Jasonic Reviews The Social Network

As somebody who uses social media on a regular basis, it's interesting when you come across a movie that addresses the founding of one of the biggest social media sites of all time. It's one thing when a movie documents a real-life event that involves the creation of something revolutionary like Facebook -- which I am ironically sharing this review link on as you read. But the movie I'm about to talk about is no documentary; it's a series of events based on real life told through an entertaining screenplay. To talk about this details of this movie right off the bat, however, I feel would give too much away, thereby rendering the following paragraphs redundant. So, without spilling anything besides basic info in this introductory paragraph, I hereby address my thoughts on what makes the movie, The Social Network, a great flick.

*No need for spoiler tag here*

Based on the book, The Accidental Billionaires, which itself is based on real-life events, the film is essentially an exaggerated documentary, as I like to call it, about the creation of the Facebook website we know and love today. In it, Harvard student Mark Zuckerburg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) finds himself being dumped by his girlfriend, Erica Albright (played by Rooney Mara). Upon returning to his dorm to write insulting blog entries about her as well as create an attractiveness rating site called Facemash. Though it crashes much of Harvard's network, the site's popularity reaches the likes of the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler (played in double by Armie Hammer), who give him the idea to start a social networking site called Harvard Connection. Zuckerburg steals the idea and renames it "The Facebook"; with financial assistance from his close friend, Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield), Zuckerburg manages to build the site, which becomes highly successful to the point of panning out to several other schools in the U.S. Meanwhile, the Winklevoss twins discover the similarities between their idea and Zuckerburg's site and forward to file lawsuit for intellectual property theft. In a series of depositions intercut between the main events, Zuckerburg makes many friends while also making a few enemies.

For starters, the film has a way of being cleverly entertaining that's somehow on par with an action blockbuster. The dialogue exchanges between the cast are rather down-to-earth, yet somehow manage to remain fun and entertaining all at the same time. I can't really explain how it is, but hearing Zuckerburg's techno, code-working babble and Sean Parker's (Justin Timberlake's character) entrepreneur business talk is very engaging when it could've potentially been rather boring for me. For that matter, despite the fact that I am no computer technician or hacker (thankfully), seeing and hearing Eisenberg deliver such information makes me curious as to if I could do what he does for a living. In a sense, it's a lot like Tony Stark's building montages in the first Iron Man because it gives off that sort of resonance that makes me excited about the topics being presented despite the fact that I lack experience in such advanced fields. And, without a doubt, each actor manages to act their role very well with Eisenberg, Timberlake, and Garfield all owning the show throughout. For a dramatized biography, it really manages to keep me invested.

Much of it could be the fact that, as mentioned before, the film takes a lot of artistic license in portraying its events. According to Facebook's creator, Mark Zuckerburg, a lot of what happened in this movie is false when compared to real life events. For example, Eisenberg manages to handsomely portray a greedy, arrogant, sex-motivated guy who just got dumped by his girlfriend out to make a name for himself, but, given what we know about the real Zuckerburg, I doubt he's that much of a narcissist. That and the parts where Eisenberg and Garfield are arguing back and forth about the rash, even self-centered decisions the other makes seems to be a series of events created solely for the purpose of dramatic entertainment. Despite sounding negative from a certain point of view, the film, by no means, is any worse for having this much creative leeway put into it; in fact, I say it's more appealing to watch that way! If nothing else, the little "decorations" the film applies to the story make it so that nobody gets easily bored of watching and leaves the movie feeling much more of an impact.

Another standout portion that makes the film what it is would have to be the music; scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the soundtrack might as well be one of the most unique tastes of movie music we've had in the last decade. The energetic and electronic feel generated from most of the tracks (including the somewhat somber opening piece "Hand Covers Bruise") gives it a flavor that really drives in the techno side of the film. It's no wonder some of the songs also give off a bit of a video game vibe a Reznor himself has scored some video games in the past. Really, a lot of talent went into the music despite it going barely noticed amongst the general public. For the hard-working people out there as well as those who are pushing to get homework done in the nick of time, it really gets your brain going to where you're concentrating like crazy just trying to crank out whatever it is you're writing/completing. Ironically, this is me listening to the soundtrack now as I write about it. Oh, what irony I've brought into this post!

So, overall, I say that The Social Network, being what it is and essentially documenting the rise of one of the biggest social media sites of all time, is a very well done movie for what it is. It's got great dialogue exchanges with great acting to boot, a meaningful story full of artistic license for entertainment purposes, and a really great soundtrack on top of that. That said, it's no wonder it won so many awards for having such an amazing premise among other factors that continue to make it relevant in our social media-infested world today. In terms of rating, I personally give it a solid A and consider it a must see for those willing to check it out for what it is.

Thanks y'all for reading and, as always, I will see you in the next review!