Facebook. A noun, a verb, an abbreviation, so ubiquitous now that to not have a facebook account is almost akin to not having a mobile phone. The Social Network is a retelling of the events leading to Facebook's creation, its heady early days, and the legal wrangling that eventuated.
After being dumped by his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara), Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) goes home and write an alcohol-fuelled rant blog against her that turns into a night of hacking into various pages, and with the help of an algorithm from his best friend Eduardo Savarin (Andrew Garfield - looking sharp in those suits!), to create a website that rates the looks of the female students of Harvard. This site (facemash.com) causes the Harvard server to crash and bring him to the attention of the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer) and their business associate Divya Narendra (Max Minghella), who are interested in making a networking site whereby Harvard people can meet other Harvard people - a kind of elite wankfest. Bankrolled by Eduardo, Mark surreptitiously builds on the idea of the Winklevii and builds thefacebook. As it creeps across the university campuses of the US, it catches the eye of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), creator of Napster, and it grows along to become what we know Facebook to be today.
I suppose I could talk about the cleverness of the screenplay - story is framed by the lawsuits Zuckerberg faced from various parties after the fact - as well as providing a form of cyclical storytelling in which various scenes are referenced by later events. I suppose I could talk about the acting (also good). But instead, I will provide an edited transcript of the conversation josh and I had about the movie that illustrates both it's strengths and weaknesses.
I disagree with his assessment but I can see how he came to that conclusion. After all, how is it really possible to sue someone for an idea? And is such an avenue even possible for the non-wealthy and privileged? Although it would have been nice if they explored Josh's belief that all creative enterprises are generated by trying to get revenge on women. That would have been interesting to see!
So to end, a pic of Eduardo/Andrew Garfield being ejected from the Facebook building!
An interesting story and example in storytelling, although not without its faults.
After being dumped by his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara), Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) goes home and write an alcohol-fuelled rant blog against her that turns into a night of hacking into various pages, and with the help of an algorithm from his best friend Eduardo Savarin (Andrew Garfield - looking sharp in those suits!), to create a website that rates the looks of the female students of Harvard. This site (facemash.com) causes the Harvard server to crash and bring him to the attention of the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer) and their business associate Divya Narendra (Max Minghella), who are interested in making a networking site whereby Harvard people can meet other Harvard people - a kind of elite wankfest. Bankrolled by Eduardo, Mark surreptitiously builds on the idea of the Winklevii and builds thefacebook. As it creeps across the university campuses of the US, it catches the eye of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), creator of Napster, and it grows along to become what we know Facebook to be today.
I suppose I could talk about the cleverness of the screenplay - story is framed by the lawsuits Zuckerberg faced from various parties after the fact - as well as providing a form of cyclical storytelling in which various scenes are referenced by later events. I suppose I could talk about the acting (also good). But instead, I will provide an edited transcript of the conversation josh and I had about the movie that illustrates both it's strengths and weaknesses.
Josh says: but yea... saw the Social Network - bo-ring
Mallymoodle says: really? i thought it was quite interesting, assholes vs. assholes. Except for Eduardo, I liked his suits
Josh says: I don't know... it was just boring to me. I don't really care to see the extrodinary success of privledged white people, and after a whole movie of talking about how they need to keep facebook cool, and not make any money... they just throw up text in the end that say the guy is a billionaire...The one question I had all movie... about how the hell they were going to make money off of it... they completely gloss over that part
Mallymoodle says: yeah, eduardo was saying it will make money by advertising
Josh says: but, I felt like the movie was building up to explaining that ...
Mallymoodle says: which is how it makes money now - because so many ppl use it now, advertisers pay for the banner space
Josh says: sure... but the movie doesn't tell you that, bad narrative
Mallymoodle says: probably because it assumes you're one of the 500million people who have facebook
Josh says: so what was the climax of the drama?
Mallymoodle says: that he was all alone, and that the girl who dumped him who he said he didn't want to be friends with (and who didn't want to be friends with him) didn't want to be friends with him, even on fb
Josh says: that's the end scene, not the climax - I guess it's supposed to be when they push out Eduardo from the company... and reveal their intentions?? Certainly the lawsuits weren't concluded on screen. Hard to say what the point of the story was. If it was to just say Zuckerberg is an asshole, they accomplished that in the first 5 mins.
Josh says: that's the end scene, not the climax - I guess it's supposed to be when they push out Eduardo from the company... and reveal their intentions?? Certainly the lawsuits weren't concluded on screen. Hard to say what the point of the story was. If it was to just say Zuckerberg is an asshole, they accomplished that in the first 5 mins.
Mallymoodle says: oh, i think it's to illustrate that he became an asshole by disregarding his friend who'd been there for him from the start, and that eventually, sean did prove to be unreliable
Josh says: hmmm....then... it was weak...
Mallymoodle says: i think it's that the movie is about something that's supposed to indicate who your friends are, but he ultimately disregarded his friend/s until he had no true ones left
Mallymoodle says: i think it's that the movie is about something that's supposed to indicate who your friends are, but he ultimately disregarded his friend/s until he had no true ones left
Josh says: I think they should have focused on the aspect that all creative enterprises are generated in response to getting revenge on women. They dealt with that a bit... but that was the real intersting part
Mallymoodle says: but also that a lot of FB friends are *empty* - as seen by his trying to friend the girl who rejected him and whom he retaliated against
Josh says: because facebook can be such a harsh tool for retaliating against people. That part was interesting to me... but when it focused on the lawsuits and lame friendship stuff... it was just boring... and poorly scripted
Mallymoodle says: they were trying to use something other than facebook for retaliating
Josh says: it's interesting to think that facebook is this great tool for denying people access to your world... without actually having to see them face-to-face... and how this guy was having a hard time communicating face-to-face with people... that's an interesting theme, but ultimately handled quiet poorly in this movie
I disagree with his assessment but I can see how he came to that conclusion. After all, how is it really possible to sue someone for an idea? And is such an avenue even possible for the non-wealthy and privileged? Although it would have been nice if they explored Josh's belief that all creative enterprises are generated by trying to get revenge on women. That would have been interesting to see!
So to end, a pic of Eduardo/Andrew Garfield being ejected from the Facebook building!
Whoever was wardrobe for that guy, job well done!
8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment