For You
Did you like "The West Wing?" Did your parents? How about "Dawson's Creek?" Point being - this is a dialog movie. Lots of talking with few (very few) moments of cinematic greatness. The Social Network is serious, and I know we all take facebook seriously, but this is a bit of a stretch. Its a great movie for Moms and Dads, considering they still can't quite figure out where this thing came from in the first place, and I would recommend that all of you see it. It talks about programming, and smart kids, and college. This, as far as I'm concerned, is a good thing. Great even. However, skip the theater. You'll leave underwhelmed and thirteen dollars short.
For Me
James Cameron writes a script with male characters only, then later inserts lady names for one or two. This lends itself to extremely strong and charismatic female roles. Aaron Sorkin did the opposite. He produced a screenplay full of whiny self absorbed women and then replaced them with whiny self absorbed men. Sorry y'all but this is a movie for dudes. Scratch that, boys.
There was another movie that came out the same weekend as The Social Network - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. As far as I'm concerned Mr. Fincher's version was much more applicable. Aparently nothing seems to have changed in twenty years. The only difference now is that entrepreneurship is the new Wall Street and its just as corrupt, scathing, and disgusting to watch. Men are still obsessed with power and desperate for approval.
Not to be a hypocrite, but the performances were outstanding and the dialog was top notch. Cinematography was utterly watchable (sorry Jacob, but it wasn't beautiful - I hate The Red), the characters were engaging, and I was completely engrossed. But this movie didn't surprise me. Didn't wow me. Or do anything new in cinema that I hadn't already seen before. Have any of you idiots that raved about The Social Network ever seen anything by Mike Leigh? Anything?
Bottom line, I don't think this movie had a point. It was meta - and that's it. I kept asking myself why the marketing team for this film never mentioned that it was a David Fincher film. Now I know why: it sucked.
PS If you don't like my opinions, please refer to the title of this blog.
