Review: The Social Network

TinCan review after the jump.

Yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from The Owens Group. The Owens Group is a PR/Marketing firm that specializes in offering early and free screenings of anticipated films in order to build hype and popularity for the movie before it's box office weekend premier. I was given 6 free tickets for the night, to see David Finchers's 'The Social Network'. As all 6 of us hopped in my car to head to the theater 2 hours and 15 minutes before the movie began (I do not kid around when it comes to early screenings). As much as you probably have already figured, we were the first in line. But it wasn't long before the line began growing. Before we knew it, the line reached far past the door and into the "The theater is full, you'll have to try some other time." portion.

2 very large men stood in front of me in black suits with metal detecting wands just eager to to pull a video recording device from someone's possession. While I made it past security without a charm, I somehow made it in with a pocket knife that I forgot I had in my pocket from earlier that afternoon.

I stepped into a completely open theater, a blank dull screen, and a smell of cleanliness as if they had been reserving this room for days. Making my way to my seat, my excitement grew for the film. Before I knew it, the theater was filled with people (some more well behaved than others). The lights went down, the screen got bright, the film began.

Instantly, you get to know Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). For the record, Mark Zuckerberg is one of the Co-Founder's of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg embodies the boy who puts himself on a pedestal as being smarter than everyone else, but "chooses not to brag about it". His only downfall, he doesn't row crew. I have not seen a ton of Jesse Eisenberg's work (who could blame me?), but I have this feeling that he does not a whole lot of range and personality to play different characters. I got half way through 'Adventureland' and felt sick of his performance. But as far as 'The Social Network' goes, we can all thank Aaron Sorkin, for creating great dialogue for Jessie Eisenberg's character, Mark Zuckerberg. Without it, I'm not sure if I would have been able to stand it.

The storyline jumps back and forth from the actual creation of facebook (coding, building, servers) to the meetings between lawyers with the people who are now suing Mark Zuckerberg for more money that I can even imagine. When Fincher first did the jump, it was quite confusing in the storyline, but that's just Fincher's style.

Let me go ahead and get to the most important part about this film. Now don't let me lead you to believe that I'm getting sappy on you. 'The Social Network' is the best generational film to understand the current young generation. Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in the world, and this is how he did it. Our generation (as I am apart of it) is unlike any to come before us. We are the children of computers and this how we get the job done. The college education is becoming more and more of a watered down degree every year. Mark Zuckerberg embodies the  image of a trend that explodes in the latter part of the decade that drives entrepreneurship. No longer are you guaranteed your highest dreams because of your father's bank account or connections (which is something we learned in the scene involving the Winklevoss twins and the 'dean who refuses to listen to anything they have to say and is disgusted by their behavior).

This entire film is not just about an incredible story of how a few young kids changed the world from their dorm room. It's about how our generation plans to define ourselves to be different than our mother and father. Away from our generation sounding like we are hear to suck out the souls of common Americans, 'The Social Network' shows a lot of heart. The scenes involving Mark Zuckerberg (Jessie Eisenberg) and Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) with their lawyers discussing the terms of a lawsuit are full of true and emotional feelings for one another. They were best friends that both had faith in something that was unimaginable. Eduardo and Mark stand face to face, discussing 600 million dollars and they both show each other the respect of being one another's (former) friend.

As far as Andrew Garfield's character Eduardo Savrin and Justin Timberlake's character Sean Parker, there is nothing to comment on. Both characters were pretty straight forward. They were quite stagnant and left for the story and Mark Zuckerberg to build around them. With that said, I do not want to give any spoilers. Below I embedded the trailer.

I hope you enjoy the film.