Oscar Countdown, Day 9: The Social Network

Counting down the hours until Hollywood's most golden of awards galas? So are we! Semi-obsessively. Join us at noon for the next ten too-long days as we mentally prep our Oscar pool ballots and give each of this year's Best Picture nominees a once over and half.

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

THE RUNDOWN: Out of break-up anger, Harvard U student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) decides to create FaceMash with the help of his best bud Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield): a site dedicated to rating the hotness of the girls on campus. While the site leads him to academic probation, it also leads him to twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) and their pal Divya Narendra (Max Minghella), who want to create the Harvard Connection, a website connecting Harvard students. That night, Zuckerberg brings the idea of The Facebook to Saverin, which is pretty much the same thing as the Harvard Connection with a few features added. The site's popularity explodes and with the help/setback of Napster co-founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) and a substantial investment, Facebook is a step closer to what we know it as today. But when Saverin's shares of the company are diluted, Saverin de-friends Zuckerberg in the form of a lawsuit. Oh, and remember the Winklevoss twins? They're taking up the legal fight too.

WHY IT'S GOLDEN: The Social Network is Facebook embodied. And not just in the sense that it tells the story of how that particular website turned "friend" into a verb and made creeping in on someone's personal business way too convenient. I'm talking about the fact that, just like the interwebs version of a partially-filled out address book, when you first heard about it, you totally wanted to boycott its lame-ass. Then after hearing your IRL friends go on about it like they did about JTT six years prior, you forced yourself to join/watch it. The rest is totally obsessive history. But unlike your unhealthy addiction to Farmville, you really shouldn't feel bad for uh, liking, The Social Network. AT ALL. I mean, even if you took out the awesome acting (Jesse Eisenberg! Andrew Garfield! JT Timberlake!), badass directing (David Fincher is Tyler Durden), surreal score (Trent Reznor!?) and effortless editing, you'd still have a wicked-cool movie, thanks to the quick-witted, present-without-being-pretentious script courtesy of Aaron Sorkin (West Wing). This has to be the most zeitgeist-y movie of the decade as it perfectly encapsulates the anti-social social movement that is the bread and butter of countless BBM-addicted co-eds and computer screen queens everywhere. - Emily

WHY IT'S NOT: If you've seen the trailer, you already know the story. And if you didn't know the story, all the hype about it before the film came out gives you more than enough. By the time I saw the film, I was tired of the constant buzz about Facebook. It's also tough not to watch the film waiting for each piece of the predictable puzzle to play out, which both slows the film down and makes it so less entertaining. The outcome of the whole mess is ineffectual. Also, I know it's a film based on reality and I don't actually know Mark Zuckerberg but did Eisenberg really have to play him out to be such an ass? Accurate or inaccurate, entertaining or not, it's pretty harsh. - Michelle

THE FINAL VERDICT: This is the only movie that has a real chance of beating out the odds-on favourite (The King's Speech) due to the fact that it's near-universally adored. The problem is the small percentage that doesn't want to be faux BFFs with it—older folks who shudder at the mention of their grandkids poking their friends - makes up a big part of the Academy. We've seen the edgy modern classic (Pulp Fiction!) lose out to the re-heated heartwarmer (Forrest Gump!) one too many times for a reason. But then again, The Hurt Locker did win last year.

Check out Emily's original review here! Tomorrow: The King's Speech!

Emily's Top 10 of '10: Part 2

5. 127 Hours

I saw Danny Boyle's latest heart-yanking film on an especially special evening at TIFF, attended by both it's star (James Franco) and it's inspiration (adventure enthusiast and Between a Rock and Hard Place author, Aron Ralston). After the screening the mega-moving one-man-show, in which Franco (as Ralston) amputates his own arm after having spent an excruciating 127 hours with it lodged under a rogue boulder, Ralston (and his hook hand) came on stage all bright and teary-eyed. He was just so grateful to see his true triumph of the human spirit come alive on screen for the world, and most importantly, his family to see. As he told the still-recovering audience (the fainting rumours are true!), he was blown away by Boyle and Franco's hyperactive and hallucinogenic treatment of his story, as it managed remain loyal to his reality even when delving into fits of hysterical fantasy. I couldn't have said it better myself.

4. Blue Valentine

This dark, depressing love story is not for the faint and or fantastical of heart. This film, which was nearly unfairly slapped with a NC-17 rating (America's version of R), is rough, raw and ridiculously real, to the point that sometimes, you feel as though you're Rear Windowing in on your loud, obviously unhappy neighbours. Blue Valentine takes us on a tour through the shards of a never-really-true romance, which starts as an unhappy accident and ends in unsolvable screaming match. Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling pour their hearts and bodies (the duo totally transform in the later sections) into playing the couple in question (Cindy and Dean), giving us what may be the most genuine representation of modern love - and loss - I've ever seen.

