iLIKE! iLIKE! iLIKE!: a review of "The Social Network"

Dedicated to MacKenzie Meitner, a beautiful real world friend who introduced me to Facebook and became my first virtual friend.

"THE SOCIAL NETWORK"
Screenplay Written by Aaron Sorkin
Based upon The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
Directed by David Fincher
**** (four stars)

In my previous and lukewarm review of Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” I remarked upon how I felt Stone may have been trying too hard to create a piece of work that would essentially stand as the defining film depicting this moment in time in our collective history. To me, I strongly feel that to obtain that level of status, it must be arrived at in an organic way and without the neon signs announcing that this film you are watching is “IMPORTANT!!” Somehow, through the weavings of cinematic skill and magic, it sort of has to sneak up on you.

Last year, I awarded Writer/Director Jason Reitman’s “Up In the Air” as not only the finest film of the year but precisely the type of film future generations could point to as representative of a particular time and place. If you wanted to know what life was like in 2009, then that particular movie would handle the task efficiently in regards to personal motivations, cultural and sexual attitudes, and of course our technological disconnect as we are all able to connect with anyone in the world at any time. Director David Fincher’s latest work, “The Social network,” has long been touted as “The Facebook Movie,” as it revolves around the creation of the global internet sensation and the personalities involved. Yet like “Up In the Air,” and unlike “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” Fincher’s dark epic sneaks up on you. What begins and may seem to exist as a behind the scenes docudrama unfolds and reveals itself to possessing profoundly higher ambitions. By the conclusion, “The Social Network” finally arrives as not only one of 2010’s best films but as one of those rare works that indeed defines a generation.

Structured as a hybrid between a Rashomon styled series of court depositions by Zuckerberg’s detractors and Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” (1941), “The Social Network” charts the creation of the massively successful internet social network Facebook by Harvard University student and technological wizard Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg). As the film opens, we witness Zuckerberg and his girlfriend Emily Albright (Roomey Mara) engaged in a whirlwind and heated verbal duel while seated at a crowded college bar with the music of The White Stripes blaring in the background. The date ends badly as the culturally, intelligently and sexually insulted Emily dumps a bewildered Zuckerberg, who then petulantly and drunkenly returns to his Harvard dorm and begins to brutally lambaste Emily on his personal blogsite. And then, he goes an extra, sadistic and illegal step. Zuckerberg quickly hacks into the Harvard University student profile websites for each particular house and creates a new site where visitors can vote on the attractiveness factor between the college women they all know. Within two hours of its creation, Zuckerberg’s site receives an unprecedented 22, 000 hits, thus crashing the University internet system.

While this act of cruelty awards Zuckerberg with a six month academic probation, he is also handed the golden goose of fame and notoriety. Twin brother Harvard students and crew team members Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both brilliantly played by Armie Hammer), upon learning of Zuckerberg’s technological feat approach him with a proposal: to join them in a potentially revolutionary social networking system, with exclusivity to Harvard students called “The Harvard Connection.” Zuckerberg agrees yet shortly after that fateful meeting, he approaches his only friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) with a new idea to create a social networking tool entitled, “The Facebook,” also exclusive only to Harvard students. Eduardo, liking the idea, agrees to put up the $1000 seed money to get Zuckerberg started and its off to the races.

As Zuckerberg feverishly creates The Facebook, he begins to dodge all calls, texts and inquiries from the Winklevoss twins and their classmate/benefactor Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) and before the threesome even realize what has hit them, The Facebook has gone live and already has gathered momentum. As Divya and the Winklevoss twins gather up resources to eventually sue Zuckerberg for intellectual property theft, Zuckerberg and Eduardo have spread The Facebook all the way to the California universities, eventually catching the attention of Sean Parker (an outstanding Justin Timberlake), self described entrepreneur and creator of Napster.

