2010’s The Social
Network, directed by David Fincher.
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer,
Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara, Max Minghella, Rashida Jones, Joseph Mazzello,
John Getz, and David Selby.
Winner of an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
(Aaron Sorkin), Best Original Score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), and Best
Film Editing (Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall).
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Cinematography (Jeff Cronenweth), and Best Sound Mixing (Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Mark Weingarten).
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Cinematography (Jeff Cronenweth), and Best Sound Mixing (Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Mark Weingarten).
What is it about?
Harvard technology student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg)
wants to create a social media site in order to boost his popularity. He and
his best friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), create a website called, TheFacebook,
but it does a lot more than just add to their friend lists. With new enemies
such as the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer, twice) suing for intellectual
property theft, and rogues such as Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) trying to
get in on the action, Zuckerberg’s prickly personality could be due for a
reckoning as the age of social media takes off.
Why is it worth seeing?
Director David Fincher has said that he considers the
majority of mankind to function as perverts, and his specialty has always been
in creating environments in which his characters can let their freak flag fly.
From a biblically inspired serial killer, to a nobody who unknowingly invents a
make believe alter ego, to a male who ages backwards- strange dysfunction
reigns supreme in the Fincherverse. But what if his protagonist was based on a
real person- and it barely scratched the surface of how perverse they are? It’s
not that the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg- already one of the most
influential people of this young century, is shown here in a flattering light- but
if it’s a damning enough allegory, a portrait
of the artist as a young troll.
With the 2010’s decade coming to a close, it’s safe to say that few companies have come to influence and dominate society the way that Facebook has. With billions of users utilizing the site for a variety of purposes, news continues to circulate, of wanton privacy breaches, of the company helping to influence elections and sell user information, and the creator’s toxic personality itself. Surely there are some deeply concerning aspects to the company’s functioning, of which the creator and CEO Zuckerberg is responsible for. While Social Network is based off of the 2009 book, The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich (incidentally not recommended), it’s not so much a photo realistic portrait of Zuckerberg, but more a coronation at the creation of a relatively new archetype- the troll. These individuals, seething with rage, at how they have to speak to other people that they don’t consider to be on their level, of an impatience for not being of certain social status, of a certain lust for blood for people not celebrating them when they log into a chat room. Cloaked in anonymity, they snidely attack until satisfied their defenceless victims are aware of their superiority. This film’s charms are in showing how one of these trolls publically craved domination, a digital Daniel Plainview of this century, who wanted to grow an empire that dwarfed everything else.
It would be difficult to make a movie about the creation of a social networking website without having scenes of people typing on computers dominate- the work that got the company started needs to be shown somehow. But Fincher, with the help of veteran screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, make a typically boring (and instantly dated) milieu of people staring at computer screens fascinating. Sorkin’s script, tighter than the air lock of a spaceship, is relentlessly fast (you can practically imagine the actors gasping for breath in between takes). Never difficult to follow, but always half sprinting, it creates a syntax much more entrancing than Hyper Text Markup Language and Java script could ever hope to be. Combined with Fincher’s typically obsessive engineer camera movements, and whip smart editing by Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, it synthesizes a movie that juxtaposes 2 simultaneous lawsuits and a number of flashbacks with a heck of a lot of talking and typing, into something more akin to a verbal track meet. Keeping up with a movie that secretly goes all over the place is rarely this pleasurably hypnotic.
Centred squarely in the middle of the frame, is the film’s “hero”. Jesse Eisenberg, who as an actor was initially commented on as somewhat of an evolution of Woody Allen, with the nebbish and alternative style charm (minus the horrific real life controversies), here goes to a place so much more interesting, so much darker than Allen could ever hope to. Squinting at others with fury when he’s not brusquely ignoring them, in a rapid fire cadence, he condescends to school administrators, frat boys, and lawyers alike- he’s almost as unpleasant as he is lonely. Like Charles Kane, he knows of what he wanted but never could get, of what he wished for but could never create a code for- he just can’t get out of his way, and you love to hate him as you watch him bulldoze strangers and friends alike. His journey is all the more poisoned with Justin Timberlake’s underrated naturalness in his character of Sean Parker. Parker’s oily and techno maverick aspirations continually speak to his meal ticket fast friend’s obsessions, and the scene where he explains to Mark about how it’s their time, of handing business cards to the establishment for the purposes of flipping them off, is kinetic in its implications- and an all time scene. Also great, twice actually, is Armie Hammer’s portrayal of twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Playing rowing men of Harvard who walk a fine line between entitled and disappointed, they make great foils to represent the establishment that Zuckerberg so badly wants to thumb his nose at. It’s a real testament to the effects team that you never once question how the heck they pulled off having the same actor as 2 different characters interact continuously throughout the film. It could be argued that the film’s one weakness is that it lacks a heart, missing a character that is relatable- but that’s where Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of Eduardo Saverin is so key. Garfield’s humane openness, his slickly intelligent but shy and vulnerable portrayal of a dude who isn’t worried about fame or money- but just wants to have friends, is the film’s centre. He continually tries to be Mark’s friend, his partner, his wingman. Even with all that heart though- he still has a spine too. Rooney Mara dominates her few scenes in the film as well, absurdly overqualified for the amount of screen time she has. Really, there’s not a single false performance in the film.
