The Social Network
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And White gives us everything we'd expected/hoped for -- even tosses in a snide Obama reference. (Though he evidently had to stretch to be the contrarian, as even he gives it 3 stars)
http://www.nypress.com/article-21676-creeps-as-heroes.html
http://www.nypress.com/article-21676-creeps-as-heroes.html
In something of a surprise, Rex Reed is an "old fogy" reviewer who loved it.
http://www.observer.com/2010....-thrill
http://www.observer.com/2010....-thrill
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I am ambivalent about seeing the film, even though I use Facebook a lot.
The teasers were better than the actual trailer. I felt no connection to these people and it just felt like a bunch of spoiled rich kids fighting over bragging rights. I didn't see a story with characters to root for. Still, being an Oscar film, I'll still check it out.
The teasers were better than the actual trailer. I felt no connection to these people and it just felt like a bunch of spoiled rich kids fighting over bragging rights. I didn't see a story with characters to root for. Still, being an Oscar film, I'll still check it out.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
First UK broadsheet review, from Andrew Pulver in The Guardian
The Social Network **** (out of 5)
Even now, it seems an improbable story. A bunch of computer nerds get together at university, put together a website that allows you to stay in touch with your friends and a few years later they are worth billions – and one of them, 26-year-old Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg, is 35th on the Forbes rich list, with a personal fortune of $6.9bn (£4.3bn).
It may feel a little soon to be dissecting the creation of Facebook on the cinema screen, but Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires is a compelling source text. And in the hands of The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin, credited as the scriptwriter, and powerhouse director David Fincher (after Zodiac, no stranger to recent-past reconstruction), The Social Network emerges as a fantastically surefooted and immensely watchable anatomy of a "holy-shit, once-in-a-generation moment", as it's aptly described at one point.
The Social Network sets out its stall from the start. Internet films tend to be infested with jittery computer-generated imagery, glowing cables, and translucent holograms of computer screens: instead, in the opening scene here we're treated to an extended discussion/argument between Zuckerberg (played by a note-perfect Jesse Eisenberg) and his date, Erica (Rooney Mara). He tries to be erudite and charming, but his social skills are so underdeveloped that his verbosity is entirely counterproductive, and the girl walks out on him.
It's Zuckerberg's reaction to this incident that is held to be germ of the Facebook concept – he vengefully hacks into the Harvard database and creates a hot-or-not website to rank the university's female students. Here, the film artfully exposes the elite institution's social apartheid: an elaborate series of crosscuts shows the gulf the nebbishy group of hackers and the rich-kid decadence of high Harvard society, with its "final clubs" and honour codes – complete, of course, with willing debutantes. This disparity – women, money, social poise – is made the insistent undercurrent of the drive to create Facebook and its desperate emphasis on "friends". Zuckerberg is hired by a couple of rowing-team bluebloods to work on their similar-sounding website; but they won't let him past the bike shed of their members-only dining club. He is then dazzled by the high-beam wattage of Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who seems to encapsulate the geek ideal of combining sexual allure, fast talk and computer savvy.
In fact, the arrival of the Parker character transforms The Social Network into something of a triangular bromance; the third element being Zuckerberg's onetime friend and collaborator, Eduardo Saverin, who, as history records, was eased out of Facebook once Zuckerberg had moved the operation to California and later sued to have his name listed on the company masthead. Saverin plays the jiltee in this regard – undermined, suspicious, truculent and finally betrayed.
Women, frankly, are conspicuous by their absence: they're there as dates, interns, or bitch-girlfriend figures. It's all a bit ironic for a story predicated on the desire to meet them.
Be that as it may, The Social Network is riveting: it zips along, told mostly in flashback, and communicates the pure exhilaration of this momentous social gear-change with aplomb. Most remarkably, it's staggering to realise the events depicted here occurred in 2005; it looks like ancient history.
The Social Network **** (out of 5)
Even now, it seems an improbable story. A bunch of computer nerds get together at university, put together a website that allows you to stay in touch with your friends and a few years later they are worth billions – and one of them, 26-year-old Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg, is 35th on the Forbes rich list, with a personal fortune of $6.9bn (£4.3bn).
