Tuesday 1/11/11 – The social Network
January 11th, 2011
See it… I say that everyone should see this one. It was really an excellent film.
Avoid it… If dialogue heavy storytelling or the dark, neo-noir style of Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Benjamin Button) fails to agree with you.
I have to say, I really enjoyed this movie. Stunning imagery and skilled editing bring a look to the film, a crispness and structure that was so clean as to almost be a little unnerving. An amazing script from Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing). It was full of his high intelligence, almost machine gun firing dialogue, but also carried dry sadness and dark wit with it. The perfect blend given the movies characterization of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg as a brilliant but tragically socially detached student at Harvard who’s desire to, and failure to, be a part of an exclusive club drives him to use his tremendous skills to create one within the world wide web. All of this is topped off with a chilling score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to create one hell of a story.
It’s amazing to realize that when these events were going down, when these guys were battling it out in court over ownership, Intellectual Property, and other legal issues, that these were all guys who were under the age of 21. It is amazing just how far we have come in this world.
Little factoid, during the film it’s mentioned that the creation of facebook made Zuckerberg the biggest thing on the campus of Harvard that included a movie star. This star, while unnamed within the confines of the film was actually one Natalie Portman, who was enrolled in the school at the time all of this was going down. She actually provided script writer Sorkin with information about what was going on at the time on campus, including details which had not previously been published publicly before.
For readers in the Northern NJ area, there is still a chance to see this one on the big screen. At least for the rest of this week the Kinnelon Mall Theater will be showing the movie at 7:20pm. I know I’m definitely going to attempt to go see it before it leaves. This film is begging for you to see it in the Theater, even if you have to brave another dreaded winter storm to do so.
-Ted