"The Social Network" - Film Review
Perhaps no other website has altered the course of the 21st century like Facebook. Its launch in 2004 forever changed the way society talks about social media and connects with friends and strangers, and became the lightning rod of a multitude of controversies. Conspiracy theories, political propaganda, and mass surveillance became the norm. All of it a far cry from the basic “hot or not” site Facebook sprang from.
The Social Network takes the audience back to that fateful night at Harvard when a primitive version of Facebook was born in the dorm room of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). Director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin are a dream team in this film. Sorkin’s signature quick dialogue is a perfect match for the pace of this movie. It gives Zuckerberg a smarminess that is easy for the audience to rally against, as though creating a website that objectifies women simply because his girlfriend dumped him isn’t enough to cause immediate dislike.
Usually, director David Fincher’s movies are focused on gruesome crimes. From his seven deadly sins mystery Se7en to his film based on the Zodiac killer, Zodiac, Fincher is a fan of gore. In The Social Network, he brings his thriller sensibilities to a legal drama and the destruction of Eduardo and Mark’s friendship. While that may not sound like it relates to Fincher’s previous films, there is a nastiness to the public break-up of a friendship that’s also melded with a company. It’s much more personal, and the loss goes beyond emotions. With a company as big as Facebook, it’s money, it’s a career, it’s hard work. All gone.
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Eduardo and Mark’s relationship is the heartbeat of the film. In essence, this is a break-up movie. It has all of the recognizable beats. It starts out with just the two of them against the world, Eduardo believing in Mark’s vision so much that he puts in the first $1,000. There is no Facebook without the two of them. As their stars grow brighter and brighter, Mark turns his back on the guy who got him there. All of a sudden, Mark is being courted by the founders of Napster and PayPal, who tell him they can help make Facebook bigger than ever. That big, bright future Mark sees doesn’t include Eduardo. The choice to frame this friendship like a romantic relationship adds a particular heft to the sense of demise.
The Social Network will go down as one of the best movies of the 21st century, and potentially one of the best movies of all time. It’s Sorkin, Fincher, Eisenberg, and Garfield all at the top of their game. The technical aspects of the movie are nothing short of marvels in their own right. The editing and the score add to the feeling of anxiety that is constant throughout the movie. It’s a fascinating adaptation of a true story that is still developing years after the movie was released. We can only hope Fincher and Sorkin are planning a sequel with all the new developments.
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