It seems like an age since I’ve reviewed a documentary here at The Quayside Review. A quick fact check shows it was actually 64 movies – and almost 4 months to the day – ago since a documentary starred here. Time to change that!
The Social Dilemma premiered on Netflix this year, providing us with some much needed new content during the Coronavirus crisis. The documentary focuses on the social media climate we live in today, and the perils that we are faced with when it comes to the overwhelming popularity and addictive nature of it. Constructed using interviews with ex-media employees and founders from companies such as Google and Facebook, we get a first-hand look and first-hand opinion of how dangerous their once innocent creations have spiralled out of control.
Okay, so there’s not much within this that you won’t already know unless you’re completely oblivious to technology, but it is a concise, interesting documentary with a flair for keeping an audience’s attention. Which is extremely ironic, actually. (I won’t go into that here, but you’ll see what I mean if you give it a watch.)
Held together by some fictional re-enactments, the film does a really good job at proving some of the real-life points that are being hammered home here. Although the cut scenes are a little corny and by no means Oscar-worthy, each one of them is entirely relevant and does something to help the viewer understand how social media can affect real people in real situations.
As before mentioned, there’s definitely some questionable acting in this (we’re looking at you, Vincent Kartheiser), but again, the visualisation mostly aids the content of the documentary and keeps it from being another one of those “white men talking at you” films. Really interesting on the whole, even if there’s nothing that hasn’t been said before here.
It could be said that the best documentaries are either the ones that make you either feel something or make you think. This one is definitely the latter. Perhaps the most powerful aspect of it is that they speak to real ex-employees of such mega-companies, who themselves are condemning and warning people of the dangers of social media giants. That’s right, it’s not just any old sod saying it. In some cases, the founders of such conglomerates are sending out the danger signal. Powerful stuff.
On a personal note, I’ve known for a while now that Facebook is evil, and this just confirms it. It’s kind of petrifying that all of this is happening as we speak. Not my favourite documentary this year, but it’s still pretty good, I must admit.
The Social Dilemma is available to stream on Netlflix in the UK.
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