The Social Network - Review

NB: I hate spoilers, so this blog won't give away plot, but will talk about themes in the film.

Aaron Sorkin? I didn't even know he was the screenplay writer until it popped up on the opening credits, and as a HUGE West Wing fan (I have to watch an episode before I go to sleep every night - no kidding. Get lost!) I figured I'd be into Social Network. (It's him and David Mamet that are so seriously wicked.)

And Sorkin hits you with a first scene that is masterful in its integration into a face to face conversation of the crap cliches and meaningless, trite content of social media messages and comments that belie true feelings and honesty.

Seriously, it's worth going purely to experience the first scene's cynical regard for the changes in human communication that social media has impacted upon us.

You can read about the anti-hero claptrap from other reviews, but instead consider the contemporary portrayal of geeks in films recently, of which this film is a prime example. Whatever happened to Hollywood's loveable poindexters? Y'know like Lucas, the guys from Weird Science, and Revenge of The Nerds? (Jesus, the temptation to summise that we're in "Generation G" for "geek" is incredible. Cliched device duly avoided.)

Executive producer Kevin Spacey follows-up the vibe of his film 21 - which explores the corruption of geekdom - with an even stronger and darker assertion that successful nerdity leads to megalomania.

But of all things, almost counter-intuitively until you reflect on it, this film is about superficial friendship and insincere communication. But then it's about Facebook, so of course it is.

The only entity in the film that retains integrity is The Social Network. (I don't want to spoil it, but I'm dying to make a point about a character which you might also argue retains integrity - but the very last scene proves that not to be the case.)

Fiction or not, it's a tragic depiction of the loneliness of the man at the centre of the world's largest social network, the man who commoditised friendship.

But regardless of whether the sense of affirmation for my cynicism towards social network "relationships" was from my own imposition on the film or whether it was an intentional reflection of my views, it was the most powerful thing I took away.

Lots of other things were just lessons I'd already learnt. Never blog when you're hammered. But great ideas come to you when you're pissed - in both the UK and US sense. Defamation is defamation, on the 'net or not. Pretty girls on websites drive traffic. A "the" is great for bands, not for brands. People you think are "cool" will disappoint you when you realise their reality.

Questions I asked myself after the film:

Whatever happened to Faceparty.com?

Why was my university only on the second round of UK invites?

Why the hell would people put photos of themselves drunk on the internet? Looking in the mirror when I'm drunk is frightening enough, why the hell would I want to relive that?

Lessons I think are intended by the film:

If you've got a true friend who's become simply a facebook friend, go hook up with them, have a real chat about real stuff.

Also ask yourself, how many of your Facebook friends you would give $25mn to?

And if you really think that social network friendships are real friendships, take your social media face out of your social media arse, go down the pub, and talk to someone you don't know about something real. And if you like them, learn something from them and think you can add to each other's lives, stay in touch with them. Ask them if they're on Facebook.