It may feel a little soon to be dissecting the creation of Facebook on the cinema screen, but Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires is a compelling source text. And in the hands of The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin, credited as the scriptwriter, and powerhouse director David Fincher (after Zodiac, no stranger to recent-past reconstruction), The Social Network emerges as a fantastically surefooted and immensely watchable anatomy of a "holy-shit, once-in-a-generation moment", as it's aptly described at one point.
The Social Network sets out its stall from the start. Internet films tend to be infested with jittery computer-generated imagery, glowing cables, and translucent holograms of computer screens: instead, in the opening scene here we're treated to an extended discussion/argument between Zuckerberg (played by a note-perfect Jesse Eisenberg) and his date, Erica (Rooney Mara). He tries to be erudite and charming, but his social skills are so underdeveloped that his verbosity is entirely counterproductive, and the girl walks out on him.
It's Zuckerberg's reaction to this incident that is held to be germ of the Facebook concept – he vengefully hacks into the Harvard database and creates a hot-or-not website to rank the university's female students. Here, the film artfully exposes the elite institution's social apartheid: an elaborate series of crosscuts shows the gulf the nebbishy group of hackers and the rich-kid decadence of high Harvard society, with its "final clubs" and honour codes – complete, of course, with willing debutantes. This disparity – women, money, social poise – is made the insistent undercurrent of the drive to create Facebook and its desperate emphasis on "friends". Zuckerberg is hired by a couple of rowing-team bluebloods to work on their similar-sounding website; but they won't let him past the bike shed of their members-only dining club. He is then dazzled by the high-beam wattage of Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who seems to encapsulate the geek ideal of combining sexual allure, fast talk and computer savvy.
In fact, the arrival of the Parker character transforms The Social Network into something of a triangular bromance; the third element being Zuckerberg's onetime friend and collaborator, Eduardo Saverin, who, as history records, was eased out of Facebook once Zuckerberg had moved the operation to California and later sued to have his name listed on the company masthead. Saverin plays the jiltee in this regard – undermined, suspicious, truculent and finally betrayed.
Women, frankly, are conspicuous by their absence: they're there as dates, interns, or bitch-girlfriend figures. It's all a bit ironic for a story predicated on the desire to meet them.
Be that as it may, The Social Network is riveting: it zips along, told mostly in flashback, and communicates the pure exhilaration of this momentous social gear-change with aplomb. Most remarkably, it's staggering to realise the events depicted here occurred in 2005; it looks like ancient history.
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Correct. This is a "see, I can't be such a bad guy" move.Okri wrote:I think Tee meant more as a response to the movie - he's portrayed as a bit of a dickhead in the film, isn't he (the beginnings of Facebook as a "hot or not" website for all the girls in his school after being dumped).MovieWes wrote:I doubt he's plugging for the movie. He's been vocally against it from the very beginning. He even refused to be interviewed by both Ben Mezrich, author of the novel The Accidental Billionaires, and Aaron Sorkin.Mister Tee wrote: So the movie's already accomplished something positive.
Unless you think this timing's pure coincidence.
I think Tee meant more as a response to the movie - he's portrayed as a bit of a dickhead in the film, isn't he (the beginnings of Facebook as a "hot or not" website for all the girls in his school after being dumped).MovieWes wrote:I doubt he's plugging for the movie. He's been vocally against it from the very beginning. He even refused to be interviewed by both Ben Mezrich, author of the novel The Accidental Billionaires, and Aaron Sorkin.Mister Tee wrote:So the movie's already accomplished something positive.Big Magilla wrote:Yes, and he's announcing on Oprah's show tomorrow that he's giving $100 million to the Newark, N.J. school system - seriously!
Unless you think this timing's pure coincidence.
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Mister Tee wrote:Big Magilla wrote:Yes, and he's announcing on Oprah's show tomorrow that he's giving $100 million to the Newark, N.J. school system - seriously!
So the movie's already accomplished something positive.
Unless you think this timing's pure coincidence.
I doubt he's plugging for the movie. He's been vocally against it from the very beginning. He even refused to be interviewed by both Ben Mezrich, author of the novel The Accidental Billionaires, and Aaron Sorkin.
"Young men make wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution." -- Alec Guinness (Lawrence of Arabia)
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Apropos of all this, this year's Forbes 400 list came out today. The 26 year old Mark Zuckerberg is the 35th wealthiest person in America.
Edited By Sonic Youth on 1285275612
Edited By Sonic Youth on 1285275612
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler