The Social NetworkChances are if you're reading this line of text, it's on some other tab on your computer's web browser, your phone, your tablet...maybe even your profile on Facebook. Maybe it's just me, but since there is an active Facebook account for one out of every four people on planet Earth...well...the left-brain types like the characterization of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) in The Social Network would say something about "numbers not lying" or something. But Facebook didn't start out as a multi-billion dollar, online institution; it wasn't even the first of it's kind in essence. Like almost everything in college aside from classes, it ostensibly began with a young man's trouble with a girl he liked.
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That's the story of The Social Network to start--was it different "in real life"? David Fincher's biopic of the world's youngest billionaire began as the novel by Ben Mezrich, called "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal"; though quite a mouthful, if it isn't accurate, it's quite provocative at least. But if you look at that alone, you might anticipate a story of raucous decadence, hedonistic partying, glitz and glamour; it's there, although our protagonist is often on the other side of those cool-kid stanchion ropes. Mark is a genius--it is not a point debated--but from his first dialogue (and ultimately last) with his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend, Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), it is also abundantly clear that Mark is disconnected from people, obsessed with becoming a member of a prestigious Harvard "final club", an academic society assured to fuel his rise to glory. His arrogance is more pronounced than even that assertion posits, and Erica acknowledges it by dumping him. This rejection is a stain for Mark, and haunts him from his college days into the the "present" in the midst of his various legal skirmishes with the parties he has allegedly wronged along the way up the ladder to financial and internet nirvana. The tagline of The Social Network encapsulates it: "you don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies". Is Mark a "bad man"? A traitor to allies like his former best friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), or one who absconds with "intellectual property", a claim purported by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) and Divya Narendra (Max Minghella), his would-be business partners and members of the ultra-exclusive Harvard final club, Porcelain? Although The Social Network is superficially a biopic, it is also described as a "docu-drama", a contemporary drama based on real people and real events. What is interesting here is that for a story orbiting the online profile titan that is Facebook, a website designed to allow people to create a particular representation of themselves for the world by their design, the characterizations of these real people are also by nature endowed with some degree of fiction. It's always the case with any biopic, sure, but for this story, the irony is exquisite.
You could say that The Social Network is a "rags to riches" story--if you want to describe Harvard and its student body via "rags". For a story which features Mark Zuckerberg as the protagonist, we spend absolutely no time discussing his background, save for making an app for music distribution he gave away years prior. Mark is defined by his actions, his activity, what he makes and what his product does for his world, rapidly ever expanding in scope. Mark makes a name for himself, albeit with support, which leads to the inevitable lawsuits. In a way, his story is something like that of Charles Foster Kane of the eponymous Citizen Kane, also a story of a man who rises quick but seems to lose something along the way when it comes to the human component; maybe it was always a bit askew for Mark, though. Mark speaks with such speed as if everyone else were stuck trailing behind him, and with nary a degree of tact that makes it obvious as to why he is rarely liked. As Erica puts it bluntly, it's not because he's a nerd, but because of his social inadequacies, a further irony given his eventual legacy in the form of his creation of the most popular "social network". For a brief scene, a guest lecturer is none other than Bill Gates, with Mark in audience. The synchronicity here is that the wildly successful computer giant that is Bill Gates shares mannerisms in his speech and even his cadence with Mark, and it is as if this proverbial torch was being passed--or at least the transmission from one fiber optic cable to another. The boys who become these titans of industry are initially portrayed as stereotypes of young collegiate men. Consider Mark, who embodies the socially awkward, even unsure "nerd", a term applied later by the Winklevoss twins to impugn his success, who alongside the litigious Divya, are effectively the jocks and preppies of the upper-crust, the kind of guys who would exploit Mark to do their coding for their own project--doing their homework for them--to rake in the bucks later. Looking at it that way, when Mark "reappropriates" their idea for his own, initially called "The Facebook", it's more like Mark's sticking it to the jocks. But when he later sells his best friend short on their own partnership, jealous that he's been inducted into a final club himself, the guy who is more stylish and seems more capable of working with people, it seems more like Mark's jealousy is driving him more than mere greed.
As these growing pains of what would become Facebook unfold, they are intercut with the legal sparring and aftermath of the broken relationships and litigation, with one case being brought by Divya and the Winklevoss twins, and the other by Eduardo, both encounters quite different because of the nature of Mark and Eduardo's friendship, fractured beyond repair. The virtual cross-examinations force the parties to recall these increasingly painful memories, and take stock of the events that led them to a boardroom, surrounded by attorneys. Eduardo's legal action comes after being forced out by a deceptive business back-end deal, as Mark is played by the slick and seductive Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), a self-described "entrepreneur", and former CEO of Napster. Sean's portrayal is fundamentally one of a con artist, who worms his way between Eduardo and Mark, selling big ideas to take Facebook into a billion-dollar business; like any good con, Mark never seems to see that Sean is edging his way to take a massive stake in the fledgling enterprise. Sean oozes sleaze and artifice, but makes Mark feel accepted--even if it is fake--and it's clear that this is what Mark has always craved; that's how cons work--preying upon your insecurities. Fortunately, a wake-up call alerts Mark that if he wants his company to truly rise to greatness, he must put aside childish things, and distance himself from the frat-boy asp he has clutched to his chest. Like all geniuses, Mark has a key understanding about human nature which is not often expressed, even if it is something as fundamentally cynical as the probability of generating web hits for his Facebook prototype, "Facemash". But Mark is perpetually cursed, lost in his thoughts for Erica, the one who got away; the final image sends the message more eloquently than words could. The Social Network is a story which reinforces a simple but important message: no matter how much money you have, how many people you surround yourself with, unless you are fulfilled in your pursuits, you will always feel alone in some way, no matter how many "likes" you get.
