While watching The Social Network this past friday night, I was in awe (much like I was watching the beautiful trailer). In awe of how pitch-perfect everything was. In awe of the breakneck pace that was still clear and powerful. In awe of Jesse Eisenberg and how much I sympathized with his conceited, brilliant billionaire. There's a unique swagger to his Mark Zuckerberg. The kind of swagger that comes with being unimaginably wealthy and blindingly intelligent. And yet those traits don't bury him in unlikeability. Eisenberg, Fincher and Sorkin humanize Zuckerberg by making him a really smart kid with a crush. And a helluva revenge streak.
Fincher lends the Facebook story his signature low-light visuals in beautiful widescreen. Whereas Oliver Stone's auteur visuals sometimes felt slapped on with scotch tape to Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Fincher's tone is fully realized and executed with an astounding precision. Though there are more delightful visual surprises in WS2:MNS, I preferred The Social Network's commitment and cohesion. (Also, that rowing sequence? Beautiful use of tilt-shift photography turning this sport of affluence into a spectacle of tiny, plastic toys)
But, Eisenberg. This is his show. He rarely smiles and instead emotes through his eyes, eybrows and jaw. You can see his wheels turning, burning at high speeds. You're impressed with his wit and geeky charm. You realize that although his mind is running on a high-end processor, his emotions and social skills run on a floppy disk. The only thing he ever claims to have interest in is being cool. Which makes the casting of his mentor, Justin Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker, all the more perfect.
Parker is cool in large part because the bravado that Timberlake brings to the role. He knows fine food and the names of the waitresses who bring it. He flirts with ease. He has no respect for the authoritative "Man". He is smooth. He wears hoodies. Zuckerberg's relationship with Parker is reminiscent of a high school crush on an upperclassmen. Zuckerberg wants to BE Parker. This is echoed by the casting of Timberlake who looks like the Hollywood version of Eisenberg - his Jewish curls cut stylishly short.The emotional core of the film lies in the relationship between Zuckerberg and co-founder, wealthy Brazilian kid, Eduardo Saverin (played by soon-to-be Spiderman2.0, Andrew Garfield). Filled with half-truths and jealousy, love and dependency, it's their story that makes the drama in The Social Network so captivating. Due in large part to the fact that these are surely to be two of the defining actors of a generation.
The Social Network is an incredible ride about the personally disconnected kid who connected the world impersonally. Made with the same type of confidence and smarts that Zuckerberg owns onscreen, it's an underdog tale where the underdog just happens to be the youngest billionaire in the world. And by the end, you're rooting for him.
"Critical" Bits:
Class struggle. Harvard sucks. Fraternities suck. Bros suck. Armie Hammer rules.
The things boys do trying to win a girl. i.e. Invent Facebook.
Trent Reznor's score is haunting and helps propel the film forward, forward, forward.
1 comment:
Some people feel that the film "gets it wrong." That linked article is particularly amusing to me in it's attempts to defend Zuckerberg and "geeksters" - their word not mine. I for one was astonished by the film's insights into internet communication and the idea that for many people, the internet provides an easier way of social interaction. And in the end, The Social Network is a film. And it's ideas and visuals and execution and performances are greater than any authorized bio would have been. The internet could use more critical eyes like Fincher's turned it's way.
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