With the 2010’s decade coming to a close, it’s safe to say that few companies have come to influence and dominate society the way that Facebook has. With billions of users utilizing the site for a variety of purposes, news continues to circulate, of wanton privacy breaches, of the company helping to influence elections and sell user information, and the creator’s toxic personality itself. Surely there are some deeply concerning aspects to the company’s functioning, of which the creator and CEO Zuckerberg is responsible for. While Social Network is based off of the 2009 book, The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich (incidentally not recommended), it’s not so much a photo realistic portrait of Zuckerberg, but more a coronation at the creation of a relatively new archetype- the troll. These individuals, seething with rage, at how they have to speak to other people that they don’t consider to be on their level, of an impatience for not being of certain social status, of a certain lust for blood for people not celebrating them when they log into a chat room. Cloaked in anonymity, they snidely attack until satisfied their defenceless victims are aware of their superiority. This film’s charms are in showing how one of these trolls publically craved domination, a digital Daniel Plainview of this century, who wanted to grow an empire that dwarfed everything else.
It would be difficult to make a movie about the creation of a social networking website without having scenes of people typing on computers dominate- the work that got the company started needs to be shown somehow. But Fincher, with the help of veteran screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, make a typically boring (and instantly dated) milieu of people staring at computer screens fascinating. Sorkin’s script, tighter than the air lock of a spaceship, is relentlessly fast (you can practically imagine the actors gasping for breath in between takes). Never difficult to follow, but always half sprinting, it creates a syntax much more entrancing than Hyper Text Markup Language and Java script could ever hope to be. Combined with Fincher’s typically obsessive engineer camera movements, and whip smart editing by Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, it synthesizes a movie that juxtaposes 2 simultaneous lawsuits and a number of flashbacks with a heck of a lot of talking and typing, into something more akin to a verbal track meet. Keeping up with a movie that secretly goes all over the place is rarely this pleasurably hypnotic.
Centred squarely in the middle of the frame, is the film’s “hero”. Jesse Eisenberg, who as an actor was initially commented on as somewhat of an evolution of Woody Allen, with the nebbish and alternative style charm (minus the horrific real life controversies), here goes to a place so much more interesting, so much darker than Allen could ever hope to. Squinting at others with fury when he’s not brusquely ignoring them, in a rapid fire cadence, he condescends to school administrators, frat boys, and lawyers alike- he’s almost as unpleasant as he is lonely. Like Charles Kane, he knows of what he wanted but never could get, of what he wished for but could never create a code for- he just can’t get out of his way, and you love to hate him as you watch him bulldoze strangers and friends alike. His journey is all the more poisoned with Justin Timberlake’s underrated naturalness in his character of Sean Parker. Parker’s oily and techno maverick aspirations continually speak to his meal ticket fast friend’s obsessions, and the scene where he explains to Mark about how it’s their time, of handing business cards to the establishment for the purposes of flipping them off, is kinetic in its implications- and an all time scene. Also great, twice actually, is Armie Hammer’s portrayal of twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Playing rowing men of Harvard who walk a fine line between entitled and disappointed, they make great foils to represent the establishment that Zuckerberg so badly wants to thumb his nose at. It’s a real testament to the effects team that you never once question how the heck they pulled off having the same actor as 2 different characters interact continuously throughout the film. It could be argued that the film’s one weakness is that it lacks a heart, missing a character that is relatable- but that’s where Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of Eduardo Saverin is so key. Garfield’s humane openness, his slickly intelligent but shy and vulnerable portrayal of a dude who isn’t worried about fame or money- but just wants to have friends, is the film’s centre. He continually tries to be Mark’s friend, his partner, his wingman. Even with all that heart though- he still has a spine too. Rooney Mara dominates her few scenes in the film as well, absurdly overqualified for the amount of screen time she has. Really, there’s not a single false performance in the film.
15 years before The Social Network, Fincher
directed Se7en, and teased in the
opening credits how well Trent Reznor’s music jived with his material. Finally
united for an entire project, composers Reznor and Attacus Ross, combine to
create one of the best montages of the decade, the film’s electrifying opening
third where Zuckerberg creates the Facemash app, in synch with a frat party.
The lead up to the montage, with eerie escalating synth work, speaks to a
dormant force discovering the full potency of its power. As in the film in
general, it brings to question, not only of the history making players, with
their wounded egos and twisted motivations, but also their clients, that of
their customers, and the attitudes that made Facebook the successful
application that it is today. Because despite all that has been said and done,
people don’t seem ready to quit social media. After Zuckerberg was quoted as
calling people “Dumb Fucks” for giving him their contact information, is there
any reason to believe that he’ll finally step down, satisfied that he can
finally stop and smell the computer coding? Only his image consultant team will
let us know, via press release, for sure. The beauty of Social Network, a fictional portrait of a real phenomenon, with its
snappy script, surgical editing, flawless performances, beautifully unnerving
musical score, and bravura direction, is that it suggests it’s possible.
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