The Social Network

Roger Ebert's review of The Social Network

(I am going to post excerpts because the review is quite long and contains a few spoilers.)


David Fincher's film has the rare quality of being not only as smart as its brilliant hero, but in the same way. It is cocksure, impatient, cold, exciting and instinctively perceptive.

It hurtles through two hours of spellbinding dialogue. It makes an untellable story clear and fascinating. It is said to be impossible to make a movie about a writer, because how can you show him only writing? It must also be impossible to make a movie about a computer programmer, because what is programming but writing in a language few people in the audience know? Yet Fincher and his writer, Aaron Sorkin, are able to explain the Facebook phenomenon in terms we can immediately understand, which is the reason 500 million of us have signed up.

In an age when movie dialogue is dumbed and slowed down to suit slow-wits in the audience, the dialogue here has the velocity and snap of screwball comedy. Eisenberg, who has specialized in playing nice or clueless, is a heat-seeking missile in search of his own goals. Timberlake pulls off the tricky assignment of playing Sean Parker as both a hot shot and someone who engages Zuckerberg as an intellectual equal. Andrew Garfield evokes an honest friend who is not the right man to be CFO of the company that took off without him, but deserves sympathy.

"The Social Network" is a great film not because of its dazzling style or visual cleverness, but because it is splendidly well-made. Despite the baffling complications of computer programming, web strategy and big finance, Aaron Sorkin's screenplay makes it all clear, and we don't follow the story so much as get dragged along behind it. I saw it with an audience that seemed wrapped up in an unusual way: It was very, very interested.
rogerebert.suntimes.com

By now, I'm like 75% sure Aaron Sorkin is going to bag nominations for Best Screenplay in some award shows.
 
Oh damn Aaron Sorkin was the writer? Jesus, this film will be brilliant based solely on that fact. :clap:
 
This is somewhere around the top of my list of must-see movies now, and I'm not even on Facebook. Can't be long until it opens in the UK.
 
I seriously can't wait to see this movie. I'm a BIG David Fincher fan.
I also love Jesse Eisenberg and who doesn't like Justin Timberlake? :smile:
 
Went to see it last week and it's indescribably good. Seriously people, you've got to see it, there are good reasons why it's called the movie of the year.
The acting is flawless, the story is unusual to say the least (we all know Fincher's passion for time jumps) and the soundtrack, oh the soundtrack... electro and mind-blowing.
Trust me, you won't regret wasting your money or time.
 
I saw it last night and loved it. It was a pleasant surprise to see that Trent Reznor did the music. I thought that really stood out in the rowing scene, it was definitely his style IMO. Writing was great, dialogue was amazing, story was interesting and the acting was superb.
 
I was just blown away by the script. It's really fantastic.

I think Fincher let the quality of the writing be the real star and he didn't really let loose anywhere except the (superb) Henley sequence with the tilt-shift photography.

Oscars await. And for once, it deserves it.
 
i saw it last week and it was fantastic!!! the script is amazing, i thought all the dialogues were really witty and well-written. and the cast is incredibly good, too! justin timberlake can actually act :blink: i was really surprised by him to be honest :P and i was definitely impressed by jesse eisenberg and armie hammer as well! i'm so gonna buy the dvd!
 
I really enjoyed the movie. I do think that the movie, director and screenplay will all win the oscars and Jesse will get nominated. Apparently the studio is trying to push for an oscar nom for JT. I have to admit that he was pretty good, but that was down to Fincher's direction and not JT's acting ability. Saying that, I don't think he deserves a nomination and there is no way he would win.
 
One compliment I can give JT is that I forgot he was "Justin Timberlake" on screen and really hated his character :lol:
 
I was just blown away by the script. It's really fantastic.

I think Fincher let the quality of the writing be the real star and he didn't really let loose anywhere except the (superb) Henley sequence with the tilt-shift photography.

Oscars await. And for once, it deserves it.

I agree. That Henley sequence was so random and yet it fit so perfectly. Amazing.
 
Loved this movie. I already watched it twice, and probably will be watching it again. The cast is amazing, and I don't use to like Justin Timberlake.

It's not a movie about Facebook. It's a movie about the creators of Facebook, but most of it, it's a movie about 'being accepted' or wanted to be acepted.

One of my fave from this year, gotta say.
 
I think it's the best movie of the year, even better than Inception.
 
"I'm 6'6", 220, and there's two of me."

Armie Hammer should get an Oscar nom for playing the twins. :lol:
 
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This movie is the best movie I have seen in a very long time. The script writing and directing were great, the acting was excellent, especially the lead character.

By the way I love the opening scene where he is running through campus at night, that was so classic.
 
Another must-see film from David Fincher. Every element was brilliantly constructed.

I was expecting a really superficial narration at first (unknowingly of David Fincher's involvement) but it was actually about the friendship, rivalry and the business perspectives that the Facebook founders endured. Also helped that the casting had eye candies (JT not involved! :ninja:) too. :P
 
The first minutes of the movie got me very irritated. I was like GD is that Zuckerberg person going to talk like that the whole time?!

After that, I liked the movie very much :P
 
Finally saw this one! It's an absolute pleasure to watch to say the least, this coming from a non Facebooker.
Every line is mindblowingly brilliant. And the actors are surprisingly great! I think JT definitely deserves more credit than he currently has.
 

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