The Social Network
Published 2011-04-17
Film info
- Title The Social Network
- Director David Fincher
- Year 2010
- Run time 2hr 0m
- Genre Drama
- Tagline You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies
- Cast Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rashida Jones
David Fincher’s The Social Network is the stunning tale of a new breed of cultural insurgent: a punk genius who sparked a revolution and changed the face of human interaction for a generation, and perhaps forever. Shot through with emotional brutality and unexpected humor, this superbly crafted film chronicles the formation of Facebook and the battles over ownership that followed upon the website’s unfathomable success.
Live Blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:36 | Row crew? Like Oxford versus Cambridge? |
| 3:02 | What a bizarre, and long, opening scene. |
| 4:28 | "It is exhausting. Dating you is like dating a stairmaster." |
| 6:59 | This opening credit music seems a bit dramatic when it's just a guy running. |
| 9:07 | Facebook came from a Face Book? Who knew? |
| 11:19 | He's blogging his hacking as he goes? Way to be busted! |
| 13:03 | Nerd college is funny. And horrifically sexist. |
| 17:24 | Rowing! |
| 19:07 | It's quite hard keeping track of where we are in this story. |
| 21:55 | The twins have ridiculously low voices. |
| 25:12 | Caribbean night! |
| 30:33 | It's impressive for a film to be just reading out emails and still be interesting. |
| 32:17 | Aww, it already feels like they are drifting more. |
| 35:28 | Did we just witness the birth of "It's Complicated." |
| 38:13 | He went to sleep sitting up at his desk! Is that possible? |
| 41:09 | "He lied to our email accounts." |
| 42:03 | He hoped the privacy options would restore his reputation? Oh hindsight. |
| 49:23 | It seems to me that he's guilty of not doing the work for them, but it doesn't sound like the same idea. |
| 50:43 | That's almost a two-hour lunch break. |
| 53:00 | "The internet is not written in pencil." |
| 56:24 | Harvard Law. |
| 57:37 | An hour in and there's Justin Timberlake. |
| 58:56 | Another extended conversation scene. It feels like we've entered the second half after an intermission or something. |
| 1:00:37 | How can a building be older than the country it is in? |
| 1:07:04 | What's an Appletini? I want one. |
| 1:10:23 | The guy from Napster knew what Facebook was worth. |
| 1:11:14 | And suggested dropping the 'The'. Is that true? |
| 1:15:30 | There's a chicken! |
| 1:16:34 | I can't look at him without thinking he's going to be Spiderman. |
| 1:22:00 | Why would you even try to talk in a club? I can't hear a flippin' word. |
| 1:25:34 | Ugh. Tilt shift in a film? Boo. |
| 1:28:16 | Mr C says he can remember not being able to get on Facebook because he was no longer at school. |
| 1:33:53 | Have they deliberately made Jesse a bit pasty faced? |
| 1:36:27 | "We don't crash ever." Hmm. |
| 1:42:14 | New offices and a Facebook mug now. |
| 1:44:40 | "You better lawyer up." |
| 1:46:58 | They had to refresh and missed the 1 million moment. F5. That's so old school. |
| 1:52:04 | He has social skills enough to ask her to dinner. It's not all bad. |
Thoughts
We have been trying to find the right moment to watch this, paranoid that iTunes would remove the rental option. As soon as it was available, we wanted to but were a bit busy, then we weren't quite in the mood, etc, etc. Finally all the pieces came together.
I have mixed feelings about this film. The first scene was almost enough to put me off - just two people, talking really fast, hard to follow, is this what it would all be like? However, sticking with it really paid off because the story developed into a fascinating insight (taken with a pinch of literary salt, obviously) into the world of Facebook.
For a two hour film, and one predominately about coding a website, it was really, really good. Held my attention throughout, and had some great characters with zippy dialogue, although following where we were in the timeline was sometimes tricky. However, a massive thumbs up from me.
Rating: 4 / 5