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randall 
"I like to watch."
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 Posted - 09/25/2010 : 02:06:00
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The 48th New York Film Festival opened tonight with the world premiere of David Fincher�s latest, and it couldn�t have gotten off to a stronger start. This is the best film I�ve seen all year, including everything I saw at Sundance, and maybe longer than that.
Everybody knows it�s one take on the Facebook origin story, done without Mark Zuckerberg�s cooperation. And at first you wouldn�t think college geeks typing on keyboards would be at all interesting. But Aaron Sorkin�s screenplay just crackles � if a more Oscarworthy job shows up by the end of the year, it�ll be a miracle, because most Oscar-winning scripts aren�t this good. Fincher�s storytelling sense has never been better demonstrated, and two hours fly by like a freight train. All actors are superb, most of them flinging Sorkinisms at a rapid pace, especially Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg [his best performance ever], Justin Timberlake as Silicon Valley macher Sean Parker [ditto], and Armie Hammer as a pair of identical twins who claim that Zuckerberg stole Facebook from them � but therein lies the story.
The movie stays frosty by switching from conference-room depositions against Zuckerberg to flashbacks of the actual events being described. I don�t know how much is fact and how much fiction, but if the real Zuckerberg was betting on this one being a soon-forgotten turkey, he loses [his $100 million donation to New Jersey education seems strangely coincidentally timed]. He was evidently afraid he�d come across as a back-stabbing asshole. He had good reason.
My highest recommendation. See it as soon as you can.
Tomorrow morning, we're going to attend a Q&A with the director. If he says anything fun, I'll report it when I get back.
EDIT: It was mostly about his formative days and he only had an hour before catching a plane to Sweden to work on his next project. When asked if he was a proponent of digital [SOCIAL NETWORK was shot with Red digital gear], Fincher said, "I'm a proponent of inevitability. It's wrong to say I don't like film. I like dinosaurs too, but their day is gone." He said he hadn't really felt confident with a crew, getting exactly what he wanted out of them, until about age 40 [he was an enfant terrible on commercials and music videos before getting into features, and had to prove his way with grizzled crews, much like George Lucas -- a neighbor when he was a child -- before him]. He's 48 now. Not the inward, taciturn chap I had expected, not at all. I kept thinking, right now, this instant, I'm looking at the hottest director in Hollywood. |
Edited by - randall on 09/25/2010 22:17:14 |
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Sean 
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 09/25/2010 : 02:57:51
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quote:
Originally posted by randall
My highest recommendation.
Real-life stories can be more interesting than fiction, and this was never going to be a "seen it before" tale. Glad to hear Fincher pulled it off, looking forward to seeing it.  |
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RockGolf
"1500+ reviews. 1 joke."
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Posted - 09/27/2010 : 19:45:17
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| I have a 16 year old son who normally can't be dragged away from Halo, a 15 year old daughter in a school for the arts and a wife whose a big Aaron Sorkin fan. Independently they've all told me they want to really see this film. I can't think of another film this year where that's happened. |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 10/11/2010 : 17:04:11
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As randall sez -- best film of the year. Don't even think about it - just go see it!
Whatever else it is, it's the best screen treatment of misunderstanding - not just between generations and genders - but, much trickier - between people who are more intelligent than the majority of dodos who make such vital decisions about our collective lives - and those said dodos.
If Sorkin doesn't win every Best Screenplay award going - then I guess it'll be the dodos doing the voting.
I repeat: Don't even think about it - just go see it!
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benj clews 
"...."
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Posted - 10/11/2010 : 17:25:26
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
If Sorkin doesn't win every Best Screenplay award going - then I guess it'll be the dodos doing the voting.
Couldn't think of a nicer bloke to win either. Saw him on the radio programme I attended on Friday and he was smart, approachable, down-to-earth (he came in, sat down a few rows in front of me and right off introduced himself to the somewhat surprised guy sat beside him and was chatting away long before going on stage) and honest (blaming himself completely for the failure of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip).
Going off what everyone here's been saying about this film, I can't wait to see it when it comes out. |
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demonic 
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 10/11/2010 : 19:59:00
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Another glowing report from me - I caught a preview on the weekend and loved it. Brilliant performances from all involved; Jesse Eisenberg has been doing great work for years - this is his best; Armie Hammer as the twins are just hilarious (why have I not heard of this guy before? - he's awesome); Andrew Garfield shows some acting chops that'll please the Spider-man fans although it makes me think he should be thinking of doing something better with his time after this. Fincher directs Sorkin's incredibly good screenplay with perfect pace and admirable intelligence and restraint - something we've not seen much of this year at the cinema. So, all in, a major success and hopefully little golden plaudits all round come the Spring. Highly recommended.
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RockGolf
"1500+ reviews. 1 joke."
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Posted - 10/20/2010 : 16:20:27
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Well, the whole family went and were completely absorbed for 2 hours. Just a magnificent work of storytelling.
Going with largely unknowns or semi-well-known actors was a good choice. Timberlake was the exception, as a celebrity if not an actor, but you needed someone in that role whose charisma was apparent from the second he appeared on screen.
The only thing that "took me out" of the story was the scene where the main character was wearing an "Arm & Hammer" tee-shirt. It seemed to just scream "IN JOKE" because the actor who played both twins was the great grandson of Armand Hammer, who actually started the Arm & Hammer company.
And how great was the work on Armie Hammer playing both twins? I had to explain to my family that there was one actor in both roles, because there was no hint on screen that it was anything other than two people - and I was watching for it! |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 11/20/2010 : 18:37:48
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I saw it on 10/10/10, like demonic I guess, and loved it too.
It is so full of poignancy, of flawed but somehow sympathetic characters. The moments of Facebook usership shown ring so, so true, especially the painfully accurate final scene.
Just to be completely meta, I posted a status while I was watching (don't worry, I was on the back row), and afterwards liked the film's page and searched for the twins. (Surprisingly, they do seem to have genuine profiles on there. I know some Oxford rowers so I thought we might have friends in common, but sadly not.)
As has been mentioned, this is the best ever case of an individual playing twins. I sat there thinking, "At last, they've actually found twins who can act"! Bizarrely, though, someone told me the other day that he didn't realise they were supposed to be identical.
I'm currently writing from a computer in a hostel in Cracow. The four screens are nearly always all a sea of blue and white. Facebook is the phenomenon of our times, and it is very satisfying indeed to have a film capture its back story (accurately, as far as I can tell) and also the user experience as well as it does. It also makes a nice change for a film not to be a let-down after such a hypnotic trailer.
5/5; could become 6/5. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 02/07/2011 : 11:28:44
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Strangely enough, this was one of the in-flight movies on our long weekend in Rome (on the way there we got Eat, Pray, Love). To be honest, I'm not much into Facebook and while I do enjoy a good docudrama, I wasn't sure this be for me, and yet... oh my! It really drew me in and had me hooked from the get go.
Kudos to both Eisenberg and Timberlake who totally shocked me in their excellent portrayals. Eisenberg especially since he looks just a touch younger in the earlier bits and just a touch older in the deposition parts, and that couldn't have been done with make-up. But the whole cast came through as so real and so honest, I'm surprised they were so overlooked in the Oscars. Yes, it couldn't have been done without Fincher's direction or Sorkin's screenplay, so at least these are being recognized.
But what I really loved is how they ended it - as Sal said - with the most truthful part of what Facebook really is all about for far too many people.
(And of course, I was proud that I understood some of the more technical/economic lingo, including knowing that a "VC" is a venture capitalist!) |
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The Social Network
