1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- The Social Network

#1129- The Social Network (2010)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake
Directed by: David Fincher


Plot Summary: After being dumped by his girlfriend Erica Albright, Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg returns to campus and in a drunken frustration, creates a website called Facemash that crashes Harvard's network. This catches the attention of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who along with their colleague Divya Narendra, ask Mark to work with them on a new website called Harvard Connection. While he agrees to help them, he instead uses his free time to work alongside his best friend Eduardo Saverin to create Thefacebook, which would eventually become Facebook. Once the website goes viral, Mark and Eduardo receive an equal amount of popularity and controversy from various sources, including groupies and interns treating them like gods, and Divya and the Winklevoss twins looking for justice. Their biggest challenge comes in the form of Napster founder Sean Parker, who is bankrupt and looking for a new billion-dollar idea to get him back to the top and sees it in Mark, but not necessarily in Eduardo and will go do anything to drive a wedge between the co-founders of Facebook.


As my summer review series comes to a close (regular monthly themes start up again in September), I knew I wanted to end on a high note with one of the best films of the 2010's: The Social Network. Directed by David Fincher, who also directed Seven and Fight Club (two of my earliest reviews that I'm very proud of), the film shows the evolution of his work, since he doesn't suffer from the director tropes that I accused Christopher Nolan suffered from in my previous review of Inception. Rather, the film doesn't have that eerie tone of Seven or the gritty tone of Fight Club. Instead, the film is shot with cinematography that is a spectacle for the eyes, with unique music for the ears, both of which accompany some great character performances from an amazing cast of young actors.

Jesse Eisenberg stars as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The thing about Eisenberg that works is that his charisma comes from a lack of charisma. He speaks quickly and in the same tone, rarely shows emotion and comes off as a pretentious snob to even his closest of friends. So why should we like him as a character? For me, it's the quickness of his wit and his comebacks that make me fascinated with his character. You can almost imagine the gears turning in his head to make him think so quickly. Not to mention that he has his moments where his true compassion does shine through, even if he doesn't want others to see it. It all adds together to make Mark a complex character that in theory, audiences should despise, but in reality he's quirky enough that we can't help but enjoy him.

My favorite character in the movie is Mark's best friend and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield. Ignoring the fact that Garfield plays Spider-Man (my favorite superhero), it's easy to see the future star he'd be with his breakthrough role in The Social Network. Without giving too much away, the audience can definitely empathize with Eduardo and see how much patience he actually has for Mark like a best friend would. He gives an amazing (PUN INTENDED) performance at the film's climax when he feels betrayed and can't take anymore. You can truly feel the hurt and betrayal he's been put through and understand how vindicated he feels to finally unleash his anger in a bone-chilling verbal tirade.

Surprisingly, one of the best performances in the film is from Justin Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker. The best part of the character, without giving too much away, is that he doesn't sound like he's going to be a bad guy upon his introduction. He's actually introduced in a charming and humorous scene, but gradually grows more greedy and paranoid to the point where he's a completely different character by the end of the film. Now that's a great display of a tragic character, and is more amazing to think that he's played by Justin Timberlake. Seriously, the guy can sing, dance, he's funny, and can do good dramatic work too? What can't he do?!?!?

My appreciation for The Social Network started this previous year with a class project for my Studies in Film course. Within my group, we had to watch the film numerous times, each time focusing on a different aspect of the film. I watched it once all the way through to see the film on its own, then separate times for narrative, cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene, acting, and editing. So in the span of about 2 months, I watched the film at least SEVEN times, creating a love/hate relationship with the film. I wanted to hate that I was watching the film so much, but I couldn't help but love the film more every time I saw it.

That leads me to make this bold statement: in terms of films that we've had so far this decade (meaning 2010-2014), The Social Network has definitely been my favorite to watch. Sure, there have been films I've thoroughly enjoyed like The Avengers and Django Unchained, but what helps with The Social Network is that it's one of most recent films that I've approached with that dissection mentality, in the same way I can find something new to appreciate with each viewing of films like Back to the Future or The Breakfast Club. In fact, when I was re-watching the film for this review, I couldn't help but say over and over again "man, I love this movie."


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Without a doubt, The Social Network is my favorite film on the list from our current decade. The performances, the music, the cinematography, and the story are all fantastic and it's one that should be remembered decades from now. It's a very easy film for me to recommend and definitely worth owning in your DVD collection.

The Social Network and movie images are copyrighted by Columbia Pictures