L.A. Weekly critic Scott Foundas - the Associate director of the New York Film Festival - where we should remind ourselves
The Social Network will debut as the marquee screening next month - has seen and reviewed
David Fincher's latest and the early word is fine;
The Social Network is splendid entertainment from a master storyteller, packed with energetic incident and surprising performances (not least from Justin Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker, whos like Zuckerbergs flamboyant, West Coast id). It is a movie of people typing in front of computer screens and talking in rooms that is as suspenseful as any more obvious thriller. But this is also social commentary so perceptive that it may be regarded by future generations the way we now look to Gatsby for its acute distillation of Jazz Age decadence.
Wow - high praise indeed, if not entirely surprising given Foundas' allegiance to back the movies playing at this fest. And yet - I don't know about you but I think I've watched
that extended trailer a dozen or so times in the last few weeks, so amazed and astonished about how Fincher has a made an advertisement about the makings of Facebook so riveting, so much more meaningful than I expected. Half the power surely comes from that Swedish choir's rendition of that brilliant
Radiohead song but still - it's the ultimate zeitgeist movie for 2010 and if Fincher has found a way to bring the characterisation of
Aaron Sorkin's surprisingly smart screenplay to the big screen, then he's got a nailed on Best Picture nominee here.