The Social Network (2010) ***1/2

The Social Network is a very entertaining movie.  The inventor of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was an interesting young man.  Very, very smart.  I don’t think you have to be a genius to come up with an idea like Facebook.  I mean, there was already My Space.  I don’t have a My Space page, but I’ve seen it and I can imagine how someone would see it and want to tweak it to make it better in some ways.  Mark took the idea of a social network website, similar to what Facebook is today, from a couple fellow Harvard students who wanted to hire him to write the code.   Then, they sued him.  I think it was rather ballsy of them to sue him, when he did all the work.   Whatever… they got a lot of money by doing so… and it was a drop in the bucket for Mark. 

I think what I enjoyed about the movie more than the story itself was the performance and the character played by Jesse Eisenberg.  I’ve never seen an interview with the real Mark Zuckerberg, but Jesse’s portrayal of him showed him as one unique individual (that’s a little redundant, but it’s exactly what I wanted to say).  I don’t know anyone with Asperger’s Syndrome, but I’ve seen movie and TV characters with it and the character of Mark was a lot like that.  He rarely smiled.  He frequently talked down to others… even his girlfriend, who dumped him in the first scene which was why this whole thing started.  Jesse is a great actor.  I’ve seen him in  two other movies this year, Zombieland and Adventureland.  Those characters were a lot different than this one, but a lot like each other.  Even though Mark doesn’t seem like a very likeable person (kind of a prick, actually), I found myself liking him.

I want to see more from Jesse Eisenberg.  I also would like to thank Mark Zuckerberg.  I love Facebook!

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) **1/2

I love a good revenge movie.  That was the basic idea of this movie, for the most part.  That and a comeback for Gordan Gekko.  Other than that, all the stocks and strategy is way over my head.  Anyone who understands all that stuff AND likes a good revenge movie should enjoy this. 

I like Shia Lebeouf and Carey Mulligan.  I’ve mostly been on the fence about Michael Douglas throughout his career.  I think he’s a very good actor and has been in some terrific movies, but there’s something about him that makes me not love him the way I love some other great actors.  He was good in this movie and I’m really glad I saw it.   Sadly, it could be his last.  Being diagnosed with Stage 4 throat cancer, it seems unlikely he’ll be doing another movie for a while.  If he survives… and I don’t know much about survival rates for Stage 4, but I hear probability is slim… any treatment he has to go through would probably require him to lose his voice.  Even if he doesn’t lose it, he’d be foolish to use it more than necessary.  I hope he lives many many years and beats the cancer.  Regardless, I pray he has very little pain.  Cancer fucking sucks.

Sorry I digressed, but now I don’t feel like writing anymore of this review.  Go see the movie… it’s worth it.

It Will Grow Back

It will grow back.  It will grow back. It will grow back.  Ever had a bad haircut?  I got one yesterday.  I don’t like getting my hair cut anyway.  I usually just go get my grey roots covered and she gives me a little trim to clean up the ends and help me see below my bangs.  My hair has been long most of my life.  I got it cut short four times that I can think of.  Second grade… hated it; grew it back out.  Forth grade… hated it; grew it back out. Tenth grade… hated it; grew it back out.  After the birth of my second child… eventually hated it; grew it back out.  That was only about seven years ago.  Since then, I said I wouldn’t get it cut short ever again.  I didn’t get it cut short yesterday… well, not all of it.  I know now (even yesterday) that I don’t like it short no matter who says, “Oh your hair would look cute short.”   My problem with my hair recently was not that it was too long.  I have very thick hair and to have it long, it has to have some layers to it or it is too full at the bottom and I look like a big triangle head.  Somehow after my pregnancies, my hair changed from wavy to quite curly…mostly.  The top layer of my hair (the part that grows from the highest point on my head) stayed pretty straight while the rest underneath is very curly at the ends.  My hair dresser, also one of my closest friends, suggested cutting that layer.  In order to do that, she had to blend the rest and made my entire head of hair layered all the way down.  I still have long hair, but now that layer that wouldn’t curl… does.  Sounds good, right?  Wrong.  My hair looks horrible.  It has a mind of its own.  She said before she did it, “You’ll look ten years younger.”  I look at LEAST ten years older.  She said, “You’ll look thinner.” I do NOT look any thinner.  I look like a redneck who cut their own hair without a mirror!  I have tried to style it to no avail.  I put it in a ponytail and you can hardly tell I got it cut… except some pieces are too short to stay in the ponytail so now I have to go out and buy barrettes.  I’m pissed off, depressed, embarrassed, and I don’t know how to face my friend because I’m all of those things and I want to blame her.   I can’t help thinking she did this TO me.  I’m sure she didn’t but I’m so upset that’s the first conclusion I’ve come to.  I know it will eventually get better.  It will take a while though, because now if I want to style it, I will need a hair dryer and curling iron, mousse and hairspray and those things cause damage so it will have to be trimmed more often before it grows out.  Until now, I didn’t blow it dry, use a curling iron, mousse or hairspray (once in a while hairspray if my bangs got too long).  It’s going to take an hour in the bathroom if I don’t want to wear a ponytail.  Before, I could wash it, walk out the door, it would dry in the car on the way, and I could brush it when I arrived and ta-da… looked fine. 

I’ll be OK.  I just need to cry some more… and maybe kick my friend in the shin.

It will grow back.  It will grow back.  It will grow back…