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Trisha’s Take: The Social Network review

Posted on 1 October 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

[Editor’s Note: We’re trying something a little new here where more than one person writes a review of a given thing. Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated. – TL]

The Social Network

Directed by David Fincher
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Armie Hammer, and more
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, drug and alcohol use and language

Before I write this review, I am obliged to tell you that one of the reasons why I was excited when I first heard about this movie was that Aaron Sorkin (The American President, “The West Wing”) would be writing the screenplay, and that he’d started a Facebook page to do research.

Back then, I’d called it a documentary, and boy was I wrong. The story of The Social Network is based on a not-completely factual non-fiction book by Ben Mezrich called The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal and it was Sorkin and director David Fincher’s job to turn the story within that book into a movie.

For those who aren’t familiar with Facebook‘s history, the first 20 minutes or so of the movie reveal part of its source via a common story trope, although tweaked a bit for the 21st century. Girl (Rooney Mara) breaks up with Guy (Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg) because he’s a tremendous ass, Guy gets drunk and starts writing computer code, and almost overnight, he has alienated almost everyone on his campus… and planted the seeds for an even greater invention.

Though I am a geek, it is not of the computer science flavor and so a lot of the jargon Zuckerberg threw out as he was drunk-coding went completely over my head. What did ring true for me was that he had been hurt by what he perceived to be an unfairness, and he took it out on innocent bystanders while performing an Allen Ginsberg-like howl into the electronic void on his LiveJournal. And perhaps that blend of new technology with age-old human behavior and conflicts is what makes The Social Network a compelling story.

(In a curious burst of synergy, though there is a Zuckonit user on LiveJournal, the account was created approximately two weeks ago and the journal is devoid of content. That’s a real shame because couldn’t you imagine what fun it would have been to be the PR copywriter assigned to simulate what Zuckerberg’s “real” LiveJournal entries would have been?)

The other curious effect of the story presented in Social Network is that it humanizes Zuckerberg by presenting him as a “sexually insecure computer nerd,” according to The Guardian‘s James Robinson. And perhaps this observation is the direct opposition of what Robinson writes about in the rest of his article which described a growing disillusionment with Zuckerberg’s disregard for privacy, but it’s a testament to Sorkin’s words, Fincher’s direction, and Eisenberg’s acting ability that even when he’s ignoring the safe and sane approach to business espoused by his best friend Eduardo Savarin (played very well by Andrew Garfield) and behaving like the most reprehensible businessman ever, the audience in my preview screening never wanted to see Zuckerberg fail miserably.

The antagonists in this story include twin pretty-boy athletes Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) and computing bad boy entrepreneur Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake, in an Oscar-bait worthy performance); it’s Parker who is given the shortest shrift by being portrayed as a paranoid druggie has-been.

As I write this review, I’m struck by the fact that I could talk for ages about how great the dialogue is, how disappointed I was that there weren’t any extensive pedeconferences, how cool the music was (except for the last nightclub scene in California, where it was turned up so loud that you almost couldn’t hear the dialogue–just as it would happen in a real nightclub), and still I really only think this movie was just good, but not great.

I have a suspicion that my ultimate dissatisfaction with this movie is that in attempting to humanize Zuckerberg and create a protagonist whose journey you really wanted to follow, Sorkin pulled a lot of hackneyed ideas out of his overnight bag and sprinkled the film liberally with them. The worst offender is the last scene of the movie which ends with Zuckerberg at his computer all alone… just as he had been when he first began his journey towards being the youngest billionnaire in the world.

And life just isn’t as “neat” as all that.

The Social Network is gathering friends for its U.S. release on October 1. Could you help by going to your nearest theater and purchasing a ticket?

Trisha’s Take: Mao’s Last Dancer review

Posted on 22 July 2010 by admin 1 Comment

Mao’s Last Dancer

Directed by Bruce Berensford
Starring Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Amanda Schull, Joan Chen and more
Rated PG for a brief violent image, some sensuality, language and incidental smoking

There’s an art involved in adapting a book into a movie. Stray too much from the source material and you run the risk of alienating the audience who already knows the story. At the same time, if you stick too closely to the book’s conventions you may not attract enough of an audience who wouldn’t normally be interested in the original work.

And if the book is based on true events, and is an autobiography to boot? All bets are off.

