Stupid in the streets...can't socialize...

10.6.10

3:36 pm

What a rush.

My day.

Has been.

I set my alarm for 11:40 in order to catch the 12:20 showing of The Social Network at the Kip's Bay AMC.

Made it just as the first preview was starting. People, if you've ever gone to see a movie on a schedule (i.e. need to be somewhere right after it ends) add twenty minutes.

Literally.

There were twenty minutes of previews.

Again: literally.

Then, the movie started.

Here goes:

Overall, it didn't live up to expectations, but how could it when the expectation was that it was going to give me a blowjob and a hundred dollars?

Citizen Kane?

The Godfather?

No.

I don't know if it'll even get nominated for an Oscar, not that that really matters.

But a great movie?

Yes.

The acting was excellent; Jesse Isenberg is officially no longer the poor man's Michael Cera and Justin Timberlake did a rock solid job as usual.

Also, the script was so Sorkin that my pants burst.

There's so much snappy dialogue it's as if the movie is set in a parallel universe constructed solely of one-liners and depositions. Then again, most of these characters did go to Harvard (*puff puff*).

It didn't feel very Fincher though. Aside from the lack of serial killers, backwards aging and Meatloaf in a fat suit, it didn't have that Fincher look. If someone had shown me this movie without telling me it was David Fincher, I would never have guessed it.

And finally, the music.

From the moment I heard that Reznor and Ross were scoring the story of Facebook, I wondered how the hell they were going to A.) make that interesting and B.) not make it too Nine-Inch-Nails-playing-behind-the-story-of-Facebook.

Every trailer and clip I saw seemed to fit less and less with the music Reznor and Ross were creating.

Then, about a week ago, the score was released.

I listened to it and listened to it and heard a Nine-Inch-Nails-ass Nine Inch Nails instrumental album.

Maybe a little less intrusive, a little more atmospheric, even cinematic at points, but certainly not for a movie about Facebook.

Well.

I was right.

I'm not going to say that the music was jarring or took me out of the movie, it's just that, nine times out of ten, it didn't seem to fit. The overall effect was that, yes, it made the film darker, but the subject matter just wasn't that dark. There were moments when it worked just fine, but there were also moments when I was puzzled as to why a piece of music was being used in a specific scene. Again, never to the point that the movie was ruined, but it just didn't make a lot of sense to me.

I think what may have happened was that Fincher has wanted to work with Reznor since the Survivor movie got cancelled and the Fight Club musical (yes, that was real) never happened, but nothing he's worked on since then has lined up with both of their schedules and Fincher was just ready to do it.

In interviews, Fincher talks about how he asked Reznor last year and Reznor said that he couldn't give it his best and refused.

Fincher shot the movie and then, when Reznor called him back to apologize for not doing it and to keep him in mind for his next film, Fincher told him he was still waiting on him for it.

Fincher wanted him to do this from day one, no matter what it was.

Or at least that's how it felt.

It felt like a massive Nine Inch Nails fan getting the chance to work with Nine Inch Nails, not only that, but to have Nine Inch Nails music crafted for your project.

In the end, it doesn't matter.

I've now purchased two scores in my entire life: The Social Network and Requiem For A Dream.

I don't listen to RFAD anymore and, in a few months, except for a few tracks, I'll most likely not listen to The Social Network either.

Doesn't mean it isn't good, just means I'm not into a solid hour plus of instrumental music.

Whatever.

The Social Network is a great movie and, unless you're a trainspotting Nine Inch Nails fanboy like me, you'll enjoy it.

Yeah.