Review of The Social Network (2010) by Gregory G — 20 May 2014

What "The Great Gatsby" is to the Jazz Age, "The Social Network" is to the internet age - it's perhaps the defining movie for this generation about American life here and now. Part speculative biographical history, this social drama is about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook.

Jesse Eisenberg is masterful as the smug, coldly calculating, computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg; who created Facebook while an undergrad at Harvard and would become the youngest billionaire in the world.

Eisenberg talks at breakneck speed; Zuckerberg's mental capacity for expeditiously processing information is like that of a computer, as he always seems to be a step or two ahead of everyone else in a conversation.

Based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich, according to events presented here recounted in legal depositions, Zuckerberg was a socially awkward, status seeker who created a social media empire after being dumped by his girlfriend.

This is a superb chronicle of the Machiavellian nature of entrepreneurship and the betrayal of friendship that emotionally and structurally calls to mind "Citizen Kane." The movie is more suggestive than pointed at showing the effect that Facebook has on the culture.

Aaron Sorkin wrote the sophisticated script with his typical rapid-fire, witty dialogue that suggests an intellectual version of Preston Sturges. Directed with subtle precision and superb pacing by David Fincher.

With Justin Timberlake as playboy Napster founder Shawn Parker; a very affecting Andrew Garfield as Facebook CFO Eduardo Saverin; Armie Hammer Jr. as Cameron/Tyler Winklevoss; Brenda Song; Rooney Mara; Rashida Jones; Dakota Johnson; and Douglas Urbanski as Harvard President Larry Summers.

Cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth. Music by Trent Resnor and Atticus Ross. A near unanimous selection by film critics groups as the best film of its year. Won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay, Score, Film Editing.