The Social Network -- See it with a friend: preferably a live one.

Has this film already come and gone? Kim and I got to see it at the Destinta last night ... a discount theater without the discount prices. There was one other couple. Granted, it was as Monday night and everyone else was home conversing with virtual friends. A nearly deserted live space provided the perfect atmosphere for this morality tale about loneliness at the top and bottom of the online relationship juggernaut that is Facebook. This could have been 'Risky Business II' but for a brilliant script, deft directing, and serious elements of Faust, Citizen Kane and Das Rheingold/Lord of the Rings. Troll-like genius Mark Zuckerberg, spurned in love (not for being a nerd, but for being ... an asshole! as his girlfriend tells him in the opening scene), hammers his fury and loneliness into brilliant, shining, all-powerful software that enslaves the world, destroying him and his friendships in the process. Sorkin's script is full of drive-by geek-speak delivered in wonderful Mamet-like staccato. It irritates and illuminates at once. Great performances from Jesse Eisenberg (Zuckerberg), Justin Timberlake (a creepy and evil Napsterish Sean Parker) and (my favorite) Armie Hammer as the impossibly noble, Wagnerian Winklevoss twins. Here's a proper and brilliant review, if you need one. Otherwise, just go. You know you can't resist.