Friday, October 01, 2010

Facebook Go Boom

"Dating you is like dating a stairmaster," Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) says, exasperated, in the opening sequence of THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Her personal stairmaster is Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and you're witness to a car wreck of a break-up in progress. It's emotionally gorey but there will be rubbernecking; you can't look away. If the hilarious stairmaster line doesn't hook you, something else in the screwball sharp rat-a-tat-tat of Aaron Sorkin's screenplay will. Not many movies open with five unbroken minutes of conversation but not many movies are as confidently verbal and as exhilarating made as this one. The instantly classic opening scene works like a gunshot and the movie is off.



P.S. I didn't go on and on (though I well could have) because I figure we'll have lots of opportunities to discuss this movie over the next few months, in all of its varied parts, as its totally in the game for Oscar. Go see it this weekend!

11 comments:

Ryan T. said...

Can't wait to see it... next weekend. Just a busy weekend coming up so I have to wait another seven days. Grr. Argh.

Stella said...

Saw it tonight. I LOVED IT. I want to see again. Eisenberg was mesmerizing, I'm disappointed that he hasn't been given as much credit, especially when it comes to portraying an unapologetic jerk with no socially redeeming quality. It's easy enough to feel bad for Garfield, with that adorable face of his. Eisenberg was fan-tastic. I'm still fixated on his Zuckerberg. It's so eerie and yet heartbreaking.

Anonymous said...

E 'vero! Mi piace la tua idea. Offerta di consolidare l'argomento.
E 'vero! Penso che questo sia una buona idea.

NATHANIEL R said...

stella -- it's now been a week since I've seen it (i'm going tomorrow again) and I am still thinking about Eisenberg's work.

I generally like him but i haven't ever LOVED one of his performances and felt that he was getting repetitive. BUt this one is so well articulated i think for a character that is not so emotionally articulate.

Stella said...

Agree, agree. I feel ashamed of myself that I ever thought of him as a "Michael Cera lite". I hope he has more to work on now.

Anonymous said...

I agree Stella, it's so easy to like Garfield's character and while I liked his performance it was Eisenberg's show. This movie was really good,albeit not as good as Zodiac, but really good.

No Bad Movies said...

I liked it but not as much as some of these people with pretty oulandish comments like comparing it to classics that had years to wait before that word was uttered about them. I don't think the film was astonishing. I just didn't. But on not hating on it eiother. That would be a lie. I have been seeing films for a very long time ( not going to out my age ) The overhype might have killed just a little bit for me. I was expecting to see the best movie ever made. I mean that's what I kept reading for the last 2 weeks.
Good film. But excellent ? I guess I didn't have an emotional involvement to these people. I could see more realistically feeling part of film film like 127 Hours, The Way Back, The King's Speech, heck even Conviction. I didn't connect with these people in TSN. I guess not to the extent as many other did.

Jordan Ruimy said...

Oh Nat, I can always rely on you to set the record staright on a movie and forget about all the hype surrounding it. I had a blast watching this one but you'd think some critics saw the second coming.

Caroline said...

I think that's ridiculous. I mean, Peter Travers, sure, but he overrates everything. I'm sure you all do, as I do, look to a couple of critics who always hit it on the mark and give measured reviews, and mine all stated that TSN was a flawlessly executed, well-acted and directed movie with thoughtful implications. None of them called it a masterpiece.

The "Citizen Kane" allegory only exists because the two movies share similar themes. No one is actually saying that it is *as good* as Citizen Kane.

Anonymous said...

that TSN was a flawlessly executed, well-acted and directed movie with thoughtful implications. None of them called it a masterpiece.
----

I agree, most of the reviews I read didn't call it a masterpiece either. I think it's best to avoid reviews before watching a film. Especially if it bothers you that much stay off the internet and avoid the "hype"

Gerry said...

When you let the "hype" bias your view on the film, that's your fault alone. You should have tempered your expectations and followed your own brain, not the critics. You should have been able to read hyperbole like "this is our Citizen Kane or Network" for what it was, hyperbole. That's not to say the film wasn't sensational. It certainly was, and it's winning Oscars next year, but honestly, this is going to be a long Oscar season if you allow yourselves to be manipulated by the Peter Travers of the world (and really, "the film that defines this decade?", the decade that started ten months ago???). The only trepidation I think the blue-haired set will have is that it's the FACEBOOK movie, and it won't be understandable or timeless enough for them to award BP. Will Facebook even be around five years from now they might say? But there's so much more going on here that transcends any of those easy labels, so hopefully that'll be a moot point. Can't wait to see this one again. I very well need to.