David Fincher is one of the best directors around. Every misguided youth can explain the brilliancy of “Fight Club,” “Zodiac” was on more critics’ top 10 lists than most of the movies up for the Oscars that year and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was nominated for numerous Oscars. While not all his movies are hits (“Panic Room”), Fincher’s latest film “The Social Network” looks like another winner.
Anybody under 30 is familiar with social networking sites such as Myspace, Friendster, Twitter and Facebook (which has been increasingly under scrutiny). “The Social Network” is about the founding and growth of Facebook, which may sound a bit dull, but as the tagline says, “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.”
What has always impressed me about Fincher’s films is the fact that more than the script is telling the story. From the soundtrack to the cinematography to the editing, they are all important in getting the film to make sense. The clips below show “The Social Network” as a dark story, filled with conflict, and you don’t even need the sound on to get that. Indeed a story about two people who come up with a website that connects people from all over the world and making millions of dollars in the process should be a happy one. However, “The Social Network” takes another route and looks at the greed and backstabbing involved instead. With so many complaints against Facebook lately, it’s hard to say whether the films audience will be sympathetic to the characters or more enraged.
“The Social Network” features a lot of up-and-coming stars, including Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerburg, the creator of Facebook. Eisenberg is most recognizable for his role in “Zombieland.” The film also stars Andrew Garfield, who has recently made headlines for being chosen as the new Spider-Man, and television stars Rashida Jones (of “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”) and Brenda Song (of Disney’s “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody). And the actor with whom most people will be familiar is Justin Timberlake.
“The Social Network” is in theaters now.
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Follow Allison Higginbotham on Twitter at http://twitter.com/allisonbh.
(Read our review of “The Social Network” here.)
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Follow Allison Higginbotham on Twitter at http://twitter.com/allisonbh.