Network

Terrifying, truly. It was this bad in 1976, before Slothrop was born-- have we any genuine sense about how bad it is now? It meaning our photographs of the postmodern barn; our lives; our human networks. The other kinds of networks, the technological evangelists will tell us, are utopian solutions. This movie demands we rethink that position. It's not that something like television is evil, intrinsically, it's how we use it that matters. And with a show like The Wire being outnumbered by voyeuristic cruelty, it shouldn't feel alarmist to say everything we do in life matters, and people watch a lot of television. Slothrop is now on his way to buy a new flower and play some tennis.

Koko: Quiz Show - Van Doren + Chinatown ("She's my sister! She's my daughter! She's my sister and my daughter!) = Network. Everything about this movie is great, except for last couple of minutes, which felt a little too Running Man to me. But this movie predates Running Man and Quiz Show--although the historical facts behind the quiz scandals do make even this prescient critique feel a bit dated and naively apocalyptic--turning it into both a harder sock to the tum and a more violent swirl in the brain. Fantastic acting all around, especially Faye Dunaway. Nobody's colder.