The Social Network

GV: I had a countdown for when this was finally released on Netflix because 1) I’m scared of pirating movies for the sake of my laptop getting a virus and 2) I'm far too broke to pay to watch it. I would describe this movie as a comforting puzzle. Elaborate and convoluted, but oh so satisfying! Jesse Eisenberg, playing a prick as usual (my favorite), and doing it perfectly. Rooney Mara absolutely tearing him apart TWICE and telling Mark to “have fun with his video game” in reference to Facebook is so badass. JT doing the most in the best way possible. And don’t even get me started on Andrew Garfield. When he yells, “Sorry my Prada’s at the cleaners along with my hoodie and my fuck your flip-flops you pretentious douchebag” I get this feeling in my stomach that cannot be replicated. And how could I forget: TWO ARMIE HAMMERS! Not only are all these actors incredible but I need to give credit where credit is due. Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay and it’s why this damn thing is so amazing. The Social Network has the type of ending that leaves me stuck in my seat: Mark Zukurburg refreshing the friend request page for his college ex-girlfriend while Baby, You’re A Rich Man by The Beatles plays. After all the complex dialogue and dramatic ups and downs, it ends with such a relatable feeling (if we ignore the fact that he’s the youngest millionaire in the world). And lastly, I have a question for Harvard students: Do your dorms actually look like that? Leather chairs? Fireplaces? Cute open layout so you can code and watch your friends lounging? Because I want that too. 

IW: This movie has had a profound impact on me since I first saw it, because of this movie every time I hear that a guy rows I assume he is a literal greek god (thank you, Armie Hamer one and two). It is rare for a movie to grab me so intensely that I have to sit up, both feet planted on the ground and lean forward to really fully absorb it. The Social Network grabbed me like this the first time I saw it, and the second and the third and probably the fiftieth. There is something about this movie that just feels absolutely perfect to me. It could be that I am an absolute sucker for anything that Aaron Sorkin writes (a self drag, I know), the presence of not one but TWO Armie Hammers a fact I kept whispering to my mom while watching it with her (in my defense I had 4 glasses of wine), the neuroticism of Jesse Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg, or maybe it is a combination of all these things and a dozen more (specifically Rooney Mara’s IMPECCABLE delivery of the line “it’ll be because you’re an asshole”) that make this movie feel so urgent to me. Not urgent in the sense that it is “so important” to the current dialogue around social media but urgent because it makes me feel somewhat more alive. It is a story that I knew the ending of before I even started watching it yet I felt a similar jolt of anxiety I felt when I saw Parasite for the first time. Especially in this time where most of my day is spent sitting near my family with no outside interactions the idea of “feeling” is to me, rare and fleeting but something that this movie provides me with. The more I think about it I think double the Armie Hammer (the DEFINITION of hot to me) has a large role to play in why I have such a visceral reaction to this movie and you know what? I’m ok with that.