Review: The Social Network

Overture Films

"The Social Network" is a big movie. It's garnering four-star and 10/10 reviews from all across the board. Some call it the "film of the century" or the "Citizen Kane of our time". They're all wildly positive and even going as far as to say it "defines our generation". Now I try to steer away from sweeping opinions like "best of the century" when talking about any movie. In fact, I believe it's hard to give the majority of movies a place in the 'best of all time' scale based on your opinion only. Personal opinion only goes so far and there are many situations where one is simply wrong about a movie when you can't come up with sufficient reasons as to why it's bad or good or if the rest of the world generally disagrees with you. 

So although I will not make a single, colossal statement, I will make a comparison. I have to say that "The Social Network" is the "Inception" of the drama genre so far this year. Every major feature of this movie is practically flawless. David Fincher ("Fight Club", "Seven") is a master director and sees to it that everything flows seamlessly together. The editing is quick and expertly paced and doesn't let up for one moment with the plot. It's quite possible for a movie like this to linger and try to draw the most from certain situations and/or characters. Here, each scene serves it's part and then we move on. Coupled with the cinematography and surprisingly good, electronic-ish soundtrack, the pacing and layout of the film is astounding.

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But from the very beginning it's clear that screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is a genius when it comes to dialogue. I had to focus nearly just as hard on what the characters were saying as I had to on the skill of dream invasion in "Inception". Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) tends to talk extremely fast and about complicated computer technology and code writing and most of the characters are really smart Harvard students who definitely know how to talk. You know the script is good when you have to listen to every word instead of relying too heavily on the action.

Even with Sorkin's brilliant script, it wouldn't be the same without the amazing acting talent shown here. Although Eisenberg has tended to annoy me in most of movies, he really shows some breadth here. Elements of his twitchy nerd personality usually seen on screen are still noticeable, but it's obvious there's a real person here with more to him than just a bunch of snappy lines. Andrew Garfield, who plays Zuckerberg's best friend and later enemy, Eduardo Saverin, is one of the next big actors, in my opinion. He's fantastic with emotionally intense situations and can do way more than the good-looking young guy that most actors his age are resigned to. And, surprisingly enough, Justin Timberlake, who plays Sean Parker, a shifty but suave "entrepreneur", is quite good. I have a lot of respect for him to be able to go from a very successful music career to a pretty successful film career as well. Many singers are trying to do this these days but I'm convinced he's the one who has done it the best.

Overture Films

Besides the technical points of the film, one has to consider the impact. What does this mean for Facebook and social networking as a whole? I don't think it really means much. At least, it won't change things, and I hardly expect anyone really thought it would. I think it's more of a commentary on what most of our generation is going to have to confront eventually: success. How're are we going to be "successful"? This word has different connotations for everyone and surely not everyone just wants to be rich. But even without lots of money in the picture, we still have a vision of what "success" would mean for us. 

Zuckerberg's definition, as portrayed in the film, seems to be attention. It's established from the very beginning that he begins his experiments with online networking as a way to win the approval and attention of the prestigious clubs in Harvard as a way to gain access. But when he stumbles upon the idea for Facebook, he realizes it's potential for campus-wide success, and eventually it spreads to multiple college campuses, and you can guess where it goes from there. And curiously enough, Zuckerberg doesn't care about the money. In fact, he's generally opposed to advertising on the site claiming that it'll lessen it's "cool" factor. 

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He neglects relationships and life in general to make a name for Facebook and in turn, himself. It's almost as if he doesn't want people to like him personally, just what he's done. It brings to mind a lot of celebrities who are generally jerks but you still can't help but admire some of their work. It begs the question, how far are we willing to go to simplly make our name known? Just like the incredibly drunk kid at the party who everyone makes fun of and draws all over him/her with sharpie and other embarrassing, silly things. But you know that everyone will be talking about him/her the next day and him/her will be proud of it no matter what a fool he/she made of themselves.

I guess in this respect, the critics who claim "The Social Network" 'defines our generation' are somewhat correct. But is it really just 'our' generation? I don't think this has anything to do with Facebook or social networking or all the other new things 'our' generation indulges in. It's just that the playing field has changed and Mark Zuckerberg, currently the youngest billionaire in the world, managed to dominate that field with his name and creation before someone else did. As most everyone knows, no one cares about how many friends you have on Facebook anymore, it's now about how interesting/funny/clever/smart you can seem and trying to standout among the 500 million users now online. All things considered, "The Social Network" is an amazing piece of cinematic achievement that will certainly garner much attention from the Academy in January and will spark conversations concerning Zuckerberg's interesting tendencies all across the map.