Critically Revisiting The Social Network: Is it Really the Best? (more Oscars talk)
OMG YOU GUYS. Thank you for starting such an amazing Awards-season dialogue in my Oscars post. It was truly wonderful to finally have some great Oscar thoughts from fandom, as I have spent most of my Oscar season with non-fandom peeps! ^___^
Here's one update: they've announced the show will start off with Tom Hanks giving two BIG awards: Art Direction and Cinematography. These will tell us, almost immediately, what kind of King's Speech sweep we're looking at. Might as well pull the band-aid right off, eh?
I am going to try to respond to comments, but I am off on a short vacation before the Oscars, so I might not get to them until Saturday. However, in all the great comments there were several that seemed to want to talk about performance more, soooo! After the cut is a TL;DR ;) combination of my many defenses and support of TSN and Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield I've offered since October in Oscar fandom. (definitely more focus on Jesse, as once he became the nominee it changed things in Oscar fandom, obvs.) I'm so glad to be sharing them in TSN fandom ... where we have more fun! (there are A LOT of hardcore TSN supporters in Oscar fandom, don't get me wrong, it's just...not quite the same. I was considered a rabid TSN fangirl there for, say, not automatically assuming Firth should win.)
I look forward to more amazing discussion of the craft of the film. It's already cheered up my downer of an Oscar season considerably, so THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. As always, please chime in with your thoughts, discussing the movie this way is absolutely one of my favorite parts!
There's a moment during a deposition when a lawyer asks Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) about the money he invested in Facebook. "So, $1000 plus $18000 makes a total of $19000 you gave," says the lawyer. At this point, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) interrupts and says, "Hang on," then scribbles on a notepad "just checking your math. Yeah, that's what I got too," he smirks. It's a funny moment, played with just the right amount of insolent frustration by Eisenberg, and an audacious one too. You, as a viewer, are both amused and annoyed with Zuckerberg. (as you are for much of the movie.) And then, in what you think at first is an afterthought, Eisenberg looks over at not just the lawyer but at Garfield and, for a split second, it's two smart-ass best friends sharing a moment before they both seem to realize that all that is over forever.
And it's moments like that which make this the best movie of the year. Let me be clear: I don't know if ANY of this is "true" and I frankly don't care. It's not about Facebook, it's not about how we live on the Internet: it's about our social networks, the people we care about, the people we want to be. It's about friendship and betrayal - to me, the most emotional, most nuanced, most moving moment in film this year was when Garfield looks at Eisenberg near the end of the lawsuit and chokes out one of the last things he'll ever say to him: "I was your only friend. You had one friend." Both actors play this so perfectly that it's dizzying. Garfield looks heartbroken, still shell-shocked from the enormity of everything that’s happened. He can’t believe it happened and so, even though we’ve seen every step along the way, neither can we. Eisenberg looks like he hates himself: hates himself for caring, hates himself for doing it. He winces without moving, an action you see only in his eyes and face, and the pain of it vibrates off you. We, as viewers, know just what they mean and just what they've lost and we have a minute to think about our own friends and our own mistakes and our own lives.
When I hear people say there are no likable characters in this movie, that Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg as almost a sociopath, I wonder what movie they were watching, because that moment is all about humanity and friendship and connections and longing and feeling. And it's far from the only moment like that in the movie, it's full of them. Most of them come via Eisenberg, who gives a near perfect performance as a guy who just might be a genius but basically just wants, as he says in the first ten minutes of the movie, a "better life" ... like all of us. Eisenberg's Zuckerberg IS us: the person who wants to fit in and be like everyone else, yet who feels different and awkward and hungers to be known and recognized. What constitutes that better life, what we're willing to do to get a better life, that's the guts of the movie and, because it is brave and smart, the script knows that is an unanswerable question. Is changing the world and a billion dollars worth your only friend? The movie doesn’t claim it’s a simple answer and that’s what makes it a question worth asking.
The Social Network is also a deeply intellectual film that asks us to consider invention and design and ownership of ideas and genius. It's funny and quotable (the script snaps), smart and well-paced. It's about class and striving and wanting to be better. It works on every cinematic level. It's got a great script, amazing direction, unbelievable performances, incredibly detailed set design, daring cinematography, clean, strong editing, a compelling and original score that compliments the film, perfectly calibrated costumes: it's all here and it all works. It all works together.
