12/22/10 - The Social Network

The Social Network (2010, 120 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/

This movie had in my opinion the single best trailer to come out in years. The songs put to the trailer were simply stunning and worked so well. The movie looked intriguing and awesome as well and with director David Fincher at the helm I had high hopes. And this was all before I had heard it called "the Citizen Kane of modern cinema" which is quite the high claim.

The film follows the creation of Facebook. The main figures are Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) with some "help" later provided by Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). Some antagonists (if you can call them that) to Zuckerberg are played by Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence), and Divya Narendra (Max Minghella). A small but very important role is handled by Rooney Mara as Mark's ex-girlfriend Erica Albright.

After watching The Social Network and seeing its inclusion in many lists for the best films of 2010 I read one particular note with which I want to start off these comments. The Social Network has been made at the perfect time - being made right now, it's able to focus entirely on the founding of Facebook and not on the long term consequences. If this movie had been made, say, ten years down the road, then the founding and all this drama would only play a small role in the whole movie. Instead, the movie is able to focus on all this intrigue and bring it to the forefront of our attention. This is a movie about nerds, friendships, sacrifices, and money. Making The Social Network later might allow us to more understand Facebook's social importance, but making The Social Network right now allows us to focus entirely on this era of Facebook before everything is known. And that's perfect.

As for what I think about The Social Network, I have to say that in all honesty, not a whole lot really happens. I mentioned above all this intrigue and sacrifice and all this but when I step back and look at the movie, it's really quite simple. However, The Social Network is one of the most gripping movies I have seen in quite some time. I was at the edge of my seat watching how everything unfurled. One particular reason for this is the way in which the story is told. Done through parallel settings (talking amongst lawyers in one and then the actual events in the other) the back and forth shifting is amazing. I think this might be the best feature of The Social Network. With this constantly moving setting it keeps everything that's going on quite interesting, even when nothing is really going on. I mentioned in my last post how I didn't feel like much happened in The Night of the Hunter and it hurt the movie. Oddly, the same aspect is true of The Social Network but the film still manages to create a marvelous amount of tension so this never becomes a negative.

Jesse Eisenberg is going to get tons of nominations and probably a few awards for his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg. While in Citizen Kane the focus of the movie is on Kane through various flashbacks, in The Social Network the entire focus is on Zuckerberg both through flashbacks and his interactions with the lawyers. His presence in the present creates a big difference from Citizen Kane. But really I don't think that Citizen Kane claim is all that true - The Social Network is great, but it's not a masterpiece. Anyway, Eisenberg is incredible as the antisocial nerd with dreams of being the big bad hero. Sadly, his character is almost a stereotype of the antisocial nerd but I really think that's just because he plays it so well. Eisenberg is like a Michael Cera that can actually act and doesn't do the same movie over and over. Eisenberg deserves all the praise he's getting for playing Zuckerberg. He comes off as flawed and incredibly loathsome. Do I want to root for him or against him? I'm torn through the whole movie and this is all testament to how well Eisenberg commands the role. One last pivotal moment is at the end when the one lawyer character (Marylin Delpy played by Rashida Jones) tells Zuckerberg "You're not an asshole, Mark. You're just trying so hard to be." It's just about the perfect way to sum up the character and comes all the way at the end of the movie. It's veracity is chilling as Zuckerberg simply sits there and goes back to looking at his Facebook and Erica Albright's profile. That small shred of humanity and likability returns as he sends her a friend request. The final shot of Zuckerberg is one of a complicated, flawed, and tragic human being.

Rooney Mara has a small role as Erica Albright but she is in two incredibly important scenes. The first is the opening that sets the whole ball in motion. The witty banter is great but it also shows how fragile Zuckerberg really is. It's almost pathetic how simply being dumped destroys him so much. I've read that Erica Albright is Zuckerberg's "Rosebud" and while I think this is really just some way to tie the movie back to Citizen Kane, I think it has some merit. After this moment, Zuckerberg is completely different. Would someone like Albright ever date the Zuckerberg of after that moment? Probably not - he's changed for the worse in so many ways. The other great moment featuring Albright is really the only other scene she's in. Here, Zuckerberg tries to apologize or at least talk to her and she will have none of it. This seems to be the closest Zuckerberg comes to being likable after that first scene and he again fails. I think this might be the only point in the entire movie that I feel bad for him. It could probably be claimed that he's not trying hard enough but I still think Zuckerberg is a different person for this interaction with Albright and that lends more to his character. In short, Albright has a small role, but both of her "big" scenes are incredibly important.

One of the other scenes that I think is important for The Social Network is the talk between Zuckerberg and Parker. Here, they sit in a club (where Parker practically comes off as a king) and talk about the world being theirs. It's almost something out of some twisted Scarface remake where these two guys plot world control in the media. It's simply chilling how these young guys are so important to the new digital age. Both have done incredibly pivotal things with Parker essentially destroying the music industry with the creation of Napster. Zuckerberg's creation isn't going to tear down an industry like that, but it's still unknown how many millions the idea will land him at that point. What I loved the most about this scene is how out of place it really is in just about any other movie. This scene probably happened in real life but try and place some conversation between two twenty-somethings talking about billions of dollars in any other movie and it just comes off as stupid. I guess at this moment the movie hit me how weird and bizarre this whole thing was. It was almost some other reality where I couldn't comprehend how everything worked.

The other character worth mentioning is Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin. Saverin is the character crippled by the construction of Facebook more than any other. His nice guy is left behind by Zuckerberg and Parker. While I could probably write a whole paragraph devoted to how important the Saverin character is to all the others, what I want to focus on is Garfield's acting. Garfield is clearly a talented actor that is just on the verge of gigantic things with the Spider-Man movie in development. Here though he shows he can actually act amazing well. He pours so much emotion into this destroyed character that it's impossible not to root for him as well. Obviously the critical moment is when he realizes his character has limited shares in the growth of Facebook. In a fit of rage he confronts Zuckerberg and Parker and here Garfield's acting prowess is best on display. Flittering between anger and sadness at this betrayal, Garfield is able to command this twisting and turning emotion to perfection. The other little thing he does is when he is shown in the lawyer meetings during these flashbacks, his back is almost always to everyone else. It's still hard for him to simply recount these events and think about this betrayal. Honestly, as amazing as everyone's acting is in this movie, I can say without a doubt that Garfield's is the best.

Finally, The Social Network has the best music of any movie I've seen in quite some time. Headlined by Trent Reznor, the soundtrack is pulsing with energy. It's loud, intense, and invigorating. In every scene in which the music is blaring, it's entirely appropriate. It's not really songs that are playing, more just grinding music that pulses along to the energetic movie on the screen. It's loud but it's fitting each and every time.

Overall, I gave this film an 8/10. The Social Network is great but it's really hard for me to give it the 9/10 that places it with stuff like Amélie, Chinatown, or Taxi Driver. Is this a movie that will define this small era of the digital age? I think it will. The Social Network will most assuredly stand the test of time and is definitely worth an immediate watch while Facebook still holds so much importance in our everyday lives. It's the best movie of 2010 that I've seen so far but really there's not much competition at this point that I've seen. Really, though, I think on a rewatch down the road (which I will most surely do some time next year), I would not be surprised to up this to a 9/10.