My praise for ”The Social Network” cannot be strong enough as it is an extraordinarily involving, intense internal drama that belies any notions of superficiality or frivolity. For those of you out there in cyberspace who have been either skeptical or even dismissive of what has been touted as “The Facebook Movie,” I urge you to look past your prejudices and view a demanding and rewarding work presented by the most serious guiding hand of Director David Fincher, who has helmed no less than "Se7en" (1995), "Fight Club" (1999) and "Panic Room" (2002) among others. The sumptuous production design, moody atmospherics, and meticulous eye for detail, all Fincher trademarks, are entirely on display with his latest film. Fincher is greatly aided by Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor and his collaborator Atticus Ross as their brooding and pulsating debut film score anchors the dread underneath the dealings. Further special mentions must be made to Fincher’s mind blowing and seamless usage of special effects technology, which is merged with the terrific performance of Armie Hammer as BOTH of the Winklevoss twins. You will never see the strings behind the scenes or even notice them at all.

Admittedly, one thing Fincher has not been noted for is his brisk pacing as his films actually move along at a deliberate slower rhythm. This was especially evident during his previous film, the mournfully gorgeous “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” (2008), a film completely about the magic contained within mere moments of a life yet did indeed move at a glacier’s pace. For “The Social Network,” Fincher has joined forces with the masterful writer Aaron Sorkin, known for his voluminous amounts of dialogue delivered at the pace of classic Howard Hawks films. The pairing of the two creative forces is perfection as Sorkin’s screenplay forces Fincher to ratchet up his rhythms making for a film where every moment is up to the minute and immediate, something Oliver Stone lacked with “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” “The Social Network” is filled top to bottom with verbal passages that move with the warp speed velocity of a hurricane and demand you pay strict attention. It is accelerated dialogue for an accelerated time.

“The Social Network” is also fascinating as it is a college set movie where academia is irrelevant and the status of Harvard is the sole key into a new world. Part of the bleak joy of this intensely involving movie is to witness how all of these characters converge, deal with each other and treat each other as chess board pieces. We see how callous they are and how the ruthless rules of business and potential fame and fortune transcends levels of simply human decency, honor and friendship. It is as if we are placed into a world where such things do not exist. Every character’s move is a power play, common decency and general respect for others be damned. Again, the up to the minute corporate dealings depicted in ”The Social Network” are pitched at the exact and aggressive savagery that should have been on display during “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” (I apologize for the continuous comparisons to the “Wall Street” sequel but as both films share similar themes and the fact that I saw both films within one day of each other, the comparisons seems fair.)

Jesse Eisenberg, from Writer/Director Noah Baumbach’s divorce film “The Squid and the Whale” (2005) and Writer/Director Greg Mattola’s bittersweet post-college comedy “Adventureland” (2009), gives an internally blistering performance as Mark Zuckerberg, who is depicted as an enigmatic, misanthropic megalomaniac. He is the smartest man in the room and knows it deeply. He carries a seething cauldron of rage and envy for those he deems inferior as well as those who carry an access to a world which he has been denied. There is racial and class warfare in his dealings as he is a young Jewish man railing against the entrenched and elitist WASP community and all it stands for. His obvious contempt is evident is every scene and even his jealousy towards his only friend Eduardo, who has been invited to join Phoenix-an exclusive Harvard club that eventually functions as a gateway to a loftier world-is nasty, to say the least. Just watch his owl or hawk like eyes as they always seems to be looking through a person rather than at them. Seeing how his mind operates is deeply involving and somehow keeps you from hurling your concessions at the screen as you do want to throttle him. He is precisely the little bastard in Middle school who could fix the Rubik’s cube in under one minute, making everyone else wallow in stupidity…and now the little bastard is a billionaire.

Mark Zuckerberg is also a morass of contradictions, the largest being that he is the creator of a network that allows individuals to create and reunite with friends yet within his personal life, he coldly sells out his only friend who subsequently sues him. His only real confidant is Sean Parker who despite having a similar business outlook in comparison to Eduardo’s more traditional pathways, Parker is nothing more than a slick sycophant. The more I think about him, Mark Zuckerberg seems to be a more sinister version of the video game obsessed and EXTREME narcissist Scott Pilgrim from this summer’s “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” as both characters are cut from the similar cloth. (Which is funny as Eisenberg is sometimes mistaken for Michael Cera due to their similar appearances and acting styles.)

