As I talked about in the beginning, online communication allows us to put up a public persona to hide our true state of mind. It’s an interesting dynamic that not only provides a helping of natural laughs, but also forms the basis for the film’s dramatic beats. Teel, on the other hand, is satisfied with his contemporary position and actively fights any attempts at changing. Madison doesn’t want to dwell in the past, instead embracing the uncertainty of the future. Their attitudes towards life are the basis for Face 2 Face’s plot. People physically adapt to whatever setting they’re in, and that remains the same with Teel and Madison: Teel conventionally wears dull-colored clothes that help him blend in the background while Madison dresses in bright garments that help her stand out and attract attention. The two occupy very different social lifestyles, and even without seeing that play out in the movie’s consequent scenes I could have gleamed this purely from the solid makeup and costume design done by Laura Salinas and Christy Barnes and Rebecca Carr respectively. Face 2 Face, which anyone can see on Netflix, follows high schooler Teel Johnson (Daniel Amerman) as he reconnects with his elementary friend Madison Daniels (Daniela Bobadilla). It was directed by Matthew Toronto from a script by him and his brother from a story the duo created with Toronto’s wife Jordan. This flick in particular is called Face 2 Face. Perhaps that’s a compliment to its craft: when a film can inspire discussions on this level, it has succeeded at penetrating the human consciousness.
Throw in the aforementioned issue of having not known the person you’re talking to for years and you see the dilemma I’m describing.įour paragraphs in and I have not once mentioned the movie I am reviewing. Even with Poe’s Law we’re at an inherent disadvantage. The computer had hands clasping the boy’s head with a caption that read something like “I can analyze what you’re typing, but I can’t read your mind.” I feel the same applies to our communications over the Internet. I recall seeing a hand-drawn meme featuring a computer and a boy. But some things are better left out in the open, especially if they’re causing a problem. Look we all have secrets: that’s just human nature. However, this in turn brings up the problem of secrecy. In a way online accounts bridge the gap between these two ideals: we can put on a false face to the outside world while still residing in our same routine. We get comfortable staying in one place and resist alternating our lifestyle. In our individualist western society, we often talk about how good change is: graduating classes, advancing in your communal circle, and moving forward in the socioeconomic ladder. Childhood friends even moreso courtesy of puberty, peer pressure, and social engineering. When one of the students asked the teacher why they were acting like they would never see each other again, the teacher responded that it would be near-impossible for them to get back in touch without modern-day technology.Īt the time she was only talking about texting and calling, but in today’s information age her statement has grown to include all social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Skype…these have allowed us to reconnect with people we may have lost touch with.īut is that necessarily a good thing? People change. One of these was the underrated Al Pacino film Revolution, which ends with Pacino and his son parting ways following the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War. In sophomore year of high school, I took a course called “history through film” which consisted of watching historical movies for the purposes of learning about the past.
Over a series of video chats, a teenage outcast reaches out to his childhood friend, but finds that behind the veneer of popularity and a seemingly perfect life, she hides a disturbing secret. Starring Daniela Bobadilla and Daniel Amerman.