The Social Network Review

  I really enjoy movies. I like all different kinds and I have seen many. One of the best movies I have seen this year is The Social Network .http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com/  I chose to write about this movie because I love movies that play out a story that actually happened. This movie is about Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg who was the Time Magazine 2010 Person of the Year  http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2036683_2037183_2037185,00.html .

The beginning of the film takes place in a room with the actor playing Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). He is in the middle of the deposition and you wonder how he got there. The Director of this film is David Fincher http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/ . He directed other movies such as Fight Club, The Game, and Se7en. Those movies are both very disturbing and very successful. With movies like that in David Finches work history, you would think that this movie would be disturbing. The Social Network was not disturbing, but it was very successful. So successful that it won many awards and was one of the most talked about films of the year.

 I just recently watched The Game and it was phenomenal. I can't compare Fincher's work with what he did with this movie. It was completely original for him and the people involved. i can't say that I have seen a movie like that one. It is a very unique movie that deserves all the talk it has gotten in the last year since it's release. This is an important movie because it tells the back story that most people don't know about the creation of Facebook. The creation of Facebook itself was riddled in trouble ever since it's inception. The creator, Mark Zuckerburg, was a part of another team setting out to make the next big social network site. The group that originally set out to get that idea ready for the internet began to get worried because Mark was not working with them as closely as he should have. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg was working on his own website making codes, which was his job for the other group's idea. Finally Mark dropped out of the project with the first group and continued working on his own project. His own project was a huge hit in Harvard University and it resembled the project the original group was working on which made them believe he stole their idea and that is how Mark ends up in a deposition.


This movie definitely reflects a trend in our culture because we are very Facebook oriented. I have never seen a website with this much use and inundation across our society because of the new technologies and how mobile and ready Facebook has become. Based on how many awards this movie has won, this movie was targeted toward the Hollywood Elite. All joking aside, I think this movie is so popular and acclaimed because this movie was made for everybody who has taken part in the social revolution. You do not have to be a Facebook user to enjoy this movie though. It is a Drama film that is directed in a pop culture fashion. The scenes in this movie are fast paced. There is usually stuff going on in the background and when there isn't, there is narration coming from the lead in the movie, Jessy Eisenberg. There is a scene in this movie when one of Mark's partners is at a party with cocaine and he is then busted by the police. Earlier in the movie, they are at a night club discussing business plans. There is sex and drug use in this movie so I would say that the message and stereotype's portrayed is the fast paced nightlife of a post college hipster.


One of the strenghts of this film is that they acurately portray what Zuckerberg would have been like in college. I found that the casting for the whole movie was very well done. The way the camera is positioned throughout the movie and the cuts from camera to camera that happen are very well timed and sometimes the camera angles themselves tell a story. The acting is this movie was very believable. One thing they could have done different was to include more of the story at the end when Facebook was becoming what we know it is today. They also could have included more dire situations. At some times in the movie, when something bad happens to Zuckerberg, He is cool and calm and I didn't find that totally believable but maybe this really is how Zuckerberg is, in that case it was spot on.


This movie was incredible an dI think the director did an amazing job. As far as his other work goes, I think that The Game and Fight Club are better than The Social Network. The Social Network is definitely a memorable movie and I don't see it fading away from history because of all the nods it got from critics and by word of mouth. I also do not see this fading away because it is a movie about something that most of us can associate to... Facebook. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times says this "The movie is paced like a thriller, if one in which ideas, words and bank books blow up rather than cars". This is closely related to what I said earlier. Because of this project, I went out and bought The Game because I have heard about it but never seen it. Jenna Busch writing for the Huffington Post had this to say, "The film is beautifully shot, wonderfully arranged and doesn't let up for a second, taking what could have been a tedious subject matter and keeping you engaged from beginning to end." This is also something I referenced to earlier.


I am the only one out of my family and friends that has seen this movie. I like to think it is because I am more socially aware and I take part in big things and this movie was big. It makes me mad that they will not watch it because as they always say "I am not going to watch a movie about Facebook." This movie is much more than just Facebook. It is about the struggles of being fair and balanced when starting a business and it's about friendship and the people you meet on the crazy road of success. Some people are there for you, some people are there to use you. I will not give up trying to get my friends to see this movie.

