Antitrust is the first film that I've seen that deals with tech culture that doesn't dumb down, overcomplicate and leave great huge whopping holes in the plot. It's about a programmer who gets headhunted for a top position in order to help a powerful software company finish a revolutionary product during crunch time. What he doesn't know however, is that they are monitoring unestablished talented programmers, murdering them, and stealing their code to integrate into their all-important product. It's taking the opensource vs Microsoft conflict, and pushing it one step forward into a high tech thriller where hackers are so distanced from real life that they will abandon their morals for money and murder for code.
It's a little dated - the opening sequence shows HTML mixing in with credits - but it has all the right dialogue and references. From a culture point of view, when it comes to the issue of freedom of information, the majority of people have only really been embracing the ideals fairly recently - with sites like Banned Music, Creative Commons and Sourceforge popping up more and more in casual discussion. Remix culture is hitting highs right now, and nearly everyone that uses the internet downloads music (legally, of course).
It's also pretty cool to see actors like Ryan Phillipe (who is dressed down, and distinctly non-glamourous, much like all of the characters in the movie - even the pseudo-Bill Gates character looks shit in a suit) and Rachael Leigh Cook to appear in something that accurately reflects the bare bones of geek culture. It's complex and intelligent where it needs to be, with an added touch of nightmare paranoia. The knowledge that the characters demonstrate is finite and believable.
Overall, I really enjoyed this film.
1 week ago
