News Feed: The Social Network—Like

Rating: 9/10 (1 October 2010)

See it Now! My Critical Perspective: A- My Personal Perspective: B+
Is the film a one hundred percent factual history about the creation of Facebook? No it isn't, but that's not the point. The film is based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" written about how Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook and the controversies surrounding its creation. The basic plot of the film is about the proceedings that took place when Mark Zuckerberg was sued on two different fronts; by his best friend and co-founder, Eduardo Saverin and by the Winklevoss twins who thought he stole the Facebook idea from them. The story is told through a number of flashbacks revealing Mark Zuckerberg's programming background and how came up with the idea and developed over time what we all know as Facebook.
The Good: David Fincher is an amazing director and has not directed a bad movie yet. "The Social Network" is very different from his other ventures that include both Fight Club and Zodiac. However, the progression of his directing career is very visible in "The Social Network" which is by far his best directed film. Fincher always films his movies with a certain contrast of light and shadows in order to create the atmosphere that he wants his audience to feel. He does this once again in "The Social Network" by filming it in a shadowy light, which slowly lightens up by the end.
All of the actors in the film do an excellent job as well especially Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland, Adventureland), Andrew Garfield (the new Spiderman), Armie Hammer and Justin Timberlake. Eisenberg has grown a lot throughout his different roles and has his best performance in this film with his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg that may even lead him towards an Oscar nomination this year. He creates an egotistical asshole persona with perfection and articulates his sentences so well he can insult someone without them even knowing what hit them. Andrew Garfield shows the audience through his character Eduardo Saverin (Mark's best friend) that he is a worthy Hollywood actor and may surprise us in the Spiderman reboot. Armie Hammer plays the Winklevoss twins who are shot extremely well by Fincher differentiating them enough to create their own two separate characters. Justin Timberlake also makes an appearance and has a very good performance with his character Sean Parker.
Despite the acting and directing the thing that stands out the most in this film is the time and effort Aaron Sorkin put into adapting the screenplay from the book "The Accidental Billionaires." The story and dialogues are so well put together and rattled off so fast and naturally by each of the actors that the film feels very real. There are also a plethora of one- liners and monologues that almost literally punch the character in the face whom they are directed towards along with the audience itself.
The Bad: The film creates a very bad image for women other than Rooney Mara's character (Erika Albright) and Rashida Jones's character (Marylin Delpy). All of the other women in the film are portrayed as drunk, greedy sluts. This may be very offensive to some people, and may be a reason not to see the film if you feel very strongly about it. Also, there are minor discontinuities throughout the film that may have been able to be a little clearer and a couple short scenes that don't seem necessary to the overall storyline of the film.
Final Thought: There's a difference between making a movie and creating a movie; when you make a movie you just go through the motions of preproduction, production and post production, however, when you create a movie this is taken to a whole other level. David Fincher takes it to a whole other level by creating the atmosphere and then lets loose. Who knew that a film about Facebook could grasp and keep your undivided attention and send you on a thrilling roller-coaster ride with wellcrafted dialogue and a very relevant soundtrack? Go See it Now and see what all of the hype is about.