Movie report

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2010)


Yeah, this was a good one. The performances, the pace, and the music (co-composed by Trent Reznor) all came together perfectly, and the direction by David Fincher made a legal deliberation across a conference table seem as the most riveting thing possible to watch.

What makes this movie ALMOST legendary is that I was surprised about how little the movie focused on the impact on implications Facebook has for how we socialize. There were some very good and powerful references to this impact, included the chilling ending that is one of the most perfect thematic conclusions to a film I’ve seen in a long while. Nonetheless, the film basically examines the characters that helped create this ubiquitous application and the protracted legal battles over revenues as facebook exploded, where amounts of 50 million dollars or more are tossed around back and forth casually as if they didn’t matter. Add in a few more subtle references to how difficult it was for this main character to traditionally socialize, and how facebook became a type of solution to his issues, and subsequently all people’s modern social hangups, and this film would have struck a perfect harmony between a straightforward drama and an incisive social commentary. But what was delivered was far from a disappointment, and perhaps I’ve got my own issues with online communication that I was hoping to see addressed by this movie.

See, I try to think I’m above a marketing campaign but I was a sucker for the acclaimed trailer and the collaboration between atmospheric director David Fincher and nine inch nails guy Trent Reznor. What it implied to me was that this movie would going to hit the alienation of the online age head-on. I’ve had trouble dealing with my predilection for interacting with people online ever since I discovered AOL chat rooms circa 1995-1996. And everytime I think I’ve beaten the temptation to deal with shyness and insecurity by leaning towards my typing keys as my social instrument, a new feature comes along that tweaks the model a little bit. Unlike younger people I actually know of a world where you couldn’t communicate in YouTube clips and if you wanted to tell someone what you were reading, listening, or watching, you had to go through a few basic social interactions before you could share that knowledge. So perhaps knowing the music of Reznor and the films of Fincher from their work in the 1990s, the same time I was going through adolescence and social maturity, that their styles would be particular modern and in tune with some of the larger themes inherent in the expansion of facebook and new forms of online connectivity.

I graduated from college in the summer of 2003 and Facebook first spread through campuses that following fall. My online vices were mostly AIM and relying too much on e-mail to communicate with people I was shy around, yet fortunately the small college campus environment kept you social away from your computer. So perhaps I had a unique perspective and expectations for The Social Network. Overall it’s a story about a cutthroat business battle among kids my age, and it was very entertaining.

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Also

IN THE LOOP (2009)