Directed By: David Fincher
Written By: Aaron Sorkin
Starring:
Jesse Eisenberg
Andrew Garfield
Justin Timberlake
Rated PG-13
2 hours
Critics Grade:
98%
My Grade:
A+
Storyline:
A story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook. About the legal battles and the broken friendships.
My Review
A story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook. About the legal battles and the broken friendships.
My Review
If you asked me a few years ago what Facebook even was, I wouldn't have been able to give you a correct answer. Much like a lot of the country. Skip ahead a few years and now everyone and their grandma (literally) have a Facebook account. Millions of people each day post random pointless facts about their daily routines "At the store" or "I'm bored" for all their friends to see. Some people are tagging their friends in pictures or bombarding their friends walls with their stupid Farmville up
dates. At this point if you don't know what Facebook is...you probably lead a very sheltered life...even if you don't actually have a Facebook account. This is not how Facebook started. This kind of thing was meant for the now basically dead social networking site, Myspace (please don't make a Myspace movie...no one will see it because they are all watching the Facebook movie). Facebook (originally THE Facebook) was meant only for Harvard students. You were required to have a Harvard e-mail to even sign up. It was a hit, then spread out to 29 other large colleges across the country. Then before you knew it...it was a worldwide sensation and now you don't even need to go to any school to have an account. It all started one night when young nerd Mark Zuckerberg got drunk and created a site called Face Smash. A site where you compared hot women with other hot women. Now I'm only basing this off the movie story, it is said that the screenplay has been puffed up and fictionalized from real life events. But it doesn't matter. His face smash site was a hit within hours. A couple of students at Harvard had an idea for a social site for Harvard students and they wanted to enlist Zuckerberg to help do the coding and what not...one thing led to another...and Zuckerberg ran with the idea on his own. Legal battles would soon follow. And now we have our film: The Social Network.
Like I mentioned before, the storyline for this film has been tweaked from actual events to make the movie more appealing and thrilling. This has been publicly announced by the creators of the film. But the screenplay is so freaking well written that you would never know the film story has been changed (how much - I don't know if anyone really knows). How they could write a film that on paper would seem to be really slow - come out to be as thrilling as this film was...is beyond me. It should be a slow paced boring movie. Thing is...it IS slow paced but you never actually realize that. I got so immersed in this story and so invested in these characters it was as if I was watching the true events unfold before my eyes. Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the film, doesn't try to trick the audience by inflating anything about the people involved. These are real people, these are true events. He may have slightly fictionalized the actual story, but he doesn't throw Hollywood in our faces. The actions are all completely believable.
Some people may think this is a movie ABOUT Facebook. Well...it is but only to a certain extent. For instance it doesn't really go into the effects it has on culture and society. We don't see the viewpoints of many Facebook users and how it effects their every day lives. You d
on't really see much of the actual Facebook interface either. We never even see the transition of Facebook for college use only to Facebook worldwide sensation. That's not what the story is about. This is a story about a young man who has no friends and is so incredibly socially awkward he creates a social networking website and by chance becomes increasingly popular. Even with everyone knowing who he is...he still has almost no real friends. Sure he has people who admire him or use him but friends? Actual true friends? Well he had one...and he inadvertently destroyed that friendship because he let the power of his creation take him over. There's a lot that goes on here, so no...it's not just about the actual Facebook site. So far...the best written film of 2010.
This is also one of, if not THE best looking movie of the year. Inception is brilliantly crafted to mess with our minds and looks stunning at every turn. But here with the Social Network, we have a real life story. They could have easily given us bland camera work and only focused on the story. But in a lot of films, the camera work, the cinematography IS part of the story. It captures the characters at their highest point as well as their lowest point. I don't think a film has pulled this off as well as The Social Network in the past few years. The film has a fairly "dark" storyline, there isn't a whole lot of happiness going on and David Fincher does a BRILLIANT job showcasing that overall mood to us as an audience and it really gets us invested in the story and characters.
