever, The Social Network regularly crops up. David Fincher’s 2010 film has been seen as an incredibly perfect film with little to no mistakes within its creative elements. The screenplay, provided by world-renowned Aaron Sorkin, is often seen as the greatest screenplay, or at the very least one of the best to ever grace the earth. With a director such as Fincher, and a writer of Sorkin’s calibre, it seems as if the potential of the film was too good to be true, however, in my opinion, the expectations were sufficiently met.

While I personally don’t see The Social Network to be the best ever, it is without a doubt a masterpiece of some of the highest quality. Fincher is a personal favorite of mine, and his ability to get the best out of his actors once again is exhibited in The Social Network.

Fincher has also always been a director with a very specific visual style, and this style is seen once again in this film. The pairing of a visual director with Sorkin, who is a very dialogue-heavy writer, seems odd on paper, yet when it comes to its fruition the pairing worked wonders. Sorkin’s skills lie within his unparalleled ability to write realistic and attention-grabbing dialogue. So, it’s unsurprising that The Social Network has been praised mostly for it’s dialogue, which is of a quality rarely seen in film.

Comparing The Social Network to many of the other dialogue driven films I’ve seen, I find myself at a loss to fins other films which can rival the quality of Sorkin’s work in this film. The Social Network relies heavily on this supreme dialogue as it is the main selling point, however this isn’t to say the other elements of the film are lacking. It’s quite the opposite; every element of The Social Network rivals the quality of Sorkin’s writing.

The performances from Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garlfield, and Armie Hammer (who played two characters, often at the same time) amongst others are all incredible to the point where the viewer may likely forget the names behind the faces and be fully enveloped in their performances. The eclectic editing aids the equally dramatic story to a perfection, all thanks to Fincher’s understanding of camerawork and pacing.

To put it simply, if you haven’t yet seen The Social Network, you should, and you shouldn’t worry about having high expectations as they likely will be met.

By: Hayden Fitzsimons

The World Wars are a subject in film and media which has been done to death and beaten beyond recognition. However, within all of the schlock and reasonably good war movies, there is one particular film that stands above the rest. That film is the 1985 masterpiece, directed by Elem Klimov, ‘Come and See.’ Elem Klimov set out to depict war to the realest degree that he could, along with Belarusian cinematographer Aleksei Rodionov. Both experienced the Second World War firsthand, Rodionov in particular who fought against the Nazis whilst he was still a teen.

‘Come and See’ follows Florya, a young teen, as he excitedly joins the Russian revolution against the Nazis. Florya is left behind by the revolutionaries, and he is heartbroken. Florya returns to his village following an attack on the revolutionaries’ base with his newfound friend Glosha. When he returns to his village, Byelorussia, they find the village to be empty.

From this point forth, the film transforms from a somewhat tense and emotional romp to one of the darkest and realistic depictions of war to ever be made. The viewer accompanies Florya as he witnesses the pure evil of the Nazis, and their conspirators, against innocent men, women, and children.

Florya turns from a cheerful & optimistic child, who wants to do nothing more than fight for his people, to an aged and decrepit husk of his former self after watching all those around him die in extremely brutal fashion. Not only was what Florya saw some of the cruelest horrors one could see, they are all depictions of reality. All the events of massacre in the film were truly committed by the Nazi forces, and that is what makes the film absolutely destructive to one’s psyche.

However, the grueling and realistic story is not enough without the proper film elements to support it. Fortunately, ‘Come and See’ has masterful execution of every factor in film in spades. The cinematography, especially for being an 80s Russian movie, is top notch.

Head-on shots of characters are a repeated motif throughout the film. These shots have the characters often looking directly at the camera, and are an excellent way to dig into the viewer’s psyche as well as depict deep emotions without the need for dialogue.

The cinematography also includes views that are often behind the characters, as if they are constantly being stalked.

In addition to these, many of the shots are long, winding, tedious sequences that continually feed into the next shot after the next after the next. There are nearly no breaks, no moments of calm. It is a constant deluge of pain and suffering, with no end in sight.

