Movie Review

Nerve (2016) and The Circle (2017)

This review came out when i was really really bored so please dont mind the language and if my theory is wrong, again its just my opinion, everything is for fun only

So not long ago I watch two movies that actually have nothing very special judging by the story line but, yet these films gave me a “wake up” call that made me realize what kind of world we are and are about to live in.

Warning, some spoiler may be on the way.

1. The literal meaning of globalisation : connection

Today, we live in a global world where distance is no longer a limitation. Everybody has at least one social media account that connects the person with literally everybody at everyplace and every time.

In this kind of world, everything is connected. We can see how is the life of our friends, our teachers, our parents, celebrities, politician, everyone. This point is strongly visualized by The Circle. By a doughnut-like 1 inch device, everybody can see and keep up to the life of Mae Holland. They can see her when she wakes up, breakfast, going to work, go home, and sleep again. Every body can she who she befriends to, who is her boss, who is her parents.

2. Everyone is an open book

In the world that has everything digitalized, privacy has become a luxury. We can have information about one person starting from general stuff such as name, address, where did they go to school, favourite place, food and film, their hobbies, their exes or spouses, to their most private information such as bank account, their billion dollars transaction, just if we look at the right place. Every person is now an open book to everyone. And the disturbing fact is that we cannot dodge to this reality. We have to become part of this world, or we will be the one who live in stone age. We get our school report online. We pay our bills online. We enrol to university online. We talk to people by using online application. When we put our money in a bank, our registration will be saved in the bank’s server. When we register for our ID card, our data is saved on the state server. When we go abroad, immigration scan our passport barcode, which basically will transfer our information to the custom. It only needs one fad hacker that get bored and start messing around with the wrong server, and there we go, he can erase everything that has something to do with us and make us like never even exist in this world (try to watch net 2.0), he can change our bank account from one million dollar to one dollar just in a snap of a finger. Or he can expose a CEO affair tape to the public, or he can intercept the military line and send false nuclear clearance from USA to Russia.

In a world where everything is digitalized, we have nothing to hide but we can’t hang ourselves back. We are vulnerable.

3. Demoralization

The internet is a double-edge sword. Use it right, and you grow yourself to the fullest potential you have. And you’re gonna be rich, successful, and you’ll live your happy live in the smart way. Use it wrong, then it will lead you to your own self-destruction. Same as social media. People fight to have more and more follower everyday that some start to do even dumb life-threatening stunt. All for a mere dollar.

The main reason to what leads those who do dumb shit is because they think irrationally and so they can distinguish the limit. They are too blinded that they are willing to do anything they are asked for as long as it could give them more follower or subscriber.

The netizen in the other hands, has also lose sense of “human”. They love those dumb stunt and they demands more, without ever thinking the safety. And when the stunt fails (some times costing lives), they put the blame to the doer, not knowing, that the netizen is actually the one that drives the social media celebrity to do shits.

In “The Circle” palign jelas kelaiatan giamna kalau netizen udah nggak ada lagi mikir gimana perasaan orang lain, yang penting dia tau itu asik, Im gonna be the part of a big social media catch. Gak ada yang dengar si Mae supaya jangan gangguin Mercer. Nggak ada juga orang yang perhatiin kalau si Mercer itu nggak mau diganggu. Mereka Taunya Cuma kejar kejar terus sampe dapat, sampai netizen nya puas. Kalau seandainya si Mercer jadi ketangkep, trus mau diapain? Dihujat2 lagi karna pekerjaannya? Dan akhirnya semua yang tadinya mereka anggep bakalan asik atau seru, yang penting gua bisa dapet berita gua bakal terkenal, endingnya dibayar dengan harga yagn mahal. Mobil mercer jatoh kejurang buat menghindar dari “paparazzi” dadakan itu.

4. Anonymity equals safety, or is it?

Today, one person can have two (or even more) accounts for one social medial, take example Instagram. And, we can use the second account as fake account, with fake name and fake id. This gives anonymity to the user. And this anonymity makes them “feel” safe. At least its what they think.

With the anonymity the social media became even more vicious world. Everybody can say anything about everything just as they want. Hate speech, black campaign, cyber bullying. They now forget, how to be human, and how to humanize other. And they only came out just because its anonym. In nerve, all watchers are all in one hand to snitch Vee because she is about to turn NERVE to the police. They want to give her a lesson. They think they can do anything. All of them seem to controlVee but they are all put mask on them. At the end of NERVE, when the watchers are about to pick whether Vee have to shoot Ian or not, they chose “yes” easily. They wanna see some stunts. They wanna see Vee really kill Ian. “ Selo lah yang penting bukan gua ini, biar seru dikit”. But when Tommy hacks the NERVE server and reveal all the true identity and claims that they have been an accomplish of murder, they are all cowardly sign off, they go to bed, some turn the laptop of to and go home, some continue to watch the football game, as if they never really related to a game called NERVE. The people in the rank run, as if they want to believe that they have nothing to do with the game.

Anonymity gives people freedom. But it more likely to inhumanize people. (Ups, strong words)

5. Family looses its meaning

Sydney comes from a broken home. Her dads never home, her moms always out. But she neds attention. So she search that attention at another place. Nerve. At nerve she feels loved by her fans. Plus, she gets money from the game. She enjoys the dare she is given, therefore she runs all the way to the top 10. But little do her friends know, that she actually is in pain. She feels alone.

Without trying to generalize anything, but like it or not broken home is one of a major factor of a kid behaviour (it gets more crucial when the child is at teen age where all hormones come out and they are at the stage where they are curious about everything and starts to explore who they want to be, and instead of having two persons to guide them through all the curiosity and self-finding, they get a hell-like home)

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