Pictureland

The trailer for Ghost Rider:  Spirit of Vengeance had scarcely ended, with it's briskly-edited visions of motorcycles and glowing skulls.  What seemed another trailer followed, a figure and then others bathed in, emerging from a black liquid, all of this occurring to the harsh strains of a razor blade cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."  With the writhing, stylized figures, overtones of S & M and blaring theme, it had the feel of a trailer for some sort of goth James Bond picture, no less so for the appearance of Daniel Craig's name among the credits.  But no, this was the start of David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The cover of the Zeppelin song, with vocals by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's  Karen O (who could pass for the eponymous character's slightly more conventional looking cousin) is the least subtle passage in a soundtrack and score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.  The presence of Reznor and Ross is logical, not only for the...

Hell hath no far-reaching fury like a computer geek scorned.   This the theme of David Fincher's The Social Network ,  if not necessarily that of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg's actual life.   The Social Network begins way, way back in 2003, with a restaurant conversation between Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his soon to be former girlfriend Erica (Rooney Albright).   The contentious tone  and Zuckerberg's anxiety are immediately apparent.  What's not so obvious are the particular words being spoken.   These kids today...who can understand 'em.... But, actually, this is no dreary, "And I was like...and she was like...and he was like" presentspeak.   These are/were some of our country's brightest young minds, after all.   Points are made in complete sentences, if not paragraphs.  Amidst all the verbal heavy traffic of the conversation, Mark makes Erica aware (or perhaps reminds her; one gets the...