MIT Lecture Series Committee

Rated PG-13
120 minutes

view trailer

format: 35mm

The Social Network (2010)

2010 Academy Award Nominations: Best Picture, Best Leading Actor (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Director (David Fincher), Best Adapted Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin) (WIN!), Best Cinematography, Best Editing (WIN!), Best Original Score (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross) (WIN!), Best Sound Mixing

Director David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven) teams with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) to explore the meaning of success in the early 21st century, from the perspectives of the technological innovators who revolutionized the way we all communicate. The year was 2003. As formerly prohibitively expensive technology became affordable to the masses and the Internet made it easy to stay in touch with people who were halfway across the world, Harvard undergrad and computer programming wizard Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) launched a website with the potential to alter the very fabric of our society. At the time, Zuckerberg was just six years away from making his first million. But his hearty payday would come at a high price, because despite all of Zuckerberg's wealth and success, his personal life began to suffer. As he became mired in legal disputes, he discovered that many of the 500 million people he had friended during his rise to the top were eager to see him fall. Chief among that growing list of detractors was Zuckerberg's former college friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), whose generous financial contributions to Facebook served as the seed that helped the company to sprout. And some might argue that Zuckerberg's bold venture wouldn't have evolved into the cultural juggernaut that it is today had Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) not spread the word about Facebook to the venture capitalists from Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence) engage Zuckerberg in a fierce courtroom battle for ownership of Facebook that left many suspecting the young entrepreneur might have let his greed eclipse his better judgment. The Social Network was based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich. [allmovie.com]

Thanks to David Fincher's straightforward direction, Aaron Sorkin's Oscar-level script and a half-dozen sharp performances, this is one of the best movies of the year.
      -- Richard Roeper, RichardRoeper.com. Read this review.