I’ve been in L.A. for a number of days, and while I was there I wanted to take advantage of big movie screens, and the fact it is the time “For Your Consideration” if you’re a member of the WGA. What that means is you get to show your WGA card and you and a guest get to see the movie for free. It rocks. I’m going to see if I can bamboozle the local theater here in Santa Fe. Since we are Tamalewood it might just work. But I digress —
Len Wein, Chris Valada and I wanted to see the latest Harry Potter film, but reserved tickets were hard to come by. So instead we headed out to see THE SOCIAL NETWORK. I was interested because it was Sorkin and Fincher. A pretty major duo. I didn’t care a bit about the subject of the film. My friend Ian had indicated the main character was an asshole, but I didn’t know any of the details.
Boy, does the movie give you the details. Made me want to drop off Facebook. But back to movie — I liked this film a lot. It will get nominated for Best Picture and it would deserve to win. It is beautifully directed. The performances are nuanced and spot on, the music was great, and the script was brilliant.
I’m always saying “you can’t play the backstory”, then damn if Sorkin didn’t go and play the backstory and made it work. It helped that he had the framing device of a legal deposition so you are cutting from the present day in a lawyer’s office and then the testimony will lead you into a flashback (yes, the dreaded flashback). But it worked. Partly because the dialogue hand-offs were so elegant and because the flashbacks never went on for too long. In contrast to saw WATCHMEN where I never thought they would end.
I really recommend this film if you want to see masters at work, at the top of their game.
