The Circle

You do understand that you have protection under Amendment Four in The Bill of Rights from home invasion, where an outside party can use surveillance for accusatory purposes? It’s the right of American citizens to be secure in their person, HOUSES, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, yet nowadays we gleefully purchase the equipment necessary for our own surveillance (Siri/Echo). Director James Ponsoldt’s film from the novel by Dave Eggers, is a satire of sorts of Generation Text. With their half-baked “progressive” leanings and an innate yearning to be part of  something bigger than themselves, these twenty-somethings are ripe for cult coercion and their ultimate loss of identity. Anxious to free herself from a perceived meaningless existence, Mae (Emma Watson) jumps at the offer from longtime family friend Annie (Karen Gillian) to join the largest civilian high tech firm in the world handling customer issues. Led by motivational speaker and entrepreneurial CEO Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks), it doesn’t take long before she realizes how every aspect of her life has been put under surveillance all in the name of bettering her station in life. But once she posts pictures of her friend Mercer’s artwork of chandeliers made from deer antlers, the reaction is swift condemning him as unsavory and malodorous! It’s as though Facebook was an extension of The World Court! The question in this film becomes “Who Watches The Watchmen?” or as I always ask, “Who gets to determine what is acceptable behavior and what is not, what is OK to hate and what constitutes a hate crime?” Your rights END where mine begin!! Another one of those time capsule movies that offer insights into just how fucked up the millennial years have become!