One of the best aspects of this movie is the incredible characters who are all of course, based off real people. We have three main players: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin (the two co-founders of Facebook) and Sean Parker (the founder of Napster - and the man who drove Zuckerberg and Saverin to the eventual destruction of their friendship). I don't know who exact the characters are to their counterparts in real life but these are some pretty interesting people. So you have to have them played by some very good actors to make them convincing. I'll say this right now: as of this point of 2010...hands down the best acted film of the year. I've never been a big fan of Jesse Eisenberg but man he is incredible in this film. Zuckerberg is a troubled young guy and Eisenberg was the PERFECT choice to play him. The performance of his young career...the one that may define him as an actor. Right now he would be on my list for Best Actor of the year. Andrew Garfield (the new Spiderman!) plays his best friend and co-founder of Facebook. I saw him a couple years ago in a movie called Boy A...and he was fantastic in the film. Here is no different. I thought for most of the film this guy was amazing and worthy of some Oscar consideration. So what about Justin Timberlake? Well I don't follow his music...but I think he has found himself a nice little niche in film. When he was on screen (and not a TON of screen time) he stole the show. In my opinion, and not just because he's nice to look at (what?!?!). He gives such a charismatic performance and I think he has found his calling (as if his music career wasn't already his calling).
The Social Network is more than a movie about a worldwide phenomenon. This is a movie about human nature. This is a movie about how we as humans crave friendship. How we desperately need to be heard and listened to and cared about. A lot of us, like Zuckerberg, never truly get that complete feeling and so we are left feeling empty. Some of us make poor life decisions (like unknowingly screwing over a friendship) to putt
ing ourselves out there to get attention. It's funny because a site like Facebook makes us all feel so popular. "Look I have 200 friends". But how many of those 200 are people you actually would spill your heart and soul to? How many of those people know anything about you? Who do you think really cares about half the crap you post on Facebook every day? No one...but we all do it. It's in us as humans to crave that need for attention. Some of us have plenty of friends, some of us don't. One of us created a website to feel connected to all of our so called "friends". Funny thing is...he is a man, who at the time, had no real friends even after he created the site. That's why this movie is so brilliant to me...I can relate a lot to this guy (at least the movie version). We all can. This isn't a movie about Facebook. This is a movie about you and me.
Hey...Facebook me.
dates. At this point if you don't know what Facebook is...you probably lead a very sheltered life...even if you don't actually have a Facebook account. This is not how Facebook started. This kind of thing was meant for the now basically dead social networking site, Myspace (please don't make a Myspace movie...no one will see it because they are all watching the Facebook movie). Facebook (originally THE Facebook) was meant only for Harvard students. You were required to have a Harvard e-mail to even sign up. It was a hit, then spread out to 29 other large colleges across the country. Then before you knew it...it was a worldwide sensation and now you don't even need to go to any school to have an account. It all started one night when young nerd Mark Zuckerberg got drunk and created a site called Face Smash. A site where you compared hot women with other hot women. Now I'm only basing this off the movie story, it is said that the screenplay has been puffed up and fictionalized from real life events. But it doesn't matter. His face smash site was a hit within hours. A couple of students at Harvard had an idea for a social site for Harvard students and they wanted to enlist Zuckerberg to help do the coding and what not...one thing led to another...and Zuckerberg ran with the idea on his own. Legal battles would soon follow. And now we have our film: The Social Network.Like I mentioned before, the storyline for this film has been tweaked from actual events to make the movie more appealing and thrilling. This has been publicly announced by the creators of the film. But the screenplay is so freaking well written that you would never know the film story has been changed (how much - I don't know if anyone really knows). How they could write a film that on paper would seem to be really slow - come out to be as thrilling as this film was...is beyond me. It should be a slow paced boring movie. Thing is...it IS slow paced but you never actually realize that. I got so immersed in this story and so invested in these characters it was as if I was watching the true events unfold before my eyes. Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the film, doesn't try to trick the audience by inflating anything about the people involved. These are real people, these are true events. He may have slightly fictionalized the actual story, but he doesn't throw Hollywood in our faces. The actions are all completely believable.
