‘The Social Network’ stars Jesse Eisenberg (‘Now You See Me’) as Mark Zuckerberg, a computer programmer at Harvard in 2004 that we now know as the creator of the social networking site Facebook. The film also stars Andrew Garfield (‘The Amazing Spiderman’) as Mark’s best friend Eduardo Saverin, is directed by Oscar nominated director David Fincher, is written by Oscar nominated writer Aaron Sorkin, and is produced by Columbia Pictures and Relativity Media. ‘The Social Network’ was nominated for a grand total of eight Academy Awards in 2011 and walked away with three wins. Writer Aaron Sorkin walked away with an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall won for Best Film Editing, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won for Best Original Score. The other nominees were Best Picture for Scott Rudin, Dan Brunetti, Michael De Luca, and Ceán Chaffin, Best Actor in a Leading Role for Jesse Eisenberg, Best Director for David Fincher, Best Cinematography for Jeff Cronenweth, and Best Sound Mixing for Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Mark Weingarten. ‘The Social Network’ garnered plenty of attention during award season and is highly regarded amongst the general public as one of the best films in the last 15 years. ‘The Social Network’ is a prime example of how to make a film a true definition of motion picture art with flawless direction, compelling acting, and sharp, witty writing. We all know that Fincher is an incredible director, Sorkin is probably the best writer currently working today, but the majority of moviegoers consider Jesse Eisenberg one of the most annoying actors in the business. In ‘The Social Network’ Eisenberg utilizes his usual fast-talking, quick-witted ways and embraces the persona of Mark Zuckerberg by adding the self-righteous and condescending attitude of this billionaire college student. The film begins with a conversation between Mark and his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) and immediately you are bought into Eisenberg’s performance. You get the idea right off the bat that not only is this student a genius, but he’s got this condescending attitude that makes him a bit unlikable. Within the film’s first few moments Eisenberg sells us that he is Mark Zuckerberg, the student we will be following through friendship, greed, and betrayal. Another aspect of this film that is looked over is Armie Hammers’ performance as Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Many people ask how they pulled off seeing the same actor in the same frame at one time; many think that this is impossible but the term synthespians and casting would prove otherwise. The term synthespians is when a film goes through post-production and the use of motion-capture technology and digital grafting can make an actor’s face become someone else’s. In ‘The Social Network’ they had cast two different actors (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence) portray the Winklevoss twins, and instead of searching for two identical twins they had Hammer act right next to Pence but used synthespians to digitally cover up Pence’s face with Hammer’s. ‘The Social Network’ is a film that could have easily fallen apart had the editing been a total disaster for the story that Fincher was trying to tell. Why the editing is so important is because the film bounces back to past events to be able to convey to us how these characters got to this moment in time. Periodically the film will bounce back to a past event and a character like Eduardo will begin to speak and then bounce back to the “present day” and Eduardo will finish that line that he began in the past. It truly is exceptional how they pulled this off because Fincher is a very detailed director and Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall’s editing feels so seamless and invests us as a viewer deeper into the film. The story is based off of a non-fictional incident but even Mark Zuckerberg himself was hesitant to see the film, but after a while he saw the film with some co-workers and while he liked the film he is very outspoken when discussing how most of the events in the film are untrue. To me, ‘The Social Network’ made me believe that every event in this film actually took place and played out exactly the way we saw it. Being able to convey a fictional story based on a non-fictional incident and make us as the viewer believe in these events is a huge accomplishment itself. The story itself is about friendship, greed, and betrayal and it tells us that even your closest allies could turn their back on you at any moment when they have a chance at being extremely successful. Zuckerberg and Saverin were the closest of friends and once Zuckerberg got a chance to break away from his best friend, he did, and it hurt Saverin in the process. Personally, ‘The Social Network’ is one of my 10 favorite films of all-time. If I could describe this film in one word it would be electric. From the opening sequence all the way down to the film’s closing moments the film encapsulates me as a viewer and my eyes and ears are glued to everything going on in the film. The film has an endless amount of quotes, great lines, great scenes, great characters, and a thrilling story that is paced extremely well for a two-hour picture. If I had one problem to nitpick it would be that the film in it’s closing moments tells us the facts as to what happened to these characters but the entire film or most of it at least is entirely fictional. It’s nothing major but it makes me wonder why they didn’t just choose to go in the direction of being a true to life biopic. I truly believe that the most overlooked aspect of this film is Andrew Garfield’s performance as Eduardo. I’m baffled that Garfield was not nominated for an Academy Award in 2011, his performance, as Eduardo is heartbreaking and he is the character that we as the viewer can relate to the most. He is the most human of the characters we see. He isn’t a super genius like Zuckerberg or strong boat rowers like the Winklevoss twins, he’s just a guy that’s helping out his friend and trying to do the right thing to keep Facebook successful. To me Garfield has given one of the strongest performances in the last six years and it is unbelievable that he did not get enough recognition not only from the Academy but also from the general public. Finally, ‘The Social Network’ is a true definition of motion picture art. The film has multi-layered characters, flawless direction, seamless editing, sharp writing, top notch acting from the whole cast, an electric score, and a film that is paced very well. It has everything it takes to be considered a masterpiece by many and that’s totally fair because ‘The Social Network’ is one incredible piece of filmmaking in 21st century cinema. ‘The Social Network’ gets a 9.8/10