Steven Stanek

Once in a while, there is a movie that defines what a generation is all about. For our generation, that movie is “The Social Network,” which is one of the most defining movies of the year, and possibly of the decade.

“The Social Network” is about the worldwide Internet sensation known as Facebook, which is used by almost everyone in our day and age, but the movie is not complete by letting us know who created it. The man with the plan is Mark Zuckerberg, a strong performance played by Jesse Eisenberg.

Zuckerberg is a Harvard student, techno geek, and seems to speak in a language of his own, which would be defined as computer talk, and is now the youngest billionaire in the world. He came up with the brilliant idea of social networking for college students everywhere in order for people to meet new people. But was the idea truly his?

Throughout the movie, we see him struggle to keep his idea alive while being sued by a few fraternity students who claim it was their idea first. Along with that, we view how his best friend and co-founder, Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield, also sued him.

The movie is all about college students, but these students do not speak like college students. They sound like actual adults dealing with huge problems. What enhances it even more is how each of the actors builds up so much intensity from each other. Every actor in the movie is pitch-perfect and keeps their chemistry strong, which is really hard to see in a movie these days.

We can thank director David Fincher for using his vision to wow audience members about what went behind the social networking phenomenon. The movie does not follow a standard story structure. The movie is viewed with the two trials of Zuckerberg being sued embedded inside the background of what went down creating Facebook.

Aaron Sorkin, the writer of the screenplay, must really be happy to see what the movie has become. He must have known that Fincher was the perfect choice to direct his script. Speaking of which, the script features words that can be described as potent poetrythat comes out of these characters. Only some of these characters can understand what they’re talking about and it’s amazing to see how some of them actually understand each other.

“The Social Network” is truly one of the year’s best movies and one of the best movies to come out in recent time. It is easy to compare this generation movie to a movie, such as “Citizen Kane.” It can also be expected that the movie will get some high Oscar consideration with its tensely shot direction and superb performances from its actors. For anyone who is curious to see how this phenomenon came to life and see whom the creators were, this dark and tense biography is definitely a MUST-SEE.

Steven Stanek