In many ways, “The Social Network” is not really a film about Facebook. Yet, Facebook, with its 500 million users worldwide, is the 600 pound gorilla in the room. So, the film’s depiction of Facebook’s creation is utilized as a catalyst to explore much wider territory, eventually arriving at that cultural touchstone status, I mentioned at this review’s outset. It is marking a pinpoint on this stage in our cultural evolution as the film stands as a exploration of our level and deeply rooted desire for fame, notoriety as well as a generational and unprecedented sense of entitlement. It is a world where accountability is non-existent yet everyone demands the credit and exclusive rights. Most specifically, “The Social Network” is a film about all of us as much as it is about Zuckerberg and his cronies.

Mark Zuckerberg is ruthless, to be sure but he is also the man who is most alone, even when surrounded within a crowded room. Loneliness is at his core. Zuckerberg’s only sense of vulnerability is evidenced through his seldom reunions with Emily Albright after their breakup as her rejections tend to simultaneously confound and fuel him. She is not buying anything he’s selling no matter what it is or how brilliantly conceived and produced. Roomey Mara (soon to be seen as Lisbeth Salander in Fincher’s adaptation of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”) gives a stirring performance that goes far beyond simply functioning as the film’s moral conscience and only in a scant number of scenes. Emily Albright (and even Eduardo Saverin, for that matter) strongly represent examples of the sense of humanity we are losing in our increased technological age.

Emily, in particular, is Zuckerberg’s “Achilles’ heel” or better yet, his “Rosebud” as she curtly expresses the far reaching consequences that stem from his heartless irresponsibility and continuously refuses his subsequent apologies. “You didn’t write it in pencil!” she exclaims to him in regards to his initial on-line rant that criticized everything about Emily from her family, background, education and even bra size. This aspect of “The Social Network” is something that carries even more weight with news of the recent tragedy of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide after images of a homosexual tryst with a man was secretly videotaped and streamed on-line, on our airwaves. Yet another, immediate, up to the minute aspect the filmmakers could not have planned for whatsoever but an element that immediately sprung to my mind as I watched.

The emotional push-pull of being accepted and rejected is the soul of this film and even asks of us, exactly why any of us utilize Facebook, You Tube, MySpace or any other social sharing media at all. What is this need to interpersonally share through means of electronics instead of human contact? What is behind our primal need for acceptance, approval, understanding, empathy, and validation? What lies underneath our constant need to be heard in a world where everyone carries a loud voice? What is this even deeper need of acceptance or desiring an individualized carved out place in the cyber-universe?

I have to announce that I have loved Facebook ever since I was invited to join by a lovely friend and co-worker. When I received the e-mail notification, I had a barely used MySpace account and had not even heard of Facebook. By the time I eventually signed up, I became fascinated and addicted to the possibilities, the connections and re-connections I have been able to make, the immediacy of those connections and yes, the ability to create a virtual space, that was all my own and could potentially be whatever I wanted it to become. The existence of Savage Cinema is especially an extension of myself through cyberspace as well as my desires for acceptance and validation. For those of you who happen to be part of the Facebook world, how many times during a day do you check your status, change your status and wonder if your messages to the void are being received? Has anyone “liked” what you have had to say? And how does it make you feel when some does “like” your status or when it has seemingly gone ignored?

“The Social Network” remarkably has its virtual finger on the pulse of this moment and it questions if this level of instant gratification is healthy or harmful in our current society. What is Zuckerberg, or any of us, trying to reach and what are we all motivated by? For Zuckerberg, is it really just an endless wrath at the world or it is the hope to one day and finally be accepted by the one who rejected him? What are we all reaching for, hoping to connect with and/or to whom?

David Fincher’s “The Social Network” profoundly gripped me with its highly entertaining style and tremendous subject matter and substance. I strongly urge you to head out to your local cinemas and "accept" this masterful work as it functions as nothing less than a generational state of the union address and also as a generational warning.

Let us use our social networks wisely...