And the performances. Most of all Eisenberg and Garfield but everyone is superb. Garfield, as the best friend who isn’t quite CFO material but still doesn’t deserve to be cut out, often gets described as a the “heart” of the movie, but I think this undersells his performance. He’s also the guy who wants to do right. “We’re ranking girls,” Eisenberg tells him, his voice flat. Garfield thinks for a moment, you see everything he knows about this guy and this moment cycle through his head and he says, slowly, something that must be said. “You mean other students?” He has a lot of moments like Eisenberg’s, but he has deliberately calibrated his performance to be more open. While we often puzzle at what Mark is feeling, there’s not a moment we don’t know exactly what Eduardo is feeling, Garfield is constantly broadcasting it, even when he shouldn’t be, even when we’re aching that he is.
It is Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Savering’s story that gives the movie its real emotional heft, that makes it timeless, that makes it stick with you. That happens because of Eisenberg and Garfield’s performances are perfect compliments, perfect opposites.
And the other performances. Just wow. Justin Timberlake in a dazzling and magnetic performance, from the moment Parker walks on screen, Timberlake sets the movie thrumming. He ups the stakes and he dazzles us the same way he dazzles Mark. In particular, I love the scene in the club. He tells a ridiculously fake story about a girl to con Mark (because he’s so good at reading people) and when Mark asks “Do you ever still think about her?” Timberlake’s reaction is priceless. At the end of the movie, a character tells Mark that every creation myth needs a devil. This might be true, but it’s Parker who’s cast as the devil here and Timberlake relishes that. There’s Armie Hammer who creates two entirely separate characters (thanks to physical assist from Josh Pence) who you’d probably hate in real life yet you can’t help but feel empathy for. Rooney Mara has what’s essentially a two scene cameo but the movie doesn’t happen without her. Her first scene with Eisenberg is justifiably on its way to becoming a legendary: acting classes will study it and say, “That, right there, is how it’s done.” Mara gets across how this girl could be drawn to and yet frustrated by a guy like Mark. She banters and sparks with him in just the right ways and one thing I truly love is she gets across the attraction and frustration. Every part is played to perfect: Max Minghella, Douglas Urbanski, Brenda Song - we don’t see a lot of these characters, but thanks to the performers, we know all about them.
The Social Network is meticulous and moving and thoughtful, the way the best movies are. At the same time, it’s energetic and endlessly creative. No other movie this year made me as excited, as curious, as fascinated as this one. It's the best movie of the year and one of the best movies of the decade. Check my math, you'll see.
--
Less than two minutes into the film, Jesse Eisenberg has a moment to respond to what he considers is a major slight from the girl he is dating. He wants to get into a Final Club. She, casually, asks which is the easiest to get into. In a split second, Eisenberg gets across a thousand emotions - he's confused, betrayed, annoyed. Why would she say that? Doesn't she like me? Should I mention it? Is she right? Am I overreacting? Why would she say that? All of this, every part of it, comes across Eisenberg's face in less than five seconds, without a single word. Without a breath, he then segues, seamlessly, into the next part of the conversation, which through this entire scene is moving at a rapid-fire pace.
This is masterful work and it happens just like that, without preamble, without calling attention to itself. The movie is FILLED with moments like this, there are too many to list. When Eisenberg gets a note from a girl calling him a dick - his entire world collapses in the space of ten seconds and we see the truth behind all the “I crashed the servers!” bravado. Times when Eisenberg gives you a whole world with a gesture, a shrug, a stare, the way he slouches, leans, smiles, flinches.
When Garfield blows up at him at the end of the movie (super-smart dialogue here, btw, “It will never be finished, like fashion is never finished.” This is a sideways snark at Eduardo and his fancy clothes and his fancy Final Club. Eduardo picks up on this and as always with Mark, chooses to disregard it, casually scoffing “You’re talking about fashion?” But here, in this scene, Eduardo lets go - “along with my hoodie and my fuck-you flip-flops, you pretentious douchebag!” is a very specific insult: I always knew what you were doing Mark, because I know you well enough to know that the hoodie and flip-flops are a concentrated effort to look like you don’t care, but I, your best friend, know just how much you do and always have cared, so cut the shit. And, again, marvel that the actors get all this across by showing you, not telling you.) I love the little ways Eisenberg comes apart, winces with the hurt of being called out by someone who knows him well. Again, here is Eisenberg at his reactive best - Garfield gives, Eisenberg reacts. We wince along with both of them because of this.
