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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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The Social Network (Film)

by Julian Shaw | October 25, 2010 10:28 | Edited October 25, 2010 11:29

Exquisitely crafted and superbly performed, this provocative film will inspire discussion over the changing face of social interaction.

What worth do we place on the friends that we carry on our Facebook pages? To what extent do they replace, extend, revitalise or decay our real world relationships? Are they an opportunity for authenticity or performance? Reality or ciphers? The answer will vary depending on the user, and their intent. Some users have tens of friends. Others hundreds. It's no longer uncommon to have friends numbering in the thousands. And for those peddling more than friendship - those selling products or rebranding their own corporate identity - hundreds of thousands of connections can be the norm. We're social animals, yes, but how nourishing are these new media connections that we make, break and rebuild? Is there strength in numbers, or is two still the only number that really counts?

 

These questions are at the heart of David Fincher's sobering, adult and exquisitely crafted drama The Social Network, which is an early frontrunner for Academy Award gold. The Social Network is about a man who has accrued 500,000,000 minions but seems incapable of making the core connections that he desires most. They say that a person is lucky to count their true friends on one hand. By the end of The Social Network, it's clear that for Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, there are five fingers too many on that hand.

 

Through a beautifully crafted back-flashing structure, director David Fincher whooshes us through the inception of the Facebook juggernaut, and intercuts it with the tetchy litigious fight that eventuated between Zuckerberg and his former right-hand man, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield, who has been tapped to play the lead role in the new Spider-Man films). While Zuckerberg is now synonymous with Facebook, it is undeniable that several people at least played a minor part in the "eureka" moment. History will show that Zuckerberg is just the one who, by means fair and foul, picked up the ball and ran with it. The Social Network enters into the communal quagmire that created the most ubiquitous networking site on the globe and recasts it as a Shakespearean character study.

 

Scripter Aaron Sorkin's (The West Wing) dialogue, based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, spans the spectrum of legalisms, witticisms and narcissism. The wordplay is consistently gash-your-fingers sharp, and sometimes incredibly funny. The performances are superb, even sublime. Eisenberg represents a truly adroit piece of casting as the unlikeable but understandable Zuckerberg. Garfield is well-suited to the part of the disenfranchised Eduardo, perhaps the only sympathetic major character. Justin Timberlake could be in Oscar consideration for his supporting turn here (who'd have thought that would be written ten years ago?), embodying the Napster impresario Sean Parker perfectly. The ploy of casting a pop star to be the businessman that Zuckerberg swoons for is really nifty. For us to believe that Zuckerberg betrays his best mate, we've got to see him forge a man-crush so severe that he throws all existing loyalties into disarray. Timberlake's Appletini-powered stardust is just the right tonic.

 

Clever, cutting and debateable, The Social Network should inspire discussion - most likely played out on Facebook - for months to come.