Quartile rating: 8/10 · 2 ratings
In 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programmer Mark Zuckerberg begins work on a new concept that eventually turns into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, Mark is one of the youngest billionaires ever, but his unprecedented success leads to both personal and legal complications when he ends up on the receiving end of two lawsuits, one involving his former friend.
The Social Network is a razor-sharp, propulsive drama elevated by Aaron Sorkin's exceptional screenplay — structurally inventive with its parallel deposition framing and dense, overlapping dialogue. Fincher's direction keeps things kinetic and cold, though the cinematography, while competent and stylish, doesn't reach the transcendent heights of his best visual work. The ensemble acting is uniformly outstanding, with Eisenberg and Garfield especially memorable. Novelty is high: a film about the founding of a website that somehow becomes a Greek tragedy about ambition, friendship, and betrayal is a singular achievement in tone and conception. The ending is reflective and melancholy but slightly deflating after the film's crackling energy — it resolves thematically but not dramatically, leaving things deliberately open.