6 Great Movies About the Internet

by Kevin Gardner

For most Americans, the internet has become as much a part of daily life as electricity or running water. Over the years, the internet has become the subject of several high-profile movies. These are some of the best.

1. The Social Network

This film, about the controversial beginning of the social media giant Facebook, was a critical and commercial success. It features a stellar performance by Jesse Eisenberg, as Mark Zuckerberg. It follows Zukerberg from his days as a brilliant but socially inept Harvard student. Much of the tale is told in flashbacks, related to a legal entanglement brought about by Zuckerberg's fellow students and former business partners accusing him of stealing their ideas and cutting them out of the business. Through these flashbacks, we follow Facebook from its origins as a site for ranking the hotness of female students born out of Zuckerberg's desire to get revenge on a girl who rejected him to a multi-billion dollar industry. The film keeps technical jargon, such as zero trust, to a minimum while finding a way to make a story about anti-social geeks and Harvard elites relatable to the audience. 

2. Disconnect

This film takes a critical look at how being constantly connected to the internet can lead to conflicts. It follows three separate, but interconnecting storylines. The moral of the story is that people need to disconnect once in a while to get back to the face-to-face human interaction that they need.

3. Hard Candy

Hard Candy takes on the difficult topic of the internet's role in sexual abuse. The movie stars Elliot Page as a vigilante seeking revenge against a person she thinks is a sexual predator. The movie is as disturbing and powerful as its difficult subject matter.

4. Personal Shopper

This genre-defying ghost story stars Kristen Stewart as Maureen. Maureen is riding on a train to London to pick up some garments for her client when she starts receiving some odd messages from an unknown number. Maureen, who is a medium who recently lost her brother, thinks the messages may be from her dead brother. The mystery messages become increasingly stalker-like. The movie revolves around Maureen's attempts to discover the identity of the messenger, while also indulging in the messenger's instructions to give in to her fantasies, such as trying on her boss's clothes.

Things get real when the messenger leads Maureen to a hotel room where she finds her boss's nude body on the bathroom floor. Maureen begins to ignore the messenger. There are several scenes in the movie that imply an invisible entity is responsible for the messages, but the film ultimately never reveals any answers.

5. Eighth Grade

This film follows the story of Kayla Day, who is in the final week of eighth grade. We see Kayla struggle with some of the common insecurities that come with being a young person trying to navigate the digital landscape. She records YouTube videos that she's not sure anyone watches and obsesses about how to respond to a DM from a popular classmate. She incessantly filters and poses all of her Snapchats. As is true for many socially awkward people, the internet provides Kayla with both a source of stress and an escape. 

6. Catfish

This film is a documentary that follows the lives of a young photographer, Nev Schulman, and his brother Ariel. Nev becomes Facebook friends with an eight-year-old child artist named Abby Pierce. His friendship eventually extends to Abby's family, including her older half-sister Megan. Nev and Megan begin an online relationship. Megan sends Nev MP3s of song covers she claims she recorded for him, but he discovers that they are stolen from YouTube videos. He also learns that he has been lied to about Abby's art career. Nev confronts Abby's mother Angela in person and she confesses that it was Angela he has been interacting with all along.

These are just a few of the films that capture the unique and sometimes problematic culture that has grown up around the internet. As the internet continues to change how people interact with each other, more films are sure to follow.