I was skeptical, but it looks like Fincher hooked me again. I thought he’d have a miss with this one, but now I’m a believer. The opening is fantastic. So is the Radio Head cover.
The movie does look interesting from that trailer, but the book its based on, The Accidental Billionaires, is actually most interesting due to its blandness.
Spoilers for real life…
[spoiler]Mark Zuckerberg (who is played by Jesse Eisneberg) wasn’t interviewed for the book, but all the other players basically admit that he invented Facebook single-handedly. There’s lots of claims of “Well, if I didn’t do this one thing, it wouldn’t have worked out, give me $500 milion!” But for a book that claims to be about Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal there’s very little of any of them but money. There’s almost no sex as Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin (Facebook’s first money man) have steady girlfriends throughout most of the book and the betrayal involves Saverin walking away and then being shocked he can’t jump back in after Zuckerberg and his new team completely reinvented Facebook without him.
Zuckerberg says the book takes a bunch of liberties with real life and the trailer to The Social Network looks to take even more liberties.[/spoiler]
That’s usually why I avoid biopics. The liberties they usually take with the facts, and the romanticizing of the characters and events are obviously brightened to an unnatural level to manipulate the audience’s emotions.
Regardless, I’m down with this one, so long as I can keep that in mind.
That’s why I think there’s more truth to The Accidental Billionaires than the Facebook brass let on.
[spoiler]Zuckerberg never comes across in a bad light, even among the people that hate his guts. It’s all very wishy-washy “I think he cheated me… but I mostly did it to myself… and legally he did nothing wrong… give me $500 million!”
I mean, if that’s the version Facebook wants to disavow, the real Mark Zuckerberg must be some kind of saint who can heal with his touch.[/spoiler]
Also, if anyone is interested, the score for this movie was written by Trent Reznor. Should be interesting.
This movie was penned by Aaron Sorkin. That in and of itself makes it a must-watch for me.
I’m a huge NIN fan… I can’t wait.
If anyone cares, that Radiohead cover “Creep” is by Scala & Kolacny Brothers.
I happened to see a free sneak preview of this the other night and it’s a pretty good movie. I’m not so sure it “defines a generation” or if it’s up there with All The President’s Men and Network, but it could be. That’s for others and time to decide. All I know is that it was very entertaining and fascinating, and will appeal to both those who hate Facebook/Zuckerberg, and those who love Facebook and don’t care who the hell Zuckerberg is or if he’s a dick.
I’ll pay to see it again when it opens.
Edit to add, I saw an interesting movie called Catfish last night, and it would make a great double-feature with The Social Network. I don’t want to say why though. It’s best to go in not knowing anything at all about the plot. It has to do with social networking though.