Some people may think this is a movie ABOUT Facebook. Well...it is but only to a certain extent. For instance it doesn't really go into the effects it has on culture and society. We don't see the viewpoints of many Facebook users and how it effects their every day lives. You d
on't really see much of the actual Facebook interface either. We never even see the transition of Facebook for college use only to Facebook worldwide sensation. That's not what the story is about. This is a story about a young man who has no friends and is so incredibly socially awkward he creates a social networking website and by chance becomes increasingly popular. Even with everyone knowing who he is...he still has almost no real friends. Sure he has people who admire him or use him but friends? Actual true friends? Well he had one...and he inadvertently destroyed that friendship because he let the power of his creation take him over. There's a lot that goes on here, so no...it's not just about the actual Facebook site. So far...the best written film of 2010.This is also one of, if not THE best looking movie of the year. Inception is brilliantly crafted to mess with our minds and looks stunning at every turn. But here with the Social Network, we have a real life story. They could have easily given us bland camera work and only focused on the story. But in a lot of films, the camera work, the cinematography IS part of the story. It captures the characters at their highest point as well as their lowest point. I don't think a film has pulled this off as well as The Social Network in the past few years. The film has a fairly "dark" storyline, there isn't a whole lot of happiness going on and David Fincher does a BRILLIANT job showcasing that overall mood to us as an audience and it really gets us invested in the story and characters.
One of the best aspects of this movie is the incredible characters who are all of course, based off real people. We have three main players: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin (the two co-founders of Facebook) and Sean Parker (the founder of Napster - and the man who drove Zuckerberg and Saverin to the eventual destruction of their friendship). I don't know who exact the characters are to their counterparts in real life but these are some pretty interesting people. So you have to have them played by some very good actors to make them convincing. I'll say this right now: as of this point of 2010...hands down the best acted film of the year. I've never been a big fan of Jesse Eisenberg but man he is incredible in this film. Zuckerberg is a troubled young guy and Eisenberg was the PERFECT choice to play him. The performance of his young career...the one that may define him as an actor. Right now he would be on my list for Best Actor of the year. Andrew Garfield (the new Spiderman!) plays his best friend and co-founder of Facebook. I saw him a couple years ago in a movie called Boy A...and he was fantastic in the film. Here is no different. I thought for most of the film this guy was amazing and worthy of some Oscar consideration. So what about Justin Timberlake? Well I don't follow his music...but I think he has found himself a nice little niche in film. When he was on screen (and not a TON of screen time) he stole the show. In my opinion, and not just because he's nice to look at (what?!?!). He gives such a charismatic performance and I think he has found his calling (as if his music career wasn't already his calling).
The Social Network is more than a movie about a worldwide phenomenon. This is a movie about human nature. This is a movie about how we as humans crave friendship. How we desperately need to be heard and listened to and cared about. A lot of us, like Zuckerberg, never truly get that complete feeling and so we are left feeling empty. Some of us make poor life decisions (like unknowingly screwing over a friendship) to putt
ing ourselves out there to get attention. It's funny because a site like Facebook makes us all feel so popular. "Look I have 200 friends". But how many of those 200 are people you actually would spill your heart and soul to? How many of those people know anything about you? Who do you think really cares about half the crap you post on Facebook every day? No one...but we all do it. It's in us as humans to crave that need for attention. Some of us have plenty of friends, some of us don't. One of us created a website to feel connected to all of our so called "friends". Funny thing is...he is a man, who at the time, had no real friends even after he created the site. That's why this movie is so brilliant to me...I can relate a lot to this guy (at least the movie version). We all can. This isn't a movie about Facebook. This is a movie about you and me.Hey...Facebook me.
Very good review. Who would have thought about how these websites like facebook get started and the stories behind them. I never did, but I would love the money the dudes made from it.
ReplyDeleteYeah they have made total bank off Facebook. It's a freaking great movie though! A must see!
ReplyDelete