Critic’s pick: ‘The Social Network’

Maybe it’s fitting that when I caught “The Social Network” at my local theater over the weekend, the chick in front of me was posting on Facebook throughout the movie, a detail I know from the very recognizable icon on the front of her very bright iPhone that she kept accessing and the heated etiquette exchange we had just as the Harvard crewing, buff, blond, we-will-be-kings Winklevoss twins entered the picture. Because David Fincher’s incisive thriller is about the bloody battle over the ubiquitous site’s creation rights, let’s face it: The film wouldn’t exist if Facebook hadn’t created a culture of young feathered friends like the annoying one in front of me. And that would have been a serious cinematic loss. Fincher has turned a business deal gone bad into an extraordinary cloak-and-dagger corporate espionage nail-biter with a nerd genius at its center. Aaron Sorkin’s script is razor sharp and 120-mph fast, Jesse Eisenberg’s vacant eyes and social shortcomings as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are mesmerizing to watch (you seriously wish someone would check for a pulse), Andrew Garfield is exceptional as Zuckerberg’s best friend (only friend?) Eduardo Saverin. But the real pulse-pounding (ours, not Mark’s) comes in watching a new zeitgeist literally emerge before our eyes. See it, but save your Facebook posts for later.

— Betsy Sharkey