First movie with a Like button! - ‘The Social Network’ Review

So let me tell you about the iPad. I got mine back in late April, and not only is it the coolest thing I own, but I was living in China when I got it (I had to have it shipped to my mom, who then mailed it to me, since it wasn't being sold in China yet), so it felt totally futuristic because no one else where I was living could get it. The whole computer industry is evolving at lightning speed, but it was the iPad that really made me realize how different the whole computer world was five years ago, and how much more different it will likely be five years in the future.

And it's because of this breakneck pace of change that we have a movie like The Social Network, a biopic about a billionaire who's even now barely 25 years old, and who became rich by revolutionizing the way we communicate online with a website that he co-authored barely seven years ago. A lot of critics have been getting all philosophical about the thing, going on and on about how the movie isn't about the website or the man or whatever, it's about a fundamental need for acceptance that's inside everyone.

Yeah, whatever. It's about the creation of one of the most popular websites in the world. I see no reason to impose deep meaning on it. Everyone loves Facebook and the movie is hugely entertaining, so why jump up on a high horse about it?

But the thing I love most about the whole Facebook story is the normality of its origins. Mark Zuckeberg is a Harvard student but still a regular guy, just like any one of us. He's average height and average looking, the kind of guy you could pass on the street without noticing. But therein lies the whole problem, as told by director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin. He's a regular guy who wants recognition from the 'in-crowd,' and a sudden breakup with his girlfriend early in the movie sets off his mission to get it.

The real Mark Zuckerberg claims he had no interest in such clubs while at Harvard, but whatever the case, Fincher and Sorkin have crafted a compelling story about how a college student created one of the most popular websites in the world, totally changed the way people interact with each other all over the world except in China where Facebook is illegal (too much free speech), and became the world's youngest billionaire.

But the reason I think it's a bunch of uppity crap to go on and on about how the movie is about our inherent need for acceptance is because the movie is about Mark Zuckerberg. If I was writing a paper for a junior college film class I might try to get all verbose about deep psychological meaning, but this is a movie about an unlikable guy who can barely communicate with other people but ended up making a website that revolutionized the meaning of friendships and interaction. The irony kills me!

 And this is the whole reason the movie is so good. Fincher and Sorkin have totally different creative styles, but they work together here because they're telling a story about an unlikable protagonist, a guy who climbed the billionairedom by climbing up on people's shoulders, stepping on their heads and then climbing up onto the next person above.

The movie tells about the single conversation that burned Zuckerberg into creating an online place where he and fellow classmates can rate girls and then to create thefacebook.com, which began to be used my many to meet girls. The movie is dramatized for effect, of course, but it's a fascinating story about an improbable ass who is absolutely devoid of interpersonal skills creating a massively profitable website, and the inevitable heartbreak and lawsuits that are sure to follow. Here's a guy who enables everyone to make friends with people all over the world, but ends up alienating himself in the process.

So yeah, of course there's an importance theme of acceptance in the movie, but I came out of it with the feeling that it's at least as much about that other need that's inside all of use, which is to become super-rich and successful entirely through our own work. Winning the lottery would be a lot of fun, but creating something that becomes so successful that it makes you even only a millionaire, much less a billionaire, is part of the American dream.

And if it happens to someone who's total jerkoff, well, there's a movie in it somewhere!

Note: In an effort to clean up his jerkoff image, Mark Zuckerberg is currently arranging to donate $100 million to the education system of Newark, New Jersey. What a guy!

Another Note - Feel free to friend me on Facebook. I'm not even close to 500 million friends...

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