The plot of Mao’s Last Dancer is based on the autobiography by Chinese-born ballet dancer Li Cunxin, who following in the footsteps of such artists as Rudolph Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, defected to the U.S. in 1981. However, the story of the movie begins in medias res, with a 20-year old Li stepping foot onto American soil at the beginning of a student exchange program which places him deep in the heart of Texas, with the Houston Ballet.

I was a little confused by the first few opening scenes because it felt to me that perhaps there was a bit too much medias-ing going on as out of the entire entourage who met Li (played by Chi Cao as an adult) at the airport, the only person whose role I was certain of was Bruce Greenwood as Houston Ballet director Ben Stevenson; the other characters felt like random white people to me because I wasn’t certain of their names or connection to Li. Thankfully, names and relationships began solidifying as the story then flashed back to Li’s youth and his introduction to the Beijing Dance Academy (where Li is played first as a child by Wen Bin Huang and then Birmingham Royal Ballet dancer Chengwu Guo as a teen) to help to fill in the pieces we’re missing. These flashbacks are intercut with the action in the present as Li becomes more acclimated to American culture and as his romance with fellow dancer Elizabeth Mackey (played by Amanda Schull, whom you may remember as Jody from Center Stage) deepens, so does his renown with the company and resolve to stay in the U.S.

These true events of which contemporary Houstonians recall with pride took place when I was 4, and it’s something I don’t remember my parents ever speaking about with their adult friends. As a result, I was fascinated with the story of the political drama but found myself most drawn to Li’s transformation from village peasant to into dedicated dancer. It doesn’t hurt that he is inspired by two of his teachers, one of whom inspires by exposing him to contraband film of Baryshnikov’s work and the other who inspires by sparking his sense of pride and duty. You can’t have a biographical dance movie without some sort of training montage, and I hope that I’m not exposing a bias when I say that I’m glad that it looked as serious as the kind of training montage you’d see in a kung fu movie.

Australian director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) and screenwriter Jan Sardi (The Notebook) are to be commended for their adaptation of Cunxin’s book, treating all the major and minor players in this drama with an even hand. Even the Communist Party members who are only toeing the line are depicted fairly and it’s a testament to the strength of the story and the movie that even without clear villains it’s still a story that’s as riveting now as it was back then. Other critics have complained that there’s not enough political drama, but I really don’t think that was the point of the movie, and especially of a story like this. It’s all about the dancing, and I’m so glad that they spent so much time on that part of Cunxin’s story.

Ultimately, though, the movie does suffer from the same problem that all book adaptations do; even with a 117 minute running time, the movie only skims the surface of what is such an engaging story and narrative that the book was named the “Book of the Year” when it was released in 2003. Still, it’s worth seeing for the great performances and an education in what life was like before you were likely born.

Available in U.S. theaters on August 20, Mao’s Last Dancer is proof-positive that white chicks love a man who can dance. And wear tight tights.

Trailer Watch, Pass or Fail edition: Machete versus The Social Network, plus a bonus trailer

Posted on 20 July 2010 by admin 1 Comment

Good Lord, we’re behind on our movie trailers, aren’t we? Let’s get down to it, then!

I had to watch this at the office with the sound turned off, which means that I had to completely imagine the overblown narration that probably accompanied this latest Machete trailer. Given that Grindhouse was not a box office success—$25 million total gross versus a $67 million budget—I can understand that the official studio trailer isn’t gonna have that awesome grindhouse feel which got the entire film greenlit to begin with.

Doesn’t mean it’s not a stupid trailer, though. So while the official trailer gets a fumble, me and my friends are still going to see this movie in U.S. theaters this fall on September 3.

For a movie that’s your typical “Young guys stumble into brilliant invention, but money comes between their friendship”-flick like The Social Network seems to be flogging, I can’t help but think about other movies like Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) or even Pirates of Silicon Valley and wonder exactly what is going to make this film stand-out from the pack.

If the only thing it has going for it is Aaron Sorkin putting words into Mark Zuckerberg’s mouth, then I think I’m going to give this one a pass. Directed by David Fincher, The Social Network is out in U.S. theaters on October 1.

Finally, props and kudos to Rick Marshall at MTV’s Splash Page blog for posting this exclusive 30 second teaser from the animated adaptation of comics creator Eric Powell’s The Goon, part of a longer section of film that will be shown this coming Friday—which will also be exclusively shown at the MTV blog directly after the panel ends at 7:00 pm EST.

Featuring the voice of Paul Giamatti as Frankie and directed by David Fincher, hopefully we’ll learn if and when the movie will get a release date at the panel.

Tag: based on a true story