The Social Network (2010)

 5 February 2015

"The Social Network" was the first film for Spring 2015. I took the time to watch it last night. Not only was the film as good as advertised, but it was also a little mind blowing. I'm honestly a little angry with myself for having taken so long to watch it.

I'll start out by saying "The Social Network" is well cast. Jesse Eisenberg is excellent as Mark Zuckerberg. I really like the range Jesse brought to the role. Andrew Garfield is brilliant as Eduardo Saverin, who really became the heart and soul of the movie for me. Justin Timberlake is perfectly cast as Sean Parker, giving the role the right mix of youthfulness and burn out. Armie Hammer played both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss? The twins were so similiar and yet very different. Very impressive performances.

Notice, there are no female leads in "The Social Network". The film is populated with a large number of attractive female supporting characters, but they pretty much exist as sex objects who orbit around powerful male characters. Except for Erica.

I liked that the film is very kinetic, especially in the early going. The first night when Mark goes from getting dumped by Erica to blogging about it on LiveJournal (Mark Zuckerberg was on LiveJournal?!) to constructing Facemash was very cool and set the tone for the film. I liked how the film starts flipping between the past and the two legal proceedings in the present. I was a bit disappointed when the film gets away from that later on. And even though the subtitles are a little hard to follow, I liked the rapid fire dialogue. Overall, all of the characters have interesting things to say and do.

"The Social Network" may not be the most historically accurate film. But I think it has value as a visual time capsule capturing the online college mileau in early '00s (when I wsa going to school). The film does a good job showing the college life at Harvard and how it inspired and tied into the genesis of Facebook and the Facebook culture. Also, I thought the film does a good job showing la vida loca out in California that ensnared Mark, Dustin, and their underlings, which was a natural progression for the burgeoning Facebook culture back at Harvard.

"The Social Network" isn't a film that left me wanting more. And that's fine. That being said, it is a film I could definitely watch again, for both enjoyment and to get more out of it.