I just watched The Social Network for the first time, what, 15 years after it first came out...?
I don't know why I put it off for so long. Probably because I disliked the agenda that it pushed in the 2010s that rude nerds somehow deserved to get mind-bogglingly rich just because they were extraordinarily smart and special, that somehow the underdog finally managed to rise above - all while being sexist and vengeful. It sold the dream that everyone might hit the jackpot if only they were lucky and ruthless enough.
But... the acting really IS that good. And it's the beautiful and tender tension between Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield that really sells it - all the pettiness and hurt of a friendship fallout.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that my favorite part of the movie is when Mark shows Eduardo the front page, his name on it, and Eduardo says something about how much this will mean to his father. And Mark says, I know. And his facial micro-expression is so on point, there is nothing, nothing to be detected, almost no movement of the face except the lightest twitch and subtle softening of his eyes for just a split second, and then it's gone - and it shows us that he does, in fact, care, and a lot at that.
Of course, My Prada's at the Cleaners moment also has a cult status for a reason, and now I understand completely how Andrew Garfield went on to become a much beloved Spider-Man. He's got both the nerdiness and the acting range to do it.
But mostly this movie made me remember my raging crush on Jesse Eisenberg. If someone could explain to me why is that man so hot... it's the nerdiness, half evil, half dorky expression, and the aura.
And the hands. Oh, his hands.
The other thing this movie awoke in me is deep nostalgia for the 2010s party culture and the social networking, aka, using the Internet to connect irl, make friends, find parties, and get laid. Times were truly simpler then.
It also made me miss blogging and realize that the most popular platforms on the internet mirror the spirit of a generation. It's very telling that Facebook is not so popular anymore - the kids don't care about the same things that much anymore. It would be interesting to try and decipher what the new generational zeitgeist is, seeing as it went from MySpace and Tumblr and YouTube to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to TikTok nowadays.