This movie is nothing if not worthy of a watch thanks to strong direction, dazzling performances, and a smart script.

Rating: 10/10 (10 October 2010)

The brilliant, brilliant new film The Social Network (based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich) shows that sometimes it's best to resist temptation with all your might. It's an experience I won't soon forget, and one I hope to take again in the near future.
The film stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, the man who started it all, and as a result became the world's youngest billionaire. After a messy breakup with his girlfriend, Erica Albright (Played with effective comedic, and emotional timing by Rooney "Scene-Stealer" Mara), he goes on an all out blogging marathon, even launching a small site that within only a couple of hours, receives over 20'000 hits, and crashes the Harvard system. He is asked by the Winklevoss twins (Played by Armie Hammer and... Armie Hammer) to help create a new "friending" site for Harvard, but instead takes the idea, and "Perfects" it. Thus, Facebook is born. But as his list of friends grows, he slowly loses his only true friend, Eduardo Saverin (Played by Andrew Garfield). On top of nasty temptation from rather paranoid Napster founder, Sean Parker (Played by the surprisingly capable Justin Timberlake), he faces nasty lawsuits from not only the Winklevoss twins, but from his best friend as well.
Who knew that director David Fincher could extract such strong, and solid performances from a cast that could have missed the target with improper direction, like Eisenberg, Garfield, Timberlake, Hammer, Rooney Mara, Rashida Jones, and Brenda Song (whose screen time is relatively short, but one scene of hers is simply unforgettable)? Eisenberg gives a subtle, and authentic performance as Zuckerberg, making the character his own instead of an imitation. Making him intelligent, humorous, but not always likable, sometimes even dreadful. It will go down as one of the best performances of the year. But no one is quite as strong as the standout of the cast, Garfield. No actor can match his line delivery, no actor can out best his emotional display. I'll be quite disappointed if he doesn't get some major awards recognition.
David Fincher's direction is subtle, but strong and effective. It doesn't contain the same auteurial feel he's well known for, but it's still the best film he's directed. The tech crew he surrounds himself with is also great. Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall's editing and pacing is fantastic (It does feel slow at times, specifically in the second act, but I literally could have watched it all day), Jeff Cronenworth's cinematography adds to the movie's feel greatly, and the techno score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is a perfect match for the film.
But the movie REALLY belongs to screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, who has officially become a candidate for the Shakespeare of this modern age. I imagine fans of his will be more than just delighted by his script's drama, intelligent dialogue, hilarious moments of satire, strong emotional punches, and thought provoking questions it raises towards the state of mankind as a networking community, and the violent freedom of insulting someone on the internet (For all to see), from the safety of your own home. And they'll probably know better than anyone else how quickly they'll need to keep up. In a lot of scenes, characters use line delivery so rapid in succession, it would make a 1940's film noir look like a Terrence Malick film.
Still, such a thing is needed to establish the tone of the film, which is nailed right on the head, and delivers what is simply the year's finest film. If Sorkin wins a screen writing Academy Award, I'll be completely unshocked.
With an as of now completely obvious, and enthusiastic final rating of **** out of ****, I have nothing left to say except, "Go see The Social Network... NOW!"