The Social Network

Saw The Social Network, a slick film about the founding of Facebook and about the founder Mark Zuckerberg.  The film is written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, so the vibe is very nerd-masculine.  Not worshiping physical violence, but loving a clever, quippy sort of sarcasm.  The film is very slick and yet felt sort of glib to me.  The rise of Facebook and the autistic genius of Mark Zuckerberg are fun to watch but ultimately the film reveals that it was all done for very simple emotional reasons and that the Zuck is just a human being after all.  This is annoying to me.

The film is mostly about Mark.  He's played as somewhat neurodivergent (OCD?  Aspergers?) however he's smart enough to pull off this stand-offish misunderstood genius act.  More than that, he realizes that gathering power and money through business is orthogonal to making useful or new things.  He starts out in Harvard where social currency is prized more highly than actual cash.  He starts out wanting to join a frat in spite of being unlikable and generally exhausting to deal with.  He soon realizes after an experimental precursor to Facebook crashes the Harvard network that frats are just a means to networking and that he's capable of just leapfrogging the whole frat system.

I feel the film suggests that he's sort of a normal person in an Asperger-shaped disguise.  He wants acceptance, he wants The Girl, he wants friends but he just somehow can't (how tragic!)  It does nail the way that Silicon Valley (and the world in general) rewards social manipulation, clout, and access to moneyed folk.  There's an investor (Sean Parker who founded Napster) who takes an interest in Facebook and freezes out the previous CFO (Mark's college dorm-mate.)  He's not smarter or objectively better, but he is more experienced and better connected and the first thing he does is isolate Mark as his own privet money-making pet.  This is, ladies and gents, how it works.

I feel this sort of cynicism puts the film in the realm of Wall Street and The Wolf of Wall Street: dark, miserable films that worship success and excess and which seem to show life as it really is, behind the curtain.  Because this film deals with tech it feels sort of inspiring to me, but it still tastes poisonous.  I did greatly enjoy it however and one man's cynicism is sometimes another man's inspiration, so who knows.  I loved the out-of-nowhere tilt-shifted regatta.  I also enjoyed the seductive revenge of the nerds angle.  Wimpy coders take down buff frat bros (two Adonis-like twins are completely steamrolled by The Zuck in a few satisfying scenes) and pull all the prettiest girls.  Go, nerds.

In the end however, I feel the film is a snarky, grim little thing that sure loves a cutting remark but which feel pat and overly simplistic.  The point is to create a satisfying narrative arc however and so the film must ultimately resolve into broad easy emotions that are relatable.  They may not be true, but they may be close enough to count.  Anyway a good, mean film.