my favorite critic, armond white, actually enjoyed this film (though generally he hates danny boyle): http://www.nypress.com/article-21819-spectacular-stunt.html

interesting that white refers to franco as “ubiquitous.” mcluhan makes the point that most famous people are famous because they resemble everybody and nobody at once. like budweiser, any particular features have been shaved off to make them a sort of general person (who then takes on special “outfits” to play characters in movies–like theron in monster).

also–thought this excerpt from white might be an interesting bounce off your essay: “the blatant use of pixels and the nearly artificial hard, bright color that digital resolution gives to nature and flesh which, in themselves, becomes a form of entertainment. Boyle doesn’t concentrate on the spiritual crisis of Ralston’s imprisonment as Bresson’s great A Man Escaped pondered the depth of an isolated man’s sense of time and mortality. Boyle lacks depth and so plays to his mettle: turning Ralston’s predicament into a spectacular stunt.”