'The Social Network'

'The Social Network' (PG-13) (4 stars) (Highest rating)

Writer: Aaron Sorkin based on book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara, Rashida Jones, Jospeh Mazzello, Max Minghella, Josh Pence, Armie Hammer, David Selby, John Getz

Every decade it seems, there comes a movie that defines a certain period of time or decade. In the 60's it was "Bonnie and Clyde", the 70's it was "All the President's Men", the 80's "Do the Right Thing", the 90's I couldn't really tell you. Now with the new soon to be defining classic, "The Social Network" we have a movie that defines our selfish, Internet/social and "Me Generation" decade. "The Social Network" is a brilliantly written, savagely funny and super fast paced look at the life of "Facebook" founder Mark Zuckerberg. It is the most enthralling, fascinating and compelling movies I have seen this year so far. The movie's structure is surrounded by two law suits from two different parties aimed at Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg is perfectly cast and acted by Jesse Eisenberg in an Oscar caliber performance. Eisenberg was in the best movie of last year "Adventureland" and was outstanding in "The Squid and the Whale" and "Zombieland". He has always been one of our finest young actors but here he gives a career defining performance. He always plays the sympathetic nebbish guy and here he plays a real, indulgent jerk but we somehow feel a little vulnerability in him also. Hacking into Harvard's computer, Zuckerberg starts to load some pictures up of hot women on campus. He posts the pictures of two women at a time and let's other students rate who is hotter. This is brought about by Zuckeberg being dumped by his girlfriend and she has a very good reason. Zuckerberg doesn't know how to talk to women let alone human beings in general. He is very brash, self indulgent and obsessed with coming off as smarter than everyone in the room. He posts an angry rant about his girlfriend and we can feel the pain in a powerful scene where other students are taunting her. The movie starts in a bar with these two and the dialogue is so fast and funny you have to pay close attention. How many movies have you seen lately that contain intelligent dialogue that isn't dumbed down? The words and all the dialogue just burn through the screen and the writing by Aaron Sorkin is pure genius.

Zuckerberg expands this who is hotter website and starts to think of a site that students at Harvard can use. They can look up their classmates and find their profiles online. Zuckerberg and his friend Eduardo Saverin expand this site to include other schools and the ideal eventually become "Facebook". The only problem is that two other students came to Zuckerberg with their ideal for a social network for Harvard before then. Zuckerberg leads them on, finally avoiding them and when they find out about "The Facebook" they are not happy campers. Zuckerberg is portrayed as an obsessed, selfish person but the two other students, brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are even bigger pricks. Zuckerberg is also influenced by "Napster" founder Sean Parker who becomes a co investor. Sean Parker, played very well by Justin Timberlake, is also an even bigger self indulgent jerk than Zuckerberg. So all in all Zuckerberg is someone who was obsessed by an ideal and wasn't really a jerk but got caught up in being one. The portrayl of Zuckerberg is sometimes negative but a lot of times you actually feel for him. This is not a one sided, let's beat up on Zuckerberg portrayl even though some material may not be entirely true. Eduardo is very well played by Andrew Garfield who gives a star making performance. His character is really the only one who we can somewhat root for and seems to be the most level headed one. Garfield gives an outstanding and vulnerable performance and he will make a great new Spiderman.

I have not been so caught up in a movie like I was here in such a long time. Not since "All the President's Men", "The China Syndrome" or "Do the Right Thing" have I been so glued to the screen and focused on a movie. That is because, like those movies, this is fascinating material that is told so well. The director David Fincher films the movie in glossy photography but there are no camera tricks. The camera doesn't move and track all over the place, it just captures the story eloquently. It keeps us completely in the movie from the first frame to the last. Fincher has directed possibly the best movie of 2000-2009 "Zodiac", one of my top favorite movies of the 90's "Fight Club" and has now made "The Social Network" which is going to be a very hard movie to beat for best of this decade. He is a film maker for our times and could become as influential as Hitchcock, Ford, Scorsese, Spielberg and Billy Wilder. Aaron Sorkin again proves he is one of our greatest writers and his screenplay is brilliant and perfect. There is not one scene or line of dialogue that rings false. It is rapid fire dialogue that is piercing, hilarious, sad and powerful. The back stabbing, corporate intrigue and mean spiritness of this story is so compelling and powerful. The performances are so great, the kind that don't get noticed at awards time but are some of the best performances of this or any other year. The movie is also extremely entertaining, laugh out loud funny and very powerful. This movie is outstanding at capturing our obsession with facebook and our internet culture. It is a movie for our times and one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is a movie that years from now will be considered a classic and will still hold up 50 years from now.