Do you remember when your school got added to "The Facebook"? Remember when it was called "The Facebook"? I do, as will most people my age. The Social Network blew my mind. I was bummed to see it end and going on Facebook after just felt odd to say the least. Some people have expressed to me that they have absolutely no interest in seeing this movie and that they actually hate Facebook (yet still have accounts?). But in my opinion, I dont care if you hate Facebook, you have to admit that its creation is one of the defining moments of our generation and modern times and it cant hurt to go see an extremely good movie about the building of this empire.
The Social Network is the story of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) a Harvard student struggling to find his place in a school full of over achievers, heirs to excessive amounts of wealth and an overwhelming desire to be "somebody". After a drunken blog rant he creates a site, "Face Smash" (a site allowing you to decide who is hottest between two girls images), in a matter of hours the traffic brings down the schools server landing Mark in hot water with the school board. Hes soon approached by the Winklevoss twins (Both Cameron and Tyler are played by Armie Hammer), identical twin rowing powerhouses who are everything Mark desires to be; good looking, rich, powerful and popular. The twins and their friend Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) proposition Zuckerberg to help them code a site for social networking and dating that is exclusive to Harvard. Zuckerberg takes the boys for a ride for a little while without ever doing any actual work for them and eventually pulls out, at the same time he unveils The Facebook with the help of his only real friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield).
The story is told through scenes of two separate lawsuits that were later filed by the Winklevoss twins/Divya and Eduardo Saverin, the rest of the film is in real time as the events are described by the boys involved. I couldnt imagine The Social Network being any other way, in terms of cast, writing, cinematography, everything fit the film. Eisenbergs performance as Zuckerberg was completely different than any other character he has played in a film before, for once he plays an asshole. As most know the real Zuckerberg declined to take part in the films production (however Natalie Portman has been linked to helping some due to the fact that she dating someone involved in an exclusive final club within Harvard that Eduardo was apart of) so who knows how he really is but its not the best portrayal of him as a person. Hammer as both Winklevoss twins was also brilliant, stitching his face on the second twin was done seamlessly and it was awesome to be able to see the differences in both characters. Since seeing the film I have gotten into numerous discussions over who created Facebook and was Zuckerberg at fault for being sued. I think that he created Facebook and was sued out of jealousy to an extent and like he says in the film, "If they could have created Facebook, they would have". Case and point.
As for the visual aspect of the film, there really was not a thing I wanted to complain about. I felt the saturation and dark color palette was appropriate and fit the tone. One of the most talked about scenes being the rowing competition the Winklevoss twins take part in which is one of the first times the "tilt shift" technique has been used in a film. I will say anytime I see this technique I am immediately taken back to my days of sophomore year in college where as a photography major one is required to take view camera and learn the ways of tilting and swinging. In photographs this has been overdone a bit at this point, mainly because you can easily apply this look in photoshop, however seeing it on film in a major motion picture is very new and done nicely in this scene.
The Social Network
Released 2010
Directed by David Fincher
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