Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror asks: if the drug of modern technology has us hooked, then surely there must be side effects? Side-effects, of course, that we are yet to find out. Tonight, his thought-provoking series returns with Be Right Back, an episode in which internet presence such as social media can be used to replicate the dead -- tragic in the hands of a grieving partner. Following on from that is political-satire, The Waldo Moment, and White Bear, which takes aim at camera phone voyeurism. Here, the man himself takes us through the looking glass. Wired.co.uk: Hello, Charlie. So, from watching Black Mirror in the past, you would assume that you were quite cynical about the future of technology, but is that true? Charlie Brooker: I like technology, but Black Mirror is more what the consequences are, and it doesn't tend to be about technology itself, it tends to be how we use or misuse it. We've not really thought through the consequences of it. You know, it may all be good, but we're not quite prepared for them I spend an inordinate amount of time going from one black rectangle to the next -- whether it's a smart phone … Continue reading →

The music tells us what kind of movie Side Effects is going to be. It coils beneath what seems like a realistic plot and whispers that something haunted and possessed is going on. Imagine music for sorcery and then dial it down to ominous foreboding. Without Thomas Newmans score, this would be a lesser film, even another film. We meet an edgy young woman named Emily (Rooney Mara). Her husband, Martin (Channing Tatum), has been released after four years in prison for insider trading. Dont weep for him. At a party he explains, Its the culture. They resume. They dine. They make eager love. Things dont go for her as smoothly as it seemed. She is referred to a psychiatrist named Banks (Jude Law). Shes been under care before, with a shrink named Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones), but Banks thinks she may get good results from a new drug named Ablixa. Also, a drug company has paid him $50,000 to study it during the licensing period. This Banks has issues. A Brit in Manhattan, hes divorced from a dubious woman (Vinessa Shaw). He immigrated to the U.S., he explains, because in the U.K. when you run into psychiatric treatment its … Continue reading →

The current state of our healthcare system, and especially the pervasiveness of prescription pills,have been the subject of great and compelling interest to news outlets over the last few years. But it's not exactly been the stuff of great multiplex excitement. We received more proof this weekend with the opening of Side Effects . The movie, which tells of a troubled woman (Rooney Mara) for whom things begin to go askew when she tries a new psychiatric medication, grossed a dismal $10 million in U.S. theaters despite the presence of popular stars (Channing Tatum plays Mara's husband) and stellar reviews. Yes, I know, iffy marketing campaigns and Steven Soderbergh and all that. (The director, as my colleague Amy Kaufman notes, isnt a consistent draw). And it's easy to wonder if the film might have done slightly better with a stronger title. (The movie was originally called "The Bitter Pill," an improvement, after a fashion.) But its hard not to feel as if the subject matter isnt also responsible, at least a little, for the poor showing of Side Effects. A couple years back, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway couldnt turn another pill-themed story, Love and Other Drugs, into rom-com gold. … Continue reading →