Saturday 4 December 2010

The Social Network - Cineworld - 28/11/10

Have you ever been poked?

What's your status?

Tagged anyone today?

Farmville?

Does any of this mean anything to you?

If it does then you have a facebook account and alongside 500 million others you are a part of the empire of Mark Zuckerberg...the creator and CEO (bitch) of Facebook.

Facebook could be one of the greatest forms of mass communication ever, it could be a sinister means of monitoring the activities of friends/former friends/ex-lovers/current lovers/employees or it could even be the brainchild of the CIA; it all depends on who you want to believe and what you want to believe.

What isn't open to debate is that Zuckerberg is one of the most interesting .commers in the history of www. or that he is the youngest billionaire ever.  It is this remarkable success along with the murky story of who really created the facebook that makes "The Social Network" a fascinating character study and not the sort of vanity project that most biopics are.

Directed by David Fincher (7even, Fight Club, Zodiac) and based on the book by Ben Mezrich (a million selling author) one would expect this film to be good...what elevates it beyond being a good film though is the screenplay from Aaron Sorkin which is surely the only possible winner of the best screenplay award at the next Oscars.  Sorkins script is fast, furious, intelligent, witty, caustic and always believable.  To sit down with a copy and read it would be more enjoyable and illuminating than forcing oneself to wade through the nominees for the Booker.

With a great central performance from Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg; all twisted neuroses and "Rainman" autism it is his best performance to date and could well land him an Oscar nod early next year.  Support from the likes of Armie Hammer (playing both Winklevoss twins) and Justin Timberlake as Napster creator Sean Parker ensure that the screen is always alive.

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