Almost better still, I love how Eisenberg is alone after that, after the explosion and yet another disaster, this one courtesy Timberlake’s frantic Sean Parker, and he comes back together as someone entirely new. “I’ll take care of it,” he tells Parker, in an exhausted, disgusted tone and in that second, the OLD Mark Zuckerberg becomes the NEW Mark Zuckerberg: the one we’ve been seeing decimate and dominate (and, let's face it, charm) in the depositions. Rolling that card over in his hand, Eisenberg brings the two Zuckerbergs together in one flawless moment: he is then the person we see in the now. Eisenberg shows you that no one else could have done this: not the Winkelvii, not Eduardo, not Sean Parker. It is Zuckerberg alone who could get the world on Facebook and it's Eisenberg who shows you just what that cost him. He's the CEO, bitch - and he won't apologize.
(Garfield’s moment of merging the then-Eduardo and now-Eduardo is more subtle, mostly because he’s the supporting character. They also involve quite a bit of detail from the movie’s costuming: now Eduardo is wearing Prada. He’ll always be wearing Prada now, in an effort to show just how untouchable he is, he’s transformed himself into someone who wears these clothes, slicks his hair, as a shield. As my best movie friend says, “Eduardo’s dumb days are over.” And dumb, of course, really means “trusting.” IS there a moment in the film as wrenching as the quiet, "I thought they were my lawyers." Youch. This is heartbreaking to me and it’s intentional, of course. For me, this is part of what drew me into fandom - the urge to not just try to “fix” that but to see how it happened, what it means, what happens next.)
I think you like Mark Zuckerberg, I really do, and I think you like him, even as he's frustrating and closed off, because of Eisenberg. Because he never asks you to like him, you do. This is a reactive performance: full of carefully observed and modulated character work. And while this is the kind of work the Academy rarely recognizes, it's the kind of screen performance I like the best.
I've seen a lot of movies this year. Put of the 56 movies nominated for Oscars, I've so far seen 41. (still watching!) I've seen ALL the acting nominations and many more movies that weren't nominated besides. So, I feel confident when I say that Eisenberg's work as Zuckerberg is, besides being the best work he has ever done, career-defining at only 26, the best acting work of the year.
Here's one update: they've announced the show will start off with Tom Hanks giving two BIG awards: Art Direction and Cinematography. These will tell us, almost immediately, what kind of King's Speech sweep we're looking at. Might as well pull the band-aid right off, eh?
I am going to try to respond to comments, but I am off on a short vacation before the Oscars, so I might not get to them until Saturday. However, in all the great comments there were several that seemed to want to talk about performance more, soooo! After the cut is a TL;DR ;) combination of my many defenses and support of TSN and Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield I've offered since October in Oscar fandom. (definitely more focus on Jesse, as once he became the nominee it changed things in Oscar fandom, obvs.) I'm so glad to be sharing them in TSN fandom ... where we have more fun! (there are A LOT of hardcore TSN supporters in Oscar fandom, don't get me wrong, it's just...not quite the same. I was considered a rabid TSN fangirl there for, say, not automatically assuming Firth should win.)
I look forward to more amazing discussion of the craft of the film. It's already cheered up my downer of an Oscar season considerably, so THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. As always, please chime in with your thoughts, discussing the movie this way is absolutely one of my favorite parts!
There's a moment during a deposition when a lawyer asks Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) about the money he invested in Facebook. "So, $1000 plus $18000 makes a total of $19000 you gave," says the lawyer. At this point, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) interrupts and says, "Hang on," then scribbles on a notepad "just checking your math. Yeah, that's what I got too," he smirks. It's a funny moment, played with just the right amount of insolent frustration by Eisenberg, and an audacious one too. You, as a viewer, are both amused and annoyed with Zuckerberg. (as you are for much of the movie.) And then, in what you think at first is an afterthought, Eisenberg looks over at not just the lawyer but at Garfield and, for a split second, it's two smart-ass best friends sharing a moment before they both seem to realize that all that is over forever.