3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

I still can't believe this movie wasn't a huge hit. It's 100 times better than Tron, Iron Man 2 and every other big budget action flick that came out this year. It's not a remake (although it is based on a series of graphic novels). It's not a mindless star vehicle (although Mikey Cera does get some sweet mega-closeups!). It's a true original - with some perfectly timed homages (Mortal Kombat! Seinfeld!) thrown in. Featuring a kick ass (not to be confused with Kick-Ass, which didn't quite live up to its name) plot - Toronto-based hipster 20-something has to defeat his new girl's seven evil exes - awesomely awkward dialogue, video game visuals and an insanely addictive soundtrack, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has future unironic indie kid favourite written all over it. And it knows it.

2. Toy Story 3

This June, Woody, Buzz and the toy friends we've grown to love for over a decade rode back into Tinseltown for one last cinematic play date. And I don't know about you, but I'm searching for tissues. While the first two films in the animated series were undoubtedly superb, this installment was even better as it took us through most devastating moment of any toy's life: being put away in storage by their once-dedicated owner (in this case, Andy).  For my generation, who grew with the courageous cowboy and the sometimes-Spanish space cadet and kind of consider them our own, the bittersweet story hit so close to home it still hurts. 

1. The Social Network

A deliciously zeitgeist-y story, based on the controversial back story behind the most addictive website, ever? A wicked smart cast fronted by the next generation of hot nerds, Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield - and former Model Behaviour star and triple threat, Justin Timberlake? A talky, intelligent, Gilmore Girls speed script by West Wing scribe, Aaron Sorkin? What's not to 'like'? If this doesn't win Best Picture, I'm going to de-friend the Academy for at least a week.

ALSO AWESOME: The Other Guys, The King's Speech, Black Swan, Inception, Tangled, Shutter Island, Youth in Revolt 

*All photos from allmoviephoto.com

The Social Network

Photo: allmoviephoto.com

(Facebook 'em.)

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer and Justin Timberlake. Directed by David Fincher.

Rumour has it after Mark Zuckerberg read a leaked version of Aaron Sorkin's script for The Social Network, he immediately removed Sorkin's classic TV series, The West Wing, from his Facebook favourites, saying that it was a overly fabricated, melodramatic version of his now-famous life. And if you look into the real story behind the reel story, you might be inclined to agree. But if take the movie at face value, you will find that there's really not much not to, uh, 'like.'

Although its subject matter is almost painfully current (the action starts back in 2003), The Social Network feels like an old, IRL friend. With extremely quick-witted dialogue, a slow-burning pace and brilliantly under-toned cinematography, the film seems straight out of the 1970s indie cinema can. But then you see the laptops and Gap product placements and you realize that can't possibly be true. And then you're more impressed.

Whether we just remember that weird blue silhouetted dude who once lurked the top of our homepages, or read The Accidental Billionaires cover to cover, we all know a little bit about Facebook founder and now, CEO, Mark Zuckerberg (played in the film by the awesome Jesse Eisenberg of the Lands – Zombie and Adventure – the lost awesomeness). And any cinephile could have told you David Fincher has a knack for garnering scene-stealing cinematography and award-deserving performances (he did Fight Club, Se7en and Zodiac). But who could have predicted the two would be destined for each other?

Sorkin may be Zuckerberg’s new Eduardo Saverin - the social media site’s co-founder, played by Andrew Garfield, who Zuckerberg ditched once Napster founder, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake, with a No Strings Attached era do) wooed him away with appletinis and continents- but Fincher will always be The Social Network’s Zuckerberg. Like the curly-haired schemer of a Harvard hacker, Fincher took a pretty lame idea (“A Facebook movie?!”) and turned it into a virtual goldmine.

The superbly controversial Sorkin script aside, the true magic of The Social Network is the casting. Fincher could have gotten DOA Disney stars to fill Zuckerberg, Saverin and Parker’s Converse (although look out for London Tipton, getting tipsy – and randomly pyro! – as Saverin’s crazy gf), but he specifically chose lesser-known (or in Timberlake's case, underappreciated) actors for the parts. And the risk paid off even more than a certain underage coder in a high-profile pinch.

Timberlake, while obviously a pro musician and SNL guest, has never really had a breakthrough movie role (unless you count, Model Behaviour, which most DCOM girls totally do). Garfield is only known for being chosen to play the new Spiderman. And Eisenberg has been waiting his whole short-lived on-screen life to shake off that “Jewish Michael Cera” title. But they seem like old pros in this, biting into their Lorelai Gilmore dialogue like its candy and making the damn-most of their puppy-dog eyes. Especially Garfield and Eisenberg. To paraphrase Parker, this is their time.

Also great is newcomer Armie Hammer (yes, that’s his actual name), who plays Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the twin Harvard rowers (and future Olympians) who argue that they gave Zuckerberg the seed that would blossom into a billion-dollar idea. Hammer, who looks like he belongs on an Abercrombie cologne bottle, is sure to garner more than a few mid-movie pokes between girlfriends. But he’s more than just a pretty face (and bod...and man-voice). Just not as damn-good as Eisenberg.

Maybe I’m just an overly keen member of Team Jesse, but the dude does what Mr. Cera should have done four movies ago with this role. He steps out of his cute-nerd comfort zone, showing us that Duckie Dales still exist, or rather that being awkward and in love can still be code for asshole. A