The Review on Louie

     For my media project, I choose to watch Louie on FX it was a new episode tonight at 10:30. Louie is a funny show that is in it's second season. I would describe it as a sitcom but there are multiple camera angles, no laugh tracks or audience. It all comes from the mind of comedian Louis C.K.  http://www.louisck.net/  In this show, it shows some of his stand up comedy in short segments and each episode follows a central idea. The things that happen to Louie in this show are usually horrible for him but his awkwardness toward those situations is what makes them funny. The show is filmed on location and it doesn't look like it costs much money to make at all. In this episode, Louie goes to Atlantic City to do a show and while he is there he gets a very bad audience that does not respond to his material. Afterwards he is confronted by the resort's Entertainment Czar and he is shown a list of things he said on stage that was against the resorts policy to say such as the F word, the S word, and the D word. Louie asks what the D word was and even the stiff in the suit doesn't know ha ha. While in Atlantic City, Louie sees that Joan Rivers is in town and he goes to see her show. After the show, He goes into the back where Joan is and they start talking. This leads to a very deep conversation between the two (which happens often on this show.) In the end, Louie shares a passionate one-sided kiss with Joan Rivers. She stopped him as soon as she could and she looked at him and said ".....Oh what the hell." and they get back to business ha ha. You can read about this episode and review in this link   http://www.craveonline.com/tv/reviews/171151-louie-204-joan   This show is very unique and I don't know any others like it besides "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" and this new show called "Wilfred." Both of these other shows are also on FX. One thing about this show that is consistent is that there is always a serious monologue or conversation that has to deal with society, life, and why we are the way we are. These serious discussions always hit home for me and I think it is good that they bring up these serious topics because I don't think other programs care to ruin there comedy with a moment of real talking. I noticed that the commercials that were coming on were the usual commercials. There was a commercial for The Art Institute College. There were multiple commercials for the movies Harry Potter and Transformers. Also a lot of Fast food commercials, one of which was endorsing Transformers. If you were from another country and you watched this show, You would think that most people are unique individuals but at the same time, society never changes. This show has a perfect mix of irony, and reality. I watch this show regularly and I am a fan of it on Facebook. I have never been to the website though but I went to it tonight and it actually has a lot of episodes you could play online. You can watch some episode in the link http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/louie/    From what I have read, Critics love this show. I can see why because it is a mature show and it covers a great area of comedy and reality.

Does Televised Media mimic your reality?

I grew up with TV shows in the 90's like Walker Texas Ranger and Touched By An Angel and a plethera of shows about the life of the staff of a major hospitals such as Chicago Hope and ER. This was the usual type of TV my parents watched until the show Survivor came along and spurted a bunch of shows like that where there were set teams working together while at the same time, they were working for themselves to win a hefty prize amount. Right around the same time these team compitition shows started taking off, the TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? came into the mainstream instantly. This show was just as huge as Survivor and Big Brother. A couple years after that, American Idol set the bar even higher for the standards of Media popularity. Even though American Idol is a spinoff from the U.K.'s Pop Idol, American Idol seems to have been more popular than the origanal version. American Idol has been number one on the Nielson ratings for 7 consecutive seasons. This passed the record of 5 consecutive seasons with All in the Family and The Cosby Show. They get better ratings that the Superbowl now! I do not see any connection to this being a mimicked reality because I think it is a little more than rare that people find themselves in a month long compitition. The next type of popular show that came around was Investigation/Cop shows, even they they do not take number one in views, they are always close. This type of show is the type that I can't stand the most. They all seem the exact same to me. The newest popular type of shows that I have seen are Reality shows. You generally will not find a reality show that isn't a compitition on the major networs like ABC, NBC, and CBS. They mostly appear on cable networks like E!, Discovery, TLC, and the seemingly creator of Reality TV... MTV. The kind of Reality TV on TLC and MTV are Documentary like accounts of living in with frustrating conditions and situations such as Jon and Kate Plus 8 and Teen Mom. The more educational reality TV is on Discovery with survival shows and reality shows about tough obscure jobs like Deadliest Catch and Man Vs Wild. This is my favorite kind of reality TV. In my opinion, E! is one of the lowest forms of entertainment because it takes you out of your own reality and subjects you to the high standards of Hollywood, further cementing the idea that Celebrities are the people to pay attention to. I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog entry! there is more to come. Later I will be watching a television show and analyzing the state of our society in terms of the advertising.