David Fincher's The Social Network is the stunning tale of a new breed of cultural insurgent: a punk genius who sparked a revolution and changed the face of human interaction for a generation, and perhaps forever. Review: The Social Network . With The Social Network, director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin turn some fairly dry, nerdy content about fairly dry, nerdy characters into one of the must- see films of the year, and they don't waste any time getting right to it. The film opens with what will go down as one of the great break- up scenes of all time, and from there Fincher rides Sorkin's hilariously addictive script like a wild bull at a rodeo. It moves fast like a manic internet surfer, and it never really lets you catch your breath. It's a film about connecting, except you won't really connect with anyone. After all, this is a generation that has more virtual friends than real- life friends. It's a generation that wants to make more money than its neighbor; to think with numbers rather than emotion. A generation that needs it all right now at their fingertips, and anything less just isn't good enough. They're spoiled and they're hard to sympathize with, but they're changing the world one megabyte at a time and it's kinda fun to watch. So is The Social Network. With a lot of help from Sorkin's (potentially Oscar- worthy) script, David Fincher has crafted his most humorous film since Fight Club. It's a lot more accessible and relatable than his 1. The Social Network - - with its built- in audience of 5. When we first meet Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), he's desparately trying not to fail. Zuckerberg isn't used to failing; in fact, when you take into consideration that he was offered a ridiculously lucrative job at Microsoft before he graduated high school and went to Harvard, one might argue that Zuckerberg never failed at anything. Except when it comes to communicating with the opposite sex, and preserving his relationship with Erica (Rooney Mara), who's had just about enough of Zuckerberg's absurd, emotionless attitude toward life. Before his brain can compute the tricky, relationship- related conversation he's found himself in with Erica at some random college bar surrounded by random college- aged faces, Zuckerberg has failed. He's finally met his match, and she never wants to see him again. Thus begins Mark Zuckerberg's mission to never fail at anything ever again. From this point, Fincher and Sorkin accelerate through the real- life events that led to the forming of Facebook, one of the largest social networks that currently exists online. Zuckerberg, bruised and battered after his break- up with Erica, gets drunk and creates a website called Facemash that allows students to vote on whether their female peers are hot or not. This, of course, lands him in hot water after the site explodes across campus, crashing Harvard's servers, but it only adds more fuel to Mark's fire. Heck, if Facemash could attract that many people in such a short amount of time, surely there was something more .. Eduardo figures that joining a Final Club will not only get him laid, but it'll also look great when he's applying for jobs after graduation. Eduardo may think Mark's dorm room website ideas are cute and clever time- wasters, but in the end he's expected to leave Harvard with a lucrative suit- and- tie job back in New York. Thing is, it's 2. Twin brothers (and fellow Harvard students/potential Olympic crew teammates) Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer, Josh Prince) come up with their own website idea and attempt to bring Mark into the fold to do all the programming. Mark, however, has other plans - - and with Eduardo by his side to help fund his new venture off money he made investing, Mark spins the Winklevoss' ideas into his own creation called The. Facebook. Yeah, this can't end well. The site takes off, spreading to the country's most elite college campuses faster than it takes the Winklevoss twins to realize that they've been had. Sprinkle on some dramatic lawsuits, wild partying, a list of people (including idea- hungry internet icon Sean Parker, played by Justin Timberlake) looking to break into The. Facebook on the ground floor, and the millions (if not billions) of dollars at stake, and you have the ingredients for a sensational true- life story. It's a story that made Ben Mezrich's feisty page- turner The Accidental Billionaires (which the film is based on) such a huge success, and though on paper it may feel like a story best left to a 6.
Minutes episode, Fincher and Sorkin spin it into something that's deliciously watchable from the first frames. There are sacrifices to be made here, however, and while the film's greatest strength is that it moves at a hip, brisk, pace, that's also its greatest weakness. The latest Tweets from The Social Network (@SocialNetwork). In theaters October 1. Jesse Eisenberg turns out a terrific performance as Zuckerberg - - chock- full of awkward lip- biting and short, robotic- like outbursts of imagination - - but we're never able to connect with him or root for him since, in the end, it's hard to tell whether Zuckerberg was a hero or a villain. Sure, he may have unintentionally (or intentionally, we'll never know) screwed over his friends in order to feed his internet baby, but Fincher clicks through story points so fast and aggressively that we never find the time to care about friendships being lost, or dreams being crushed. Fincher makes up for the lack of character development by getting creative with the way he unravels the story, bouncing back and forth through time - - from court proceedings to clubs to college dorm rooms, beginning one line of dialogue in the past and then continuing it in the present - - slicing his way through scenes with speed and precision like a master chef. Both Garfield and Timberlake toss in decent- enough performances (Timberlake's short, buzzed- about, coke- snorting scene will let down those looking for more nudity and, well, coke snorting), and first- time movie scorer Trent Reznor adds a familiar (to Nine Inch Nails fans, anyway) dark, moody, metallic score that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Though you'll never expect it from a film like this, perhaps the greatest kudos should be given to the post- production team who used some of the most convincing face- replacement technology we've ever seen on screen so that Armie Hammer could play both Winklevoss twins (though Josh Prince technically lends his body to Tyler Winklevoss). As with Facebook itself, you'll have fun observing The Social Network and all its moving parts, but it's very difficult to truly connect with - - or care much about - - its characters. Like that distant cousin three states over, or your old high school friends, you're interested in how their lives are playing out, but you follow them on Facebook so that you never actually have to interact with them .. The Social Network will define a generation for a generation that couldn't care less about its generation, but it's as entertaining as anything you'll watch all year. See it with your friends .. At its core, the film is much, much more than just the story of one website. It is both a micro and macro look at success, failure and the trappings of ego and greed. The film is ostensibly based on real people and real events. That said, many of the proceedings and characters were invented for the screen. In the coming weeks, there will be a flurry of discussion regarding just how accurate or inaccurate the film is with regard to Facebook's first year. Ultimately, these differences and inaccuracies are irrelevant. For better or for worse, the cinematic version of . From a cinematic perspective, The Social Network is no more or less effective based on its factual accuracy. This is a fictional narrative, not a documentary. The Beginning. Warning: The following review contains spoilers. The film opens with one of its strongest scenes, a five- minute interchange between a 1. Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend. Zuckerberg, brilliantly portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, speaks a mile a minute, quickly moving from one topic to the next, leaving his companion to exclaim, . Having had enough, she ends the relationship and tells him off. The dialogue in this scene is a joy for Aaron Sorkin fans, reminiscent of the best interactions and moments on The West Wing or Sports Night. This scene, one of the most significant additions that Sorkin made to the script . It also sets up the motive behind the project that would become the precursor to Facebook, Facemash. With Facemash, a Hot or Not for female students at Harvard (and a post- breakup lashing- out against womankind), Mark brings down the university network, gets in some trouble with the administration and makes himself an outcast on campus. It also brings him to attention of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, two good- looking, athletic and privileged twins. The Winklevosses (both played by Armie Hammer) and their friend, Divya Narendra, are looking to build a social dating site for Harvard men. They want Mark to work on the code. He readily agrees. The dating site spawns a much bigger idea in Mark's head . Partnering with his best friend and financier Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield, Mark builds The Facebook. What follows is an almost viral spread of user adoption and rapid growth and expansion. To those of us who joined Facebook in those early days (I believe I joined in January 2. One of the most interesting things about Facebook, a site that first built its allure and prestige based on its exclusivity (the need to have a *. Much like You. Tube, which launched about a year later, Facebook went from not existing to being everywhere, seemingly overnight. As Zuckerberg, Jesse Eisenberg is brilliant. I fully expect to see his name on the shortlist for Best Actor nominees when award season ramps up. He manages to make Zuckerberg sympathetic but not pathetic . The character could have easily been portrayed as a pathetic, socially inept genius. Eisenberg doesn't do that. He manages to play a three- dimensional character, even though the last five minutes of the film are the only times we ever see a mournful side. His speech patterns, his eye movements, the way that he walks and moves his body . Many of these shifts take place in a more present- day setting, where Zuckerberg, Saverin and the Winklevoss twins give depositions and testimony in some of the various lawsuits filed over the ownership and business dealings of Facebook. Much like Fincher's 2. Zodiac,The Social Network makes use of these court proceedings and depositions to build out the narrative. Structurally, this is an interesting device and one that is well- suited for this particular story. Fincher cuts quickly from scene to scene, various depositions overlapping, and testimony leads to flashbacks told from the perspective of the deposed. As a director, Fincher is known for using subtle colors and hues in his work . In The Social Network, he uses slight color variations for each character's perspective. It's subtle but it has an influence on the energy that takes place on the screen. The second and third act of the film primarily involve the massive ascent of Facebook and the parallel breakdown between best friends Mark and Eduardo. As Eduardo Saverin, Andrew Garfield is particularly good at gaining our sympathies. He's the most relatable character in the film, but that isn't to say he's the hero. On the contrary, while the film makes it easy to empathize with his position . Napster founder Sean Parker, portrayed by Justin Timberlake, was instrumental in making Facebook the money- maker that it is today. Timberlake, a truly gifted performer, has a more middling track record as an actor. Timberlake is very good in the film, but still, his character seems like little more than a plot device. His primary function is to act as the catalyst to get Zuckerberg to go out to Palo Alto in the summer of 2. This was the summer that Facebook really turned the page, and was on the brink of becoming huge. After that summer, Facebook was clearly on the path to runaway success. This is the story of the first year of Facebook. The momentum was building, but at the stage that the film ends, the site was still college- only, it didn't have apps and it hadn't toppled My. Space. In fact, this film ends where many others would start. Summation. The undisputed facts regarding Facebook are that by May 2. In six years, the site has gone from being something meant to bring the college experience online to something that is quickly altering multiple forms of media and gaining more and more users from every corner of the globe. Whether Facebook is the next Google or not, I'm not sure, but it has utterly encapsulated the zeitgeist of this era of computing and communications. Facebook's legacy and influence over the future is something that cannot be in disputed. Watching the film, I was often struck by two things: First, how quickly it all moved. It's almost jarring to think that the majority of the major events in the film took place over the course of 1. Second, I was once again reminded of just how young everyone involved in the early days of Facebook really was. I kept reflecting on these two points because I think they underscore the narrative. On its surface, this is a story about greed and ego and how money and fame change people. On the larger level, however, I think this is also a film about what happens when success literally happens overnight to individuals who haven't even completed the college experience. How does that not affect who you are? How does that not affect relationships and loyalties? There is a cost for great success and a cost for changing the world. Oftentimes, those costs are paid in relationships. That's true for widget salesmen, and it's true for founders of social networks. This underscores how adroit the tagline for the film really is.
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