Recommended for: Fans of a fascinating and contemporary legend of business and a watershed moment in social interaction for the 21st century, but focused on the details of the founder and his own very human idiosyncrasies and even missteps on the way. And while probably not based entirely on fact, what Facebook page was ever a wholly honest representation of someone?
You could say that The Social Network is a "rags to riches" story--if you want to describe Harvard and its student body via "rags". For a story which features Mark Zuckerberg as the protagonist, we spend absolutely no time discussing his background, save for making an app for music distribution he gave away years prior. Mark is defined by his actions, his activity, what he makes and what his product does for his world, rapidly ever expanding in scope. Mark makes a name for himself, albeit with support, which leads to the inevitable lawsuits. In a way, his story is something like that of Charles Foster Kane of the eponymous Citizen Kane, also a story of a man who rises quick but seems to lose something along the way when it comes to the human component; maybe it was always a bit askew for Mark, though. Mark speaks with such speed as if everyone else were stuck trailing behind him, and with nary a degree of tact that makes it obvious as to why he is rarely liked. As Erica puts it bluntly, it's not because he's a nerd, but because of his social inadequacies, a further irony given his eventual legacy in the form of his creation of the most popular "social network". For a brief scene, a guest lecturer is none other than Bill Gates, with Mark in audience. The synchronicity here is that the wildly successful computer giant that is Bill Gates shares mannerisms in his speech and even his cadence with Mark, and it is as if this proverbial torch was being passed--or at least the transmission from one fiber optic cable to another. The boys who become these titans of industry are initially portrayed as stereotypes of young collegiate men. Consider Mark, who embodies the socially awkward, even unsure "nerd", a term applied later by the Winklevoss twins to impugn his success, who alongside the litigious Divya, are effectively the jocks and preppies of the upper-crust, the kind of guys who would exploit Mark to do their coding for their own project--doing their homework for them--to rake in the bucks later. Looking at it that way, when Mark "reappropriates" their idea for his own, initially called "The Facebook", it's more like Mark's sticking it to the jocks. But when he later sells his best friend short on their own partnership, jealous that he's been inducted into a final club himself, the guy who is more stylish and seems more capable of working with people, it seems more like Mark's jealousy is driving him more than mere greed.
As these growing pains of what would become Facebook unfold, they are intercut with the legal sparring and aftermath of the broken relationships and litigation, with one case being brought by Divya and the Winklevoss twins, and the other by Eduardo, both encounters quite different because of the nature of Mark and Eduardo's friendship, fractured beyond repair. The virtual cross-examinations force the parties to recall these increasingly painful memories, and take stock of the events that led them to a boardroom, surrounded by attorneys. Eduardo's legal action comes after being forced out by a deceptive business back-end deal, as Mark is played by the slick and seductive Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), a self-described "entrepreneur", and former CEO of Napster. Sean's portrayal is fundamentally one of a con artist, who worms his way between Eduardo and Mark, selling big ideas to take Facebook into a billion-dollar business; like any good con, Mark never seems to see that Sean is edging his way to take a massive stake in the fledgling enterprise. Sean oozes sleaze and artifice, but makes Mark feel accepted--even if it is fake--and it's clear that this is what Mark has always craved; that's how cons work--preying upon your insecurities. Fortunately, a wake-up call alerts Mark that if he wants his company to truly rise to greatness, he must put aside childish things, and distance himself from the frat-boy asp he has clutched to his chest. Like all geniuses, Mark has a key understanding about human nature which is not often expressed, even if it is something as fundamentally cynical as the probability of generating web hits for his Facebook prototype, "Facemash". But Mark is perpetually cursed, lost in his thoughts for Erica, the one who got away; the final image sends the message more eloquently than words could. The Social Network is a story which reinforces a simple but important message: no matter how much money you have, how many people you surround yourself with, unless you are fulfilled in your pursuits, you will always feel alone in some way, no matter how many "likes" you get.
Recommended for: Fans of a fascinating and contemporary legend of business and a watershed moment in social interaction for the 21st century, but focused on the details of the founder and his own very human idiosyncrasies and even missteps on the way. And while probably not based entirely on fact, what Facebook page was ever a wholly honest representation of someone?