And it's moments like that which make this the best movie of the year. Let me be clear: I don't know if ANY of this is "true" and I frankly don't care. It's not about Facebook, it's not about how we live on the Internet: it's about our social networks, the people we care about, the people we want to be. It's about friendship and betrayal - to me, the most emotional, most nuanced, most moving moment in film this year was when Garfield looks at Eisenberg near the end of the lawsuit and chokes out one of the last things he'll ever say to him: "I was your only friend. You had one friend." Both actors play this so perfectly that it's dizzying. Garfield looks heartbroken, still shell-shocked from the enormity of everything that’s happened. He can’t believe it happened and so, even though we’ve seen every step along the way, neither can we. Eisenberg looks like he hates himself: hates himself for caring, hates himself for doing it. He winces without moving, an action you see only in his eyes and face, and the pain of it vibrates off you. We, as viewers, know just what they mean and just what they've lost and we have a minute to think about our own friends and our own mistakes and our own lives.
When I hear people say there are no likable characters in this movie, that Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg as almost a sociopath, I wonder what movie they were watching, because that moment is all about humanity and friendship and connections and longing and feeling. And it's far from the only moment like that in the movie, it's full of them. Most of them come via Eisenberg, who gives a near perfect performance as a guy who just might be a genius but basically just wants, as he says in the first ten minutes of the movie, a "better life" ... like all of us. Eisenberg's Zuckerberg IS us: the person who wants to fit in and be like everyone else, yet who feels different and awkward and hungers to be known and recognized. What constitutes that better life, what we're willing to do to get a better life, that's the guts of the movie and, because it is brave and smart, the script knows that is an unanswerable question. Is changing the world and a billion dollars worth your only friend? The movie doesn’t claim it’s a simple answer and that’s what makes it a question worth asking.
The Social Network is also a deeply intellectual film that asks us to consider invention and design and ownership of ideas and genius. It's funny and quotable (the script snaps), smart and well-paced. It's about class and striving and wanting to be better. It works on every cinematic level. It's got a great script, amazing direction, unbelievable performances, incredibly detailed set design, daring cinematography, clean, strong editing, a compelling and original score that compliments the film, perfectly calibrated costumes: it's all here and it all works. It all works together.
And the performances. Most of all Eisenberg and Garfield but everyone is superb. Garfield, as the best friend who isn’t quite CFO material but still doesn’t deserve to be cut out, often gets described as a the “heart” of the movie, but I think this undersells his performance. He’s also the guy who wants to do right. “We’re ranking girls,” Eisenberg tells him, his voice flat. Garfield thinks for a moment, you see everything he knows about this guy and this moment cycle through his head and he says, slowly, something that must be said. “You mean other students?” He has a lot of moments like Eisenberg’s, but he has deliberately calibrated his performance to be more open. While we often puzzle at what Mark is feeling, there’s not a moment we don’t know exactly what Eduardo is feeling, Garfield is constantly broadcasting it, even when he shouldn’t be, even when we’re aching that he is.
It is Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Savering’s story that gives the movie its real emotional heft, that makes it timeless, that makes it stick with you. That happens because of Eisenberg and Garfield’s performances are perfect compliments, perfect opposites.
And the other performances. Just wow. Justin Timberlake in a dazzling and magnetic performance, from the moment Parker walks on screen, Timberlake sets the movie thrumming. He ups the stakes and he dazzles us the same way he dazzles Mark. In particular, I love the scene in the club. He tells a ridiculously fake story about a girl to con Mark (because he’s so good at reading people) and when Mark asks “Do you ever still think about her?” Timberlake’s reaction is priceless. At the end of the movie, a character tells Mark that every creation myth needs a devil. This might be true, but it’s Parker who’s cast as the devil here and Timberlake relishes that. There’s Armie Hammer who creates two entirely separate characters (thanks to physical assist from Josh Pence) who you’d probably hate in real life yet you can’t help but feel empathy for. Rooney Mara has what’s essentially a two scene cameo but the movie doesn’t happen without her. Her first scene with Eisenberg is justifiably on its way to becoming a legendary: acting classes will study it and say, “That, right there, is how it’s done.” Mara gets across how this girl could be drawn to and yet frustrated by a guy like Mark. She banters and sparks with him in just the right ways and one thing I truly love is she gets across the attraction and frustration. Every part is played to perfect: Max Minghella, Douglas Urbanski, Brenda Song - we don’t see a lot of these characters, but thanks to the performers, we know all about them.
