'Shattered Glass' is a hit!

One of the films that I have recently viewed has become the best suspense and dialogue- driven film I have ever seen is “Shattered Glass.” “Shattered Glass” is a story of a young journalist, Stephen Glass, played by Hayden Christianson. Glass is a reporter at a ‘The New Republic.’ He is basically the ‘nice guy’ in the office-always apologizing to someone for doing almost nothing wrong, and plays himself off as a very humble guy. However, in actuality he a deceitful reporter who does not question or feel remorse for misleading his co-workers and the people who read ‘The New Republic.’ His honesty is questioned by his boss regarding a mini-bar in a hotel room he described his subjects as using (the hotel did not have mini bars in the hotel room). Stephen was safe on that one because he proved you could rent the mini bars at the hotel desk. However, his new story that was the focus of the movie was called “Hack Heaven.” It dealt with a hacker’s convention and featured a few stories in the paper. The problem is, there was no convention, and even the restaurant he had said he had ate at that day was closed during his alleged dinner. Everything was fabricated.

In the beginning of the film, Stephen is at a convention and his voiceover citied reporters who show off in order to get ahead. He is then shown at his old high school giving advice on how to be a successful journalist to a journalism class. He was an incredible contradiction. He made up stories he knew would get him attention and jealousy in the newsroom he worked at. He had a way of making everyone like him and not question him too often about the factualness of his stories. In the end, it was revealed that the entire classroom scene was in Glass’ imagination. We all know someone like Stephen Glass, which is what makes this story so enjoyable—you want to trust him because he seems nice, but you just know you cannot!

This makes for a great independent film! It was not an inexpensively made low-budget film at $6,000,000. It was fantastic quality. Although I could see the mainstream not being interested in a documentary-type movie in which a magazine journalist’s vice is serial fraud, I think they should be! This story is based off true events (so it was definitely realistic), and this film definitely made it eerie and dishonest enough to believe this journalistic deception did, and could happen very easily once again. The more Glass lied in the movie, the less people questioned his integrity! The script was also very humorous, and not just intensive.

It was a thrilling movie to watch, and SO educational. Perhaps I was interested in this because one of my majors is Journalism, but this is something everyone should see—if not for enjoyment, to actually think more critically when you read something from a magazine or newspaper!

The lighting was fantastic, and looked above ambient lighting so an adequate amount of lighting was brought it. It surprises me it cost this much to make. The locations only involved a classroom scene, a bedroom, a restaurant, an office, and a party-room. Most scenes took place in a very mundane setting. There was more dialogue to this movie, but well worth it once you add in the suspense factor. Not to mention the outstanding acting by a well known-actor, Hayden Christianson.