The Social Network (2010) - 10 Years Later

There isn't much that I could say about this film that hasn't already been belabored by many a movie critic over the last decade. We know about Aaron Sorkin's zippy, razor-sharp dialogue that is wholly emblematic of the man as a writer, but also perfectly akin to the kind of sleek, voguish movie that The Social Network ultimately is. Even 10 years since its release, and in a time where social media is exorbitantly more prevalent than the filmmakers could have imagined, the film feels urgent. Modern, even.

We also know about David Fincher's polished direction. The cold visual sheen that characterizes much of his filmography is present here, even though the story he is telling diverges from the crime-oriented thrillers he is known for making. Fincher's sober directing style is an unlikely pairing with Sorkin's vibrant, almost hyperactive penmanship. But it is, ultimately, a happy marriage.

We know about the opulent performances. Jesse Eisenberg, whose subsequent acting career has felt to me like a series of unfortunate miscastings, seems to have been born to embody the twerpy, unsociable presence of Sorkin's Mark Zuckerberg. It's a career-best turn as the Facebook founder and subject of Sorkin's close, critical study. He's joined by the equally capable Andrew Garfield, who turned in a really solid and underrated performance as Zuckerberg's close friend and business partner, Eduardo Saverin. He's ultimately a tragic figure in this story, and Garfield elicits plenty of sympathy. Armie Hammer and Justin Timberlake round out the main cast and both do great supporting work.

We know about the riveting monologues. We know about the agonizing betrayals. We know about the hypnotic score that palpitates beneath the on screen proceedings. We also know about purported inaccuracies in Sorkin's portrayal of the events before, during, and after the creation of Facebook.

There isn't much we don't know about The Social Network. It's a film that seems tailor made to be talked about. To be analyzed. And there's plenty to be discussed. Perhaps what we didn't know about the film, and what we can examine right now in the year 2020, is how it would hold up from years of close scrutiny and an ever-changing societal landscape.

Facebook was a big deal in 2010. It had amassed 500 million users as the film's punchy poster tells us, and was an influential behemoth of a social media platform. However, in an age where Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the United States Congress to testify about Facebook's collection and usage of users' personal data, and when now more than ever people are being confronted with the realities of widespread surveillance and data mining on the part of huge mega-corporations like Facebook and Google, there is a tinge of anachronism that permeates throughout the film upon watching it today.

That's not to say that The Social Network is a bad film. Not by any stretch of the imagination. From a filmmaking perspective, this is a stellar and compelling piece of storytelling with some of the most outstanding screenwriting I've ever encountered. The performances are all top-notch. David Fincher's direction is excellent. There's nothing wrong with this movie from an objective viewpoint, and as a work of art, it can still be enjoyed as well today as when it was first released.

With that said, I believe it will increasingly become something of a period piece, a snapshot of a bygone era when social media was not as pernicious and complicated. But it's important not to lose sight of how and why things happen. The past can be distorted. History can be misremembered, if we let it. For this reason, The Social Network will endure as an important historical document. And an exceptionally entertaining one at that.

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