The Social Network is meticulous and moving and thoughtful, the way the best movies are. At the same time, it’s energetic and endlessly creative. No other movie this year made me as excited, as curious, as fascinated as this one. It's the best movie of the year and one of the best movies of the decade. Check my math, you'll see.
--
Less than two minutes into the film, Jesse Eisenberg has a moment to respond to what he considers is a major slight from the girl he is dating. He wants to get into a Final Club. She, casually, asks which is the easiest to get into. In a split second, Eisenberg gets across a thousand emotions - he's confused, betrayed, annoyed. Why would she say that? Doesn't she like me? Should I mention it? Is she right? Am I overreacting? Why would she say that? All of this, every part of it, comes across Eisenberg's face in less than five seconds, without a single word. Without a breath, he then segues, seamlessly, into the next part of the conversation, which through this entire scene is moving at a rapid-fire pace.
This is masterful work and it happens just like that, without preamble, without calling attention to itself. The movie is FILLED with moments like this, there are too many to list. When Eisenberg gets a note from a girl calling him a dick - his entire world collapses in the space of ten seconds and we see the truth behind all the “I crashed the servers!” bravado. Times when Eisenberg gives you a whole world with a gesture, a shrug, a stare, the way he slouches, leans, smiles, flinches.
When Garfield blows up at him at the end of the movie (super-smart dialogue here, btw, “It will never be finished, like fashion is never finished.” This is a sideways snark at Eduardo and his fancy clothes and his fancy Final Club. Eduardo picks up on this and as always with Mark, chooses to disregard it, casually scoffing “You’re talking about fashion?” But here, in this scene, Eduardo lets go - “along with my hoodie and my fuck-you flip-flops, you pretentious douchebag!” is a very specific insult: I always knew what you were doing Mark, because I know you well enough to know that the hoodie and flip-flops are a concentrated effort to look like you don’t care, but I, your best friend, know just how much you do and always have cared, so cut the shit. And, again, marvel that the actors get all this across by showing you, not telling you.) I love the little ways Eisenberg comes apart, winces with the hurt of being called out by someone who knows him well. Again, here is Eisenberg at his reactive best - Garfield gives, Eisenberg reacts. We wince along with both of them because of this.
Almost better still, I love how Eisenberg is alone after that, after the explosion and yet another disaster, this one courtesy Timberlake’s frantic Sean Parker, and he comes back together as someone entirely new. “I’ll take care of it,” he tells Parker, in an exhausted, disgusted tone and in that second, the OLD Mark Zuckerberg becomes the NEW Mark Zuckerberg: the one we’ve been seeing decimate and dominate (and, let's face it, charm) in the depositions. Rolling that card over in his hand, Eisenberg brings the two Zuckerbergs together in one flawless moment: he is then the person we see in the now. Eisenberg shows you that no one else could have done this: not the Winkelvii, not Eduardo, not Sean Parker. It is Zuckerberg alone who could get the world on Facebook and it's Eisenberg who shows you just what that cost him. He's the CEO, bitch - and he won't apologize.
(Garfield’s moment of merging the then-Eduardo and now-Eduardo is more subtle, mostly because he’s the supporting character. They also involve quite a bit of detail from the movie’s costuming: now Eduardo is wearing Prada. He’ll always be wearing Prada now, in an effort to show just how untouchable he is, he’s transformed himself into someone who wears these clothes, slicks his hair, as a shield. As my best movie friend says, “Eduardo’s dumb days are over.” And dumb, of course, really means “trusting.” IS there a moment in the film as wrenching as the quiet, "I thought they were my lawyers." Youch. This is heartbreaking to me and it’s intentional, of course. For me, this is part of what drew me into fandom - the urge to not just try to “fix” that but to see how it happened, what it means, what happens next.)
I think you like Mark Zuckerberg, I really do, and I think you like him, even as he's frustrating and closed off, because of Eisenberg. Because he never asks you to like him, you do. This is a reactive performance: full of carefully observed and modulated character work. And while this is the kind of work the Academy rarely recognizes, it's the kind of screen performance I like the best.
I've seen a lot of movies this year. Put of the 56 movies nominated for Oscars, I've so far seen 41. (still watching!) I've seen ALL the acting nominations and many more movies that weren't nominated besides. So, I feel confident when I say that Eisenberg's work as Zuckerberg is, besides being the best work he has ever done, career-defining at only 26, the best acting work of the year.