< The Social Network

The Social Network/YMMV


  • Actor Shipping: Jesse and Andrew get some of this.
  • Acceptable Targets:
    • They do have roads in Bosnia.
    • It's possibly she was just being a ditz at the time, and was just trying to say something smart and failed.
  • Adaptation Displacement: Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires. Not really all that surprising.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Mark -- "asshole" or "trying so hard to be one"?
  • Applicability: What the film's social statement or point is ultimately up to the viewer, and just how sympathetic Zuckerberg is.
  • Award Snub:
    • Despite the movie getting a respectable 8 Oscar nominations, neither Andrew Garfield nor Justin Timberlake were nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
    • Poor Andrew Garfield failed to get a Best Supporting Actor nod at the Oscars despite massive amounts of buzz. The cruel coincidence is that he gets left behind like his character.
      • Its possible that the Academy's votes were split by the studio's decision to push forward a total of three campaigns for Best Supporting Actor for Garfield, Timberlake and Armie Hammer. Between Garfield's Eduardo being the most universally liked character, the "Wow he really can act." reaction brought forth by Timberlake's performance and the impressive Acting for Two on Hammer's part, all of which were critically acclaimed, its no wondered that three great performances with such diverse qualities cancelled each other out.
    • Also, while most people thought The King's Speech would win Best Picture... almost no one imagined that its director, Tom Hooper, would get the Oscar instead of Fincher.
    • At the 2011 MTV Movie Awards, 2 of the movie's lines - from the Oscar-winning screenplay - were nominated for the Best Line From a Movie category, and they both lost to a joke from Grown Ups.
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • Mark.
    • Also, Eduardo's "It's better to be accused of necropholia."
  • Crowning Music of Awesome:
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Armie Hammer and Justin Timberlake were given considerable acclaim for their roles.
  • Fandom Rivalry:
    • Fans of the film look set to be duking it out with primary Oscar rival The King's Speech partisans for years to come. Look for plenty of Award Snub accusations to fly regardless of which film wins Best Picture.
    • And that's not even factoring in the rabid Inception and Toy Story 3 fandoms.
  • Gratuitous Special Effects:
    • The Winklevoss twins were portrayed by two non-identical actors, one of whom later had his head painstakingly replaced by a realistic CGI reconstruction of the other's head. A movie from even a decade earlier would have relied on Split Screen or would simply have hired twins, but this film went the extra mile so that the twins could do things like walk around the frame in front of each other. Effective, but arguably not really required for a dialogue driven drama.
    • The filmmakers said they originally planned to cast twins, but couldn't find 6'5", 220-pound twins who could act and be believable as champion rowers. Also, some scenes (like the ones in the Harvard President's office) were done via split-screen. The digital reconstruction was used in other scenes because Fincher didn't want to limit the movement of his actors.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • In Zombieland, Jesse Eisenberg's character said that the best part of the zombie apocalypse was not having to worry about updating his Facebook status. Twice as hilarious is how, according to the commentary, Eisenberg had to have the directors and cast explain to him what a Facebook status was.
    • And it's satisfying to compare the current state of Facebook with Mark's original vision. Now that anyone can join, not just Ivy League college students, it's not exactly the elitist, exclusive social club he thought it would be. In fact, many people on there are simply Too Dumb to Live. See for yourself.
    • To paraphrase Zuckerberg, he's probably too busy having sex with numerous women on his gigantumous pile of money to be particularly bothered by this.
    • Also, the major difference between Eduardo and Mark's visions of Facebook is that Eduardo wanted advertising, while Mark felt it would cheapen the coolness of the website. Given that Facebook makes an astoundingly large portion of its money from assisting advertisers target potential customers these days, it seems Eduardo won in the end.
    • Justin Timberlake portrays Sean Parker, who, prior to the founding of Facebook, had a hand in founding Napster. In 2011, Timberlake himself will oversee a re-launch of Facebook's former competitor Myspace, which jumps from social media to online music store. That move in itself would pit Myspace against current competitors iTunes, Spotify and, albeit a shell of its former self, Napster.
    • The hits keep on rolling with Sean Parker: in October 2011, he joined Twitter, Facebook's direct competitor, after swearing he never would.
  • Historical Upgrade: Prior to the movie, Shawn Fanning was the most well-known person behind Napster, with many unaware of his business partner Sean Parker. The film frames Sean, not Shawn, as the well-recognized sole founder of Napster. It's been argued that the film's Sean Parker is intended as a Composite Character of the two.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Mark. While he's a Insufferable Genius, he ultimately wants to succeed in life, and be somebody. By the end of the film, he's lost 2 friends, and is realizing the consequences of his actions.
    • Christy may count as well, even if she's a total nutter. I mean, her face just before Eduardo breaks up with her...it's both creepy and "Awww..." inducing at once.
  • Memetic Mutation: The scene where Mark gets passed a note, reads it, and looks out to see who passed it to him. Behold! The movie poster gets parodied a lot, too.
  • Moral Event Horizon: "Interns?" Mark admired and defended Sean, but was visibly uncomfortable with his interest in a young intern working at Facebook. The fact that Sean's arrest at a college party involved several interns, all underage, was unforgivable and inexcusable to Mark for more than just PR reasons.
  • Misaimed Fandom: Some people characterize it to be a demonization of Mark Zuckerberg, when he's portayed somewhat sympathetically, having some good qualities, along with some bad ones.
  • Narm: The incredibly intense, brilliantly acted confrontation is undone slightly by mentioning the chicken. They at least lampshade it and it doesn't throw it off course but it is still odd to see a powerhouse actor on the verge of tears, fully committing to dialogue about a chicken while sorrowful music plays.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Christy burning Eduardo's scarf is surprisingly dark, even if it is hilarious.
  • Shipping: Yup.
  • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped:
    • The film's portrayal of business and personal relationships.
    • Aaron Sorkin helped. Sorkin's entire thing seems to be taking stuff that sounds boring and turning it into incredibly awesome entertainment.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • Several scenes in the end, including Eduardo's breakdown in the office, and depressed speech about Mark isn't his friend & Mark trying to friend request Erica after losing his own best friend.
    • The look on Erica's face when the drunken assholes tease her about her bra size following Mark's LiveJournal post.
    • The opening sequence, espically with Hand Covers Bruise & the loneliness being shown.
  • The Scrappy: He may be a justifiable woobie, but many people honestly couldn't stand Eduardo. He was far more annoying than any other character for some people even if he was against two massive jerks.
  • Truth in Television:
    • Those familiar with intercollegiate relations amongst Boston-area schools may find themselves seeing the standard stereotypes of those students quite easily in the characters. Since they get the most screen time, those familiar with the stereotypes of Harvard students find themselves feeling like they're really dealing with Harvard students while watching. Whether that's a good thing or not depends on which Harvard students you're familiar with.
    • Christy's overreaction to Eduardo not changing his relationship status is surprisingly similar to actual reactions based on Facebook settings.
  • The Woobie:
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