The Social Network

Ever wonder about the power of an idea?  In the biggest blockbuster of the year to date, Inception asked the question, "Can you deceive someone into believing that an idea is truly their own?"  As a nice counterpoint, The Social Network expertly asks the question, "Can one person really claim ownership of something as fleeting as a simple idea?"  

The Social Network is, of course, the story of Facebook founder and gazillionaire, Mark Zuckerberg.  The movie traces Zuckerberg's roots from a nerdy Harvard undergrad to the heights of his fame and subsequent legal battles.  Zuckerberg is a acid-tongued sophomore at Harvard with a flair for computer wizardry when he meets the Winkelvas brothers.  The "Winkelvi", as Zuckerberg calls them, are everything he wishes he was: tall, attractive, succesful, athletic, capable of getting girls.  They also have an idea.  The brothers have an idea for a social networking site that is exclusive to Harvard students only.  They believe that exclusivity will set them apart from other already existing sites such as myspace and friendster.  The brothers hire Zuckerberg to write code for the site, but soon he's launching his own site, TheFacebook, based on much the same idea.  

Much of the drama in the movie is set in the deposition room as lawyers for several parties question the motives, knowledge and capabilities of each individual involved.  At the base is the question: "Whose idea was this?" 

If only it were that simple.  Social networking was nothing new when facebook was founded, several alternatives were already out there.  Facebook was just the next step in the evolution of networking.  Did the Winkelvas brothers have a claim to the idea that Zuckerberg actually put into operation?  Zuckerberg, in one of the best lines of the film, sneers during his deposition that "If the Winkelvas brothers invented facebook, they would have, well, invented facebook."  

So, perhaps that's it.  In this era of intellectual property where music, movies, money and so much more is passed electronically, maybe the only one with any rights to an idea or thought is the person who acts upon it and makes it his own.  

The acting is all top-notch, especially a turn from Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, the Napster founder, who manages to dazzle/weasel his way into Zuckerberg's inner circle.  The writing from Aaron Sorkin, of West Wing fame, is taut, as to be expected.  

$ $ $ $ $ $  

-  Stuart

Catfish

Guest Review by Zander, WARNING SPOILER ALERTS!

Alright. I enjoyed the movie.

And let's just get this out of the way: I don’t think it’s “real” and I didn’t enjoy the film so much because of the illusion of “realness”. After I saw the movie, and initially voiced that I did enjoy the movie. I got all the: 'You know that movie’s fake, right? I’m a little surprised you bought into it.'

Ugh, Duh. I wish the filmmakers would give up the whole “This is a true story” thing because it’s totally beside the point. Real or not, it’s a fairly accurate depiction of a modern story.

If you already know the ending, here's a summary of the movie. I'd still say go see it, but perhaps rent it later on. OR if you don't want to read the summary just scroll on down to the bottom and read up a little...

Basically, this dude Nev starts an Internet correspondence with a little girl named Abby who paints. The movie begins with his brother and friend wanting to make a documentary about his odd relationship with this child prodigy.

Abby sends him her paintings and they communicate through email regularly. Nev eventually reaches out to Abby’s family, who welcomes him into their lives. First her mother Angela, then her father and her older sister Megan. They all add each other on Facebook and quickly become “Internet aware” of each other’s doings.

It’s not hard to feel like you know someone on the Internet. I mean, I regularly read several blogs a day from people I've never really met, but I feeeeeel like I know them.

Nev starts to fall for Abby’s beautiful older sister Megan, who sings and lives on a farm not too far from her family in another part of Michigan. She’s pretty dreamy in that “perfectly crafted Facebook page” way. They start flirting over Facebook messages, then it moved to text, then they started calling each other and talking about getting more serious once they met. They’re basically Internet boyfriend/girlfriend.

One night Nev discovers that Megan is posting rare acoustic versions of other singers on her FB wall and pretending it’s her and it clicks that there might be something wrong. By the end of the night, he’s figured out that this family has been lying about so many of the important details of their lives. Nev and his friends can’t find anything on these people that they’ve claimed is true about them.The three of them decide to drive to Michigan to figure out what the hell is real and get an ending for their film. This is where it gets craycray.

Megan’s not real. Her address leads to an empty farmhouse.

The next day the boys showed up to Abby’s house, hoping to meet Abby and find out the truth about Megan. Angela, Abby’s mother, who was supposed to be tall and thin and model-esque, is an obese woman with a braid that rivals Beyonce’s in the “Upgrade U” video. But it’s not like, a fly braid. It’s like a Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint braid. Her husband is a good man who is quite possibly slightly retarded. Her husband has two sons who are severely retarded and physically handicapped. One of them has refused to eat for most of his life and physically harms himself. Eventually they do meet Abby, but she’s an eight year old girl of average intelligence who doesn’t seem to particularly care for art. Her mother Angela, however, is an avid painter.

For those that didn’t figure out what was going to happen within the first half hour of the film like I did, this is everyone begins to realize that Angela is Angela, Abby, Megan, her husband’s online persona, Megan’s male friends, their sisters and their friends. Angela created an entire world so that she, the obese mother of handicapped children who lives in small town Michigan, could have a chance to interact with a handsome young man who appreciated every aspect of her personality that she’d put into each of these characters.

I don’t know if that’s the best summary, but it’s essentially the gist.

And how well do we, as constant users of the Internet, the people that first tried out Facebook, the generation that is living and dating in a world where one in five relationships start online (Thanks, Match.com commercial), know that story? Or that feeling? Or have that on our list of fears?

I know people that’s happened to. Not a person. People! Shades of that movie have happened to all of us, either personally or through acquaintances. And we’ve also all at least heard a story about someone showing up to meet a person they’d been corresponding with only to learn that they’d somehow managed to leave out crucial details about their appearance or situation in life. Catfish isn’t just about these dudes having this done to them, it’s about a woman so mentally ill and beaten down using this amazing gift we’ve been given in a horrific way. And you know it’s because the brutal combination of loneliness and lack of fulfillment morphed into a what I image to be the emotional equivalent of a malignant tumor.

All the critics are saying, “Why wouldn’t he have Googled them earlier?”

Duh. Because he never intended to get emotionally involved with these people. This story would never happen to me because it would just never get that far. I'm not talking to anyone I don't know, and even to them I’m not giving anyone my social security number or my deepest darkests. BUT I can imagine after feeling like you’ve gotten to know someone in an organic way, Googling their name may not occur to you. As far as Nev was concerned, the girl he was involved with was the sister of an eight year old girl that he’d been emailing with for ages. Is researching someone who is realistically a stranger before you let them into your life supposed to feel natural now? I know it’s the smart thing to do, but I can absolutely see why it wouldn’t occur to someone to do that.

That being said, I wish they’d give up the whole “this is real” thing. It’s not real. It’s just not. No three amature filmmakers went out and had all of this organically happen to them WHILE not screwing up on the production end at least once. There was like, two issues with one of the mics throughout the whole film. And an underwater camera shot. We know the movie’s fake. But the FEELINGS, you guys. It’s a beautiful depiction of the complicated emotions and scenarios that this technology has brought into our lives. It’s a tribute to those who have mastered the art of producing feelings from illusions.

Ya know?

FINAL NOTE: On the issue of the movie's lying, sensationalized marketing strategy..... I'm asking people to look past that. We're not electing the movie to office. Forget the propaganda.