Fall is a fun time, ain’t it? Whatever source of entertainment you so crave, fall has it in spades. The rebirth of your favourite TV show, back again for another season. Football, hockey, and basketball start up, just as the World series comes around. My inner movie buff goes ape for the fall season as we get to push aside all the campy summer blockbusters and sink into some movies with a little bit more depth.
Lets see, which early release is getting the most Oscar buzz as of right now? Oh, I’ve found one. It’s directed by David Fincher, which is always a plus – I really liked the style of Fight Club and the tension of Zodiac. It’s written by Aaron Sorkin – that’s another bonus because he wrote all of The West Wing, so he knows a thing or two about loading up the drama. As much flack as I might get from this, I can’t recall a movie with Jesse Eisenberg (of Zombieland and Adventureland fame) that I outright hated. It seems that all of the planets in the movie-verse are aligning, and this movie might be just be a great, fun to watch drama about the creation of Facebook.
Then how come I feel so uneasy about a movie based on the topic of the creation of Facebook? It really comes down to the tragedy of watching any good biopic: you already know the ending before you sit down. Mark Zuckerberg becomes filthy rich, and unless they decide to butcher the truth that is present day, chances are that’s going to happen. What makes it worse is that the Facebook saga is far from over. The mention of Facebook in its September 2010 incarnation means that any real-life further developments of Facebook are omitted. In one way it preserves the image that we all have of Facebook in its present-day height: the overlord of everything social, and the backbone of our day to day life. But in the other, the tale isn’t over. In literary sense the fall from grace and the catharsis of Mark Zuckerberg is not yet televised, and we don’t get the complete story arc as a result. Some movies can pull that off very well (I’m looking at you No Country for Old Men), but it is no easy task.
Right, yes, trailer. To put it succinctly, every television promo, similar to Inception’s promos, suck mightily. It seems to be a growing trend for promoting any movie to ignore its target audience and market it to the Spike TV crowd. Funnily enough the Spike TV ad is one of the better ones, sticking closer to the vibe of the theatrical trailer rather than trying to make the plot more quirky than it needs to be. One thing that doesn’t sit well is the tagline “You don’t make 500 friends without making a few enemies” and I find that hard to believe that is the best tagline can think of. The trailer does set a great mood, though. My inner hipster swoons for the choir rendition of Creep by Radiohead and it captures the rapid-pace of the movie, especially near the end of the trailer where the speech is so rapid it’s almost dizzying. Where there were many worries when first told of a movie about Facebook, the theatrical trailer pushed those aside. It shows a lot more tension, more emotion, and much more depth than I could have imagined. As a result, I’m definitely going to see this when it comes out on the first day.
Luckily the wait is not that long. The Social Network hits theatres October 1st. Like.
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