Mark E. Zuckerberg is working feverishly at his computer—as he often does in “The Social Network,” the much-hyped Facebook origin story—when a website becomes briefly visible on his monitor which at its top reads “Tyler Durden’s Photos.”
An allusion to the iconic antihero that sprang from one of director David Fincher’s other films, 1999’s brilliant “Fight Club,” this fleeting reference is more than just a clever easter egg included for the amusement of eagle-eyed audiences. Rather, it serves as a subtle reminder of exactly who is behind what was once deridingly referred to as “the Facebook movie.”
Fincher has made a career of capturing the intricacies and passions of the human mind in a stylistically captivating, typically bleak manner. A penetrating portrait of the brains behind Facebook, “The Social Network” fits into this oeuvre with one notable—and welcome—addition: hyper-literate screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. Together, Fincher and Sorkin have crafted a stunning modern epic—an electric and incisive film that is a timeless depiction of old against new and one man’s single-minded climb to the top, and yet remains deeply relevant to contemporary society.
Fincher and Sorkin are perhaps not the most obvious pair to tackle the story of Zuckerberg’s rise to Internet ascendancy; but as a rapid-fire conversation about final clubs in a bar gives way to a darkly melancholic sequence of Zuckerberg traveling back to his Kirkland House dorm room, it becomes clear that here is an ideal creative union.
Read the full review at the Harvard Crimson.
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