The Social Network

      2010 seems to be an absolutely brutal year for filmmaking so far. I mean, people may have been making great movies, but I personally have not been seeing them. Even in that context, The Social Network is—at early October—my favorite movie of the year by a wide margin.
      It’s a brilliant piece of filmmaking, with two narrative strands working on separate but complementary levels: one is about the development of Facebook, and the other is a high-stakes but ultimately familiar-feeling tale of social and business intrigue. The Facebook thread details the masterful sociological planning of how Facebook became so big (and important enough to make a movie about). The second is a well-crafted coming-of-age tale of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), made unusual mostly by the fact he becomes an internet billionaire.
      The one thing I caution that would absolutely cripple your enjoyment of this movie is by too-earnestly ruminating about the historical accuracy of the second narrative strand. Does Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), the girl whose initial rejection of Zuckerberg is a catalyst for the movie’s events, even exist? Who cares? The only person to whom the verisimilitude of the character of Mark to the actual person of Zuckerberg is Mark Zuckerberg. The value of Citizen Kane (although I’m not comparing the two movies further than this metaphor) is not affected by how much Charles Foster Kane mirrored William Randolph Hearst. The Social Network is a feature, not a documentary. But it does highlight some fascinating points about Facebook, which has integrated itself into the daily lives of many. Many details are probably altered, but something along these lines probably happened, because the products of the characters’ actions came into being.
      Although I heard some time ago the film derisively described as Facebook: The Movie, that’s precisely what (half of) it is. Facebook, I think it’s fair to say, is no longer very cool. That is to say, it’s not cool like e-mail isn’t cool. How cool it is doesn’t factor into its current importance as much as how essential it has become. Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the founder of Napster and impish and manipulative mentor to Mark in the film, gleefully declares, “We used to live in villages. Then we moved to cities. Now we live on the internet!” Although the movie mostly infers (rather than refers to) this, Facebook became pragmatic and necessary only after it became humongous by being cool. And, I must admit, there is a small, cheap thrill in being one of the background cast of thousands who sign up and spend their time on Facebook during the recognizable chronology of the movie.
      That’s the brains of the movie. Its heart is the story of Mark Zuckerberg (i.e. the character, and not the actual person). The narrative is set up within the context of dual lawsuits against Mark by his former best friend and business partner Eduardo and two Harvard gentlemen-jocks, the Winklevoss twins (both played by Andrew Garfield), who contributed a key idea to Facebook’s formation. The lawsuits are clearly only storytelling devices by the end of the movie, because the outcomes ultimately prove inconsequential to Zuckerberg. Their unimportance may seem bothersome at first, but ultimately their superfluousness is itself superfluous. The personal narrative strand of the story is complete, and the story of Mark’s relationship to Eduardo has reached its conclusion.
      Mark gradually cuts Eduardo out of the business, but not unreasonably. Eduardo’s ideas about Facebook as a business model are old-fashioned and ultimately incorrect, but his dealings are always motivated by earnestness and loyalty to Mark as a friend. Mark is not portrayed by The Social Network as a villain (or as exactly an asshole, which is more to the point in the twenty-something target demographic), but as driven by his big ideas and ambivalent to ethics and ideals. He can’t reign in his self-absorption to save his relationships with Erica or Eduardo, but is deeply hurt by their inevitable rejection of him. Whereas Mark is a genius in figuring out people on a macro scale, his is hopeless at the interpersonal level. He’d almost be a tragic figure, if not for the billions of dollars and untold cultural power.
      With so much substance to The Social Network, the movie gains an almost subliminal quality by how stylish it is. It’s occasionally sexy without being too explicit, and often hilarious without ever asking for the laughs. The story moves much too fast for moody ruminations, but it sneaks in moments of atmosphere. I specifically remember how the film evokes the lonely a college campus can become as Mark runs past the elegant Harvard buildings to his dorm after his break-up with Erica. The ubiquity of the programmers’ presence emphasizes how much work the the technical logistics were without taking a boring detour to focus on them. I can’t tell whether the ending is brilliant or just too on-the-nose, and the structure doesn’t feel entirely natural, but overall the film feels utterly satisfactory.
      Everybody in this cast does a great job, or at least naturally fits into their roles. I love Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland and Zombieland were amazing), although I’m not quite yet convinced of his versatility as an actor. He does a great job as Mark here, without the luxury of his usual awkward charm to lean on. Also, there’s enough approximate physical similarity for Mark Zuckerberg to have used him as his celebrity doppelgänger on Facebook, if it weren’t all so meta. Rooney Mara, who plays a small but important part as Erica, is going to be huge soon. Not Angelina Jolie huge, but Natalie Portman huge, as I can only anticipate an intellectual/hipster bent to her popularity. Armie Hammer seamlessly pulls of the task of playing the separate and always simultaneously present Winklevoss twins, and Andrew Garfield brings soul to perhaps the only sympathetic character, Eduardo.
      I certainly understand some people will be turned off by the very positive early press the movie is getting, or that “based-on-facts” movies can be obnoxious or discordant with reality, especially topical ones, but I would recommend this very quality piece of cinema to anybody, especially about my age (early 20s). It’s an entertaining think-piece, and it rated so well for me that I’m certainly going to catch it a second time.
      The Social Network is rated PG-13 for sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and language.



      Of course, perhaps I'm taking this all too seriously. This sort of thing usually happens when Aaron Sorkin gets involved. The fact that I forgot to even mention his screenwriting tells how much I enjoyed the movie.