The sound design is also incredible, rivaling that of many films which have come out decades later. This sound design accompanies incredibly with the long arduous shots at creating a film that feels intensely real and difficult to watch, yet still terribly hard to look away from.

‘Come and See’ is real. No, it doesn’t follow real characters or a real life story, however what happens in the film is still real. Innocent people were massacred in the millions by Nazi forces. Their methods of murder are real, and truly horrific. Everything presented in the film, the viewer knows to be true, even if it is just a fictional depiction.

Once all is said and done, there is still no resolution. No solace, no victory, no optimism, no release, nothing. ‘Come and See’ only lets the viewer feel pain, a pain they know to have been real.

I believe ‘Come and See’ is the best war movie to ever be made. This film should be seen by all, as it is one of the closest ways to see true evil without truly seeing it happen. However, the film is extremely brutal, intense, and realistic. It is not for the faint of heart, but it still is for everyone. ‘Come and See’ is a depiction of the true evil that lies within humanity. If we were to live in a world without pieces of art such as this film, we may then live in a world devoid of understanding, devoid of hope, and devoid of resistance to evil.

By: Teah Henry

Spoilers for ‘Supernatural’ below! 

On November 5th, the internet exploded. The election was happening, there were rumors Putin was resigning, and Destiel was confirmed canon. 

Destiel is the ship between the characters Dean and Castiel from the show ‘Supernatural’. Castiel was introduced as the angel that brought Dean out of Hell in season four. He was only supposed to be in a few episodes, but he quickly became a fan favorite and ended up sticking around until the show’s final fifteenth season. 

The reason the ship becoming canon is such a big deal is because ‘Supernatural’ has been notorious for queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is when a piece of media, usually T.V. shows, hint at their characters being LGBT+ without ever planning to make it explicitly clear whether they are or not. This is to attract queer audiences while also not upsetting more conservative fans.

Queerbaiting is not a good practice. It treats the LGBT+ community more as a spectacle than actual people who do exist, and it’s a pretty cruel trick to play on a community that rarely gets representation. 

‘Supernatural’ has been accused of queerbaiting due to their hinting at Dean being bisexual, and that him and Castiel have unresolved romantic feelings for each other. The hints are just enough so some viewers will pick up on it while others might not, and the fans that did pick up on it have been wanting ‘Supernatural’ to have their characters be openly queer so there’s more representation on screen. 

‘Supernatural’ has been losing fans throughout the years (mostly due to its long run and increasingly bad writing). A lot of previous fans had moved on by 2020, and gave up on the show making Dean bisexual or Destiel canon. Even Tumblr, which was known for being mostly used by fans of ‘Supernatural’, became less focused on the show and users moved on. 

However, on November 5th, the second to last episode of ‘Supernatural’ aired, and Castiel confessed to Dean that he loved him.

The internet went crazy.

Destiel was trending on Twitter, and Tumblr became full of Destiel posts. Many users joked that their dashboard was only posts about ‘Supernatural’.

Not only that, but after Castiel confessed, he was dragged to The Empty, deemed by fans as Mega Hell, which is where angels go when they die. Many people saw the homophobic implications of being sent to Hell after having a gay love confession. There was a small line in the finale that Castiel was dragged out of The Empty, and made it to Heaven, but we never see him again. 

Anyway, I don’t think we should praise this show for finally going through with their years of queerbaiting. The confession wasn’t even enough, many fans denied it was a love confession and claimed it was platonic.

Not only that, but Castiel doesn’t show up again for the last two episodes. Dean doesn’t even talk about him. He confesses his gay love, gets dragged to Hell, and then we never even hear Dean’s feelings on it. It’s not a victory for queer representation. 

Despite that, it was fun to be on the internet and witness all the reactions to Destiel becoming canon. I think ‘Supernatural’ has left a big footprint in internet history, and rests as a good example of what not to do with queer characters.