'The Social Network' Makes Me LOL, OMG, and WTF In All the Right Places

"You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies."

Release Date: October 1, 2010

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, Armie Hammer

Director: David Fincher

Writer: Aaron Sorkin

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sexual content, drug and alcohol use and language.

Trailer
Official Movie Website

I remember the time I saw the first trailer for 'The Social Network.' I thought, in my judgmental mind, "Why the f!$k am I gonna watch that?! That's not gonna happen."

Months later, it happened, in the heat of grueling heartburn and the availability of the film in my apartment. Last time I eat microwavable chicken alfredo...

What made me change my mind?

'The Social Network' is director David Fincher's latest film spawn. When I found out Fincher was directing 'Network,' I couldn't help but wonder if it would be worth watching. I enjoy his work immensely. 'Seven' and 'Panic Room' are some of my favorite movies. We also cannot forget the self-proclaimed Official Movie of Testosterone, 'Fight Club.'

With so many great hits lying on top of Fincher's shoulders, I had to at least give 'Network' a chance. If Fincher was involved, then I at least knew the networking film wasn't about the occurance of Farmville.


Although both have chickens in them..they really do..

'The Social Network' revolves around the how and why the famous site that every hormonal teenager has exists.

Before Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) was the world's youngest billionaire, he was just a 20-something college student with problems. After a quick, brutal, somewhat well-deserved break-up, Mark gets drunk and starts angerily blogging about his ex, Erica Albright (the future, American 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,' Rooney Mara). He starts to form an idea of comparing pictures of women from several campuses with each other's and having visitors choose who is hot or not. He hacks into different Houses' student internet profiles and steals the pictures of all the females. This becomes FaceMash.


Dick.

FaceMash receives 250,000 hits in two hours and crashes the servers at Harvard. Zuckerberg is caught and creates some controversy for himself. He also manages to catch the attention of Harvard twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer). The twins ask him to be the programmer of a website idea that they came up with called HarvardConnection. Zuckerberg agrees, but after a moment of inspiration came up sometime in the next few days, he decides to work on his own idea and completely pushes off the responsibilities the twins had in store for him.

The rest of the film moves on with the initial evolution of Facebook, formerly called TheFacebook. Despite the fact that Facebook was meant to connect people to one another, Zuckerberg quickly begins to alienate himself from the people in his life, including best friend Eduardo Saverin ('The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus's Andrew Garfield), and finds himself under the strain of lawsuits.

I found the film particularly good for what it was about. Despite having my own Facebook (and The Little Critic having its own Fan Page, [hint hint, my dear readers]), I did not really think about how the site came about.

I know for a fact that much of this film was dramatized for the sake of drama. Even so, film-Zuckerberg was an asshole. An absolute asshole. 'Zombieland's Jesse Eisenberg did an amazing job with his role, although he did talk really, really, really, really fast. That fit the character though as it made it seem like Zuckerberg doesn't even need to think to say something quick, witty, smart, and.or rude.

It's not just Eisenberg I was impressed with, it was pretty much everyone else. Everyone's acting was not overdone or distracting, it was just the right level.

I enjoyed the interactions of the characters as well. I think Aaron Sorkin's writing was suberb at capturing human interactions and conversations, especially in the beginning of the film. I found myself really listening to what they were saying and felt like they all talked how many people converse in day-to-day life.

Trent Reznor of the famous band, Nine Inch Nails, is one of the composers for this movie. There was a big deal about that being the case and I found that to be modestly true. I wasn't appalled by it, nor did the score bring me "closer to God." Did it sound nice? Yes, it did. I think I want to hear more of Reznor's work in the future, which I know for sure, I will.

One last note: I enjoyed the cinematography. I like the darkness of scenes. I find it appealing.

I did have some personal issues with the film as I watched it, but it didn't distract me enough to stop watching. I wanted to start it and end it, and I did just that.

Unless you're a 14-year-old, you will appreciate this film and what it's about. Personally, it's not about the making of Facebook. It's not the billions of dollars Zuckerberg is making as I type all this out on my blog without pay. 'The Social Network' teaches us one thing: Don't f$#king screw your friends over.

3.5 / 5

Rent worthy? I think it's worth watching. It's not a terrible movie. Go rent it.

DVD/Blu-ray worthy? 'The Social Network' is not a movie I will go out of my way to watch over and over again. Once is good.

Oh, yeah...

Facebook me.
Keep on watchin'

The Little Critic

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