I think Eisenberg was brilliant.

I wanted to love Social Network more than any film in a long time. The subject matter, the accliam and offcourse the director of Zodiac and Seven (two of my favourite films) but although I was impressed and did like it, it just didnt blow me away. Looking forward to a second viewing with my expectations lowered (same thing happened with FOTR and thats one of my all time faves now).

Eisenberg is good, though perhaps not uber great. Andrew Garfield is very good though, as is surprisingly Justin Timberlake. Fincher’s direction amd Sorkin’s screenplay are top notch.

A/A-


The Social Network is not the best movie of last year and it is not even the best film among the Best Picture nominees I have seen so far. Yet I really enjoy it getting all the accolades it does because it is a truly well-crafted piece of cinema that, unlike many other BP nominees each year, will be remembered for years to come. That is even more surprising considering almost the entire cast of the film is younger than 30 and it is essentially a movie that deals with a bunch of nerds.

The main reason why I think The Social Network deserves the praise it is getting is that David Fincher finally returns to great work. The past decade has been filled with several solid films by Fincher, but never never seemed to quite get on the same level again as with Se7en and Fight Club. Well, now I can say with certainty that he has delivered his best work since Fight Club and is actually playing very close to that film's league.

The Social Network is superbly written and will easily win its well-deserved Screenplay Oscar. The Screenplay is Sorkin's through and through and while it does not represent the way most people talk to each other realistically, it doesn't have to. That's not its purpose. This dialogue reduces the characters, the persons to their essence and while what is being said is not "real", it brings each character to the point and shows off the relationships perfectly. A lot has been said about the film's rapidfire dialogue in the opening scene. It is all true. It seems a bit ridiculous at first, but it simply perfectly embodies Mark Zuckerberg as he is portrayed in the film. Not necessarily the real Zuckerberg. It is quite obvious that the filmmakers, while keeping the essentials of the real life story, could care less about being absolutely accurate. They set out to tell a gripping, human story and that's what they have successfully done. The movie has so many great scenes and lines of dialogue, it is impossible to mention them all. One of my favorites is still with Mark being asked whether the lawyer of the plaintiffs deserves his full attention.

"I think if your clients want to stand on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have a right to give it a try. You have part of my attention, the minimum amount needed. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook where my employees and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients are intellectually or creatively capable of doing."

Brilliant, just brilliant. But as good as Sorkin's screenplay is, it wouldn't work without a great lead and thankfully with Jesse Eisenberg the film has got one. His career should rightfully explode after this film. I have seen enough real Zuckerberg interviews to know that, while, in certain aspects, Eisenberg does represent his persona well, it is certainly well more over the top. But it works in the context of the film, it really does. Many have mentioned that Zuckerberg is portrayed unfavorably in the film. I wouldn't agree. He's not the bad guy. He's also not the good guy either. The movie refrains from such perspectives and it's good this way. It prefers to focus on Mark's genius and yet inability to connect to most humans himself. The final scene with him refreshing Erica's page is brilliant too, though maybe a bit to much (what certainly was too much was Rashida Jones' "You're not an asshole, Mark". The film didn't need that, but I'll let it slide).

While Eisenberg's portrayal is terrific, the supporting cast is great as well. Justin Timberlake finally shows himself to be a good actor (something he already hinted at in Alpha Dog). However, his Sean Parker performance is not as good as some claim it to be. He just has a very showy role (the scene in the restaurant stands out). Armie Hammer's Winklevoss twins portrayal, on the other hand, does not receive enough accolades. Who truly stands out, however, is Andrew Garfield, shamefully ignored by the Oscars. He's the only character in the film for whom the audiences can actually feel something. In a way he is Mark Zuckerberg's last human connection until he cuts it off and the bitterness at the betrayal feels incredibly real.

So yeah, there are several great aspects here, but it all wouldn't work without a brilliant director at the helm. Fincher is one. There are many iconic scenes in the movie, be it thanks to the acting or the screenplay. but the single best scene of the movie has neither really. The Henley rowing competition might seem a little out of place in the film (though it makes perfect sense in the big picture context), but it is impossible to deny its epicness. The perfect synergy of cinematography, editing and music make for a brilliant scene that confirm Fincher as one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation. At last, Fincher's greatest achievement is simply to make a movie about rich spoiled nerds talking to each other and to other rich spoiled young students (though not nerds) and make all that more exciting than your usual action movie.

The Social Network does not define a generation or redefine the cinema. But it is a terrific piece of filmmaking showing that no matter how ridiculous an idea of a movie might sound you can still make a masterpiece out of it.

I think it does capture an aspect of the modern nerd. For a long time, or at least the past decade, full of its Judd Apatow films, a film finally makes the point that the shy nerd who wants to be with the girl is maybe, you know, kind of shallow.

Audiences consisting of people like you.

The Social Network

The film has a unique way of gluing your eyes to the screen and making you interested in the escalating success of facebook. I suppose because everybody uses it, everybody knows about, and everybody has an opinion on it, it was always going to be an easy watch. The film is very good, and it has slightly raised my opinion of David Fincher. Now I think of him as a director capable of making great movies but seldom does, instead of before when I just thought of him as a director that made two good movies and lived off of it since.

I disliked how the film made Mark Zuckerberg out to be the brainiest man in the world and everybody else was as thick as shit. Even the people at Harvard (you know, that little place full of the brightest people in the world) were represented as idiots compared to him, so that was a big negative point. I hated how he had a smart reply to EVERY question or statement uttered by another character. That was bullshit and I don't believe it for a second. But the screenplay was brilliant. It had a few lines that were simply superb, but it's just Jesse Eisenberg's immediate and cocky delivery that I disliked. My favourite lines were, and are not limited to, these:


That bolded part in the second quote is especially poignant because it's true of everyone that uses facebook the Internet, and to put that in a movie (and said to the founder of facebook, no less) about the conception of facebook is just genious.

Despite the films' final plea to the audience that Zuckerberg isn't an asshole, if this story is the full truth, then he is an absolute asshole; there's no two ways about it. He treated his friends like shit just to make a name for himself.

Andrew Garfield is the best character in the film, and Eduardo probably came out of this film with a much improved status (if indeed that is his real name - I don't know much nor do I care to learn about the Facebook story any more than I've seen in the two hours this film ran for). He acted very well too, and you just can't help but feel for him.

Here's how I see the legal disputes... Zuckerberg didn't steal the idea for facebook from those twins. They were lucky to get a $65m payout because they contributed nothing towards it. As he says in the movie; "a guy who builds a really nice chair doesn't owe money to everyone who's built a chair", and as he didn't use their code, no offence was made, in my opinion. But $65m in the grand scheme of things is minute. But regarding his best friend, Eduardo, he screwed him over and Eduardo deserved his 30% share back really. He got a payout too, which I'm sure he's happy with, but still.

A-

Well this was pretty good. A little slow in the middle, but it starts and ends very well. Probably not one I will re watch, and I don't think it should have won 2010 best picture, but its a pretty clever, fresh feeling biopic that doesn't fall into the genre's cliches.

B+