Film #1: The Best (The Social Network)
Many will argue Seven or Fight Club (which are both outstanding films), but The Social Network for me is filmmaking at its finest. I consider the 2010 Oscars one of the Academy’s biggest gaffes. Here are some of the movies that came out that year: Inception. Black Swan. Toy Story 3. The Fighter. And of course, The Social Network. What won Best Picture? The King’s Speech. Booooooooooriiing. While I had resigned myself to the fact that The King’s Speech would take Best Picture, I had faith the Academy would make the right call and choose Fincher as Best Director, but they screwed that up too. Go and watch both films back to back – it’s no contest. I’m not here to bitch about The King’s Speech though. I’m here to praise The Social Network.
While certainly helped by a phenomenal script by Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network is pure movie bliss. Everything about it works. The rhythm. The pace. The acting. It has such an addicting appeal, much like the subject matter it’s covering. And that’s what really impressed me – it’s about Facebook, yet it’s so damn entertaining. You want to clap after every scene just because of how good they are. It’s true that Jesse Eisenberg can only do one type of acting, but boy does he do it well. He was born to play this role. Fincher’s direction is flawless. The Academy should seriously consider recalling this award.
