The Social Network

I guess it's so basic as to not be worth mentioning, but I thought the final scene -- where he sits there hitting refresh on the browser time after time, hoping Erica has friended him -- was the perfect note to end on.

My daughter and I both liked it, from different generational perspectives. But oddly, while he was hard to watch socially, I think a large part of me was more in the camp of, "This is a brilliant guy who took an idea and made it into a game-changer, and while he wasn't perfect in the way he did it, there was still a lot to admire about somebody so smart and so aware and that he took the step a lot of us wish we could take."

 

How funny - I didn't think they were the villians at all. I saw them more as victims, albeit victims you didn't cry for. I also read that the real twins were satisfied with the portrayal, so I can't imagine they saw themselves as villians either. If anybody came out looking like a villain it was Larry Summers - what an idiot.

Zuck doesn't strike me as having Asperger's, nor did Eisenberg's portrayal. He was just a stupid college kid who made some mistakes-- didn't we all?-- He just happened to be a very smart, lucky stupid college kid. That's why I think 'Accidental Billionaires' is really the perfect title.

 

Mr 96

Yeah, I know Aspergers folk too, likewise high-functioning. I sorta thought that it was a bit of a side theme. Previously "the men of Harvard" twins were those who prospered but the state of things now--the greater social networks--empowers those who had previously just been prey.

YHS, etc

 

He would be talking and then would just kind of spit out mean comments, it was more apparent early in the film when he was talking to his girlfriend in the opening scene and sometimes when he was talking to Eduardo. It was very slight. I was pretty impressed with the way Eisenberg did it.

 

Just saw it. Amazing film. Amazing.

I thought, as did my wife, that they made Zuckerberg seem like he suffered from Asperger's which I am pretty certain is not the case. That would by my only gripe with the film.

The beauty of all of this is Facebook is not pulled off if you take one of the pieces away. Zuck was the brains. Eduardo gave him that building block of code. The twins gave him the push, and Napster dude kept them focused enough when it was rolling so they could be the big fish.

And with any film, there are great quotes. Oh, and no way is Zuck this clever with the quips in real life.

You know, you really don't need a forensics team to get to the bottom of this. If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook.


Mark Zuckerberg: I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try - but there's no requirement that I enjoy sitting here listening to people lie. You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing.
[pauses]
Mark Zuckerberg: Did I adequately answer your condescending question?

Ma'am, I know you've done your homework and so you know that money isn't a big part of my life, but at the moment I could buy Mt. Auburn Street, take the Phoenix Club, and turn it into my ping-pong room.

I am not going back to the Caribbean Night at AEPi!

We can do that ourselves. I'm 6'5", 220, and there's two of me.

 

I watched it last night for the first time, too, and really liked it. However, I didn't think, "Best Picture," like so many others. I loved the Sorkin dialogue and I liked all of the actors, including Timberlake. I thought Fincher did a lot of really cool things.

But it also felt like it came to an abrupt ending. In the last 15 minutes or so, I had to pause the movie and make sure I completely understood the concept of diluted stock (still not sure I completely grasp it). Didn't fully comprehend the ramifications of Sean Parker's arrest -- other than Zuckerberg's possible realization that he has a problem on his hands after just screwing over his friend.

 

SPOILERS









After it was all said and done, Zuck kept refreshing the screen to see if she had accepted his friend request. Like Parker said, it all came down to trying and impress a girl.

That simple moment really brought it together for me. This multi-billion dollar thing never happens if he stays with the girl.

 

Saw it this weekend too. Great movie, but not in a Best Picture way. Best Picture movies, to me, should be cinema classics. This is not, but it's still a damn good movie.

I did not get the "Zuckerberg is a douche" feeling from watching it. I got the feeling that he's just some socially awkward genius programmer who wants to be loved but doesn't know how to get people to like him. He's a nerd, plain and simple, but a nerd who wishes he's not and attacks that problem like it's a math equation, which just makes him seem more douchey.

He screwed over the twins, definitely. It was their idea. He stole it. But at the same time, if he had taken their original idea and kept working with them, I seriously doubt FB would have taken off the way it did. It would be one of those things that was killed by committee -- too many people with too many different goals diluting the final product. Zuckerberg gave the idea what it needed - a dedicated one-man vision with the ability to adapt.

As for how he screwed Eduardo, I would need to re-watch it. That stock diluting stuff just went over my head.

 

Really? Didn't like Tobey at all. And don't get me started on Kirsten Dunst.

/threadjack


*****

Really liked The Social Network. Still don't think anything this year was better than Inception.