SOCIAL DILEMMA (B+) - This sharp documentary about the dangers of social media and the growing specter of artificial intelligence brings together some smart people who have been at the forefront of developing the technology that has enslaved us over the past quarter century. Director Jeff Orlowski gathers an impressive roster of mostly former tech whizzes and executives from Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, Instagram and YouTube, as well as ethicists and investors, to issue this warning from the present about the sins of the past and the potential perils of the future.
Tristan Harris (ex-Google) is the star, the one who best articulates the serious nature of the algorithms that breed addictions among the billions of users on the planet. He talks in easily digestible Ted Talk modern aphorisms. Also on board is the incisive Jaron Lanier, a pioneer in virtual reality and a tech philosopher, who most keenly and urgently conveys the horrors of social media.
The tricky part here is the running dramatization that is threaded throughout the film, featuring a typical teen who represents the perfect target for those monetizing the internet. It features Skyler Gisondo ("Booksmart") as Ben, the zombie teen, and -- believe it or not -- Vincent Kartheiser (Pete from TV's "Mad Men") in a triple role (standing side by side by side) as the embodiment of the AI algorithms, seen manipulating clueless Ben. The dramatizations can be effective at helping us visualize the tricks used by AI to make us think we are acting independently rather than falling for computer gimmicks; but they can also be cloying and annoying.
But the message is compelling here, and the point is taken.
THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY (B+) - Petra Costa, the daughter of left-wing activists, lines out the past 20 years of Brazil's politics, chronicling the rise and fall of the workers party in the nation's vulnerable democracy. It is an intimate story for Costa, and her bias is obvious in this polemic, for better and for worse.
This plays like a liberal memoir, as Costa has personal (even familial) connections to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who served from 2003-11, and his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, who did not make it through her second term, having been impeached and convicted in August 2016 -- both victims of a zealous prosecuting judge (literally investigator, judge and jury) who linked them tenuously to corruption in the oil industry.
What resonates throughout the Americas, especially in the United States, was how the Mitch-McConnell-like head of Brazil's upper chamber orchestrated what looked like a coup and opened the door to Jair Bolsonaro, the former military dunce who waltzed into office on Donald Trump's coattails in 2018. That gradual evolution toward a growing wave of angry right-wing populism comes off as ominous and eerie, especially when wrapped in Costa's luxurious, melancholy visuals.
Costa creates lovely, spectacular images, and she has incredible insider access to Lula and Rousseff. Not knowing much about Brazilian politics, I assume that there's a whole nother side to this story; though, to Costa's credit, she does not shy away from the missteps of the left -- for example, she notes that Rousseff skulked out of office with a 9 percent approval rating.
"Edge" shares a strong kinship with "The Other Side of Everything," the tone poem about life after the breakup of Yugoslavia. But whereas "Other Side" was unapologetically personal, Costa's piece seems more eager to be taken seriously as a definitive documentary on the subject -- when we know that a more dispassionate observer would tell a more balanced story.
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