The Social Network

Genius

Swift shot:  Of all the adjectives I could use to describe this film, the only one that works is MANDATORY.  It is mandatory for you to see this film if you are between the ages of 15 – 40 – it’s your story, your digital birth.  The Social Network delivers sharp, fast and exacting dialog.  The story is told brilliantly through the testimony of two lawsuits, as the lawyers and witnesses give testimony. Facebook’s story comes to life – the good – the bad – and especially the ugly.  But, what is fact and what is poetry is not as important in how well the story is told.

Jesse Eisenberg plays genius, Mark Zuckerberg – the creator of facebook.com.  He is an “asshole”, he hates the elite, because he thinks he will never be one of them . . . despite his ability to make butt-loads of money.  He suffers from an affliction a lot of geniuses have to contend with – he is surrounded by idiots.  We learn this about him in the opening scene, he is not the kind of person you ask an opinion from, unless you really want his opinion.

In one drunken night, after he is dumped, he creates facemash.com and crashes Harvard’s system at 4 am.  He was coding, blogging and creating/designing all while on a beer binge.  I can’t even write code to make the iRATEfilms Th®illometer go vroom, and this whiz kid could probably write a DNA code to create me!  Shit, we are probably all just code anyway, which might make God the ultimate nerd, wired in to keep us online.

Like most geniuses, Mark has few, if any, friends – because tolerating friends isn’t something most geniuses enjoy.  But his closest friend, maybe only true friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) knows that while he is eccentric, Mark is still a good person worth enduring. Mark also grabs the attention of the Winklevoss twins, played solely by Armie Hammer (Second-generation progeny to Armand Hammer).  I had no idea the twins were done by one actor, it was an incredibly seamless effect, in a film I thought was devoid of any real FX work.  Bravo!

The twins propose Mark make amends for facemash.com by helping code their new site, “Harvard Connection”, where only the harvard.edu suffix bearers are allowed to tread online.  Essentially, these elite a-holes want to make a Harvard only club . . . online . . . how original.  I enjoyed watching them taken down several pegs in this film, and you will too, unless you are a cold, blue-blooded SOB – in which case, stay home, this isn’t your film.  It’s a story about the “little guy” sticking it to the man, but ah, the troubles that come with power and money come to the surface eventually.

Enter Sean Parker (Timberlake) who serves as the none too literal fly in the ointment of thefacebook.  Parker gave us all Napster, but he comes to thefacebook with considerable baggage – all lies, he assures his newest desciple, Mark.  Eduardo isn’t drawn in to the bullshit from Parker, and eventually lines are drawn in the proverbial sand – and where the bodies end up, you have to see for yourself how everything turns out.  To Parker’s credit, he does (according to the film, at least) tell Mark to drop the from thefacebook and just call it Facebook.

Almost no special effects were used in this, they could have taken a page from Hackers to show a virtual world, but I am glad Fincher steered clear of that idea.  While it was cool in Hackers, it wasn’t reality.  There is a scene that shows a real hack session that I loved, and it had zero special effects.  There was one stunt I can think of in the whole film.  It isn’t an action flick, the pace was perfect though, using one  sequence juxtaposing hacking nerds vs. elite pricks partying.  I would almost say this film is a good tool for class-warfare, but I won’t go there.

I know people who HATE facebook, people who LOVE it, and people who can’t live without it!  But, everyone has something to say about it.  Which, as you learn in the film, is all Mark ever really wanted – to be heard, really heard.  It wasn’t about the money to him, it was about the “Yes, I did this, suck it!”  I matter, I am a someone.   I wanted to give this film six stars, but I wanted a little more background set-up on the characters.  The characters are defined in The Social Network by their actions, and that is fine, we all are for the most part.  I just wanted to know more about WHY Mark is the way he is.

This film was begging to be made by someone, I am glad it was done by such a professional crew.  When something as powerful and important as facebook comes along, the exposition of how it became so amazing is essential.  If this had been a straight-laced documentary, it wouldn’t be real life.  The creative license used in The Social Network was perfect, the hurt and betrayal were genuine, the smugness, the apathy, all a credit to Fincher’s fine directing and getting the best from his team.

Whether you loathe, love or are apathetic towards Facebook, this is still a story about your generation, the digital generation, not being online and not being connected now is like saying you don’t believe in phones.  Sure, you can live in a cabin in the woods and use a wooden type-writer to pen a manifesto  about the evils of the digital age, but no one is gonna hear you roar – cuz you aren’t wired in – you don’t exist anymore!

Social media has redefined a generation, how we live, work, play, hell even our history is being cataloged every digital day.  To miss this one would be a tremendous mistake!