HBO built its name off of the movies that it was able to bring to its premium cable channel, and that hasn’t changed now that the service has extended its focus to streaming as Max. In this month alone, Max is offering subscribers such films as Black Swan, Elizabethtown, all of the Harry Potter movies, the Infernal Affairs trilogy, The Thomas Crown Affair, and many more. But for us, the one movie that you have to watch on Max in April is The Social Network, a 2010 drama that chronicles the founding of Facebook.
The Social Network is one of the best films by director David Fincher, and its tagline sums up the story pretty well: “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” And if there’s one thing that main character Mark Zuckerberg excels at in this film, it’s making enemies on his way toward making a fortune. If you’ve never seen this movie before, here are five reasons why you should watch The Social Network on Max in April.
Jesse Eisenberg plays a villain for our era
Although Jesse Eisenberg went on to play Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, his most memorable screen villain is Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook. As depicted in The Social Network, Zuckerberg isn’t some cartoonish bad guy who wants to dominate the world. Instead, he’s a petty jerk with little empathy and no love or loyalty for anyone at all.
It’s one thing for Zuckerberg to sabotage the Winklevoss twins, both of whom are played by Armie Hammer. That was underhanded, but the film doesn’t invite the audience to feel any sympathy for the whiny brothers. But Zuckerberg so casually betrays his friends and partners that he seems almost inhuman.
Zuckerberg isn’t haunted by feelings of regret or remorse, and he doesn’t seem to feel any emotions at all about the disintegration of the only bonds of friendship that he had with anyone. Zuckerberg’s prize is that he gets to be one of the richest men in the world, but he is also hated for it.
The rest of the cast delivers great performances
The script calls for Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg to be emotionally distant from the audience, but the supporting cast isn’t bound by the same restriction. Andrew Garfield has the most sympathetic turn in the movie as Eduardo Saverin, one of the few friends that Zuckerberg had. Saverin is the only Facebook founder who comes off as a functional human being, and his reward for that kindness is to be metaphorically stabbed in the back by Zuckerberg, who attempts to cheat him out of a fortune.
Justin Timberlake’s Sean Parker appears to be the one encouraging Zuckerberg to make these morally dubious decisions. And yet even Parker is eventually discarded by Zuckerberg when he’s no longer useful. Since Timberlake is an actual rock star, he lends some of that aura to Parker, who was known for co-founding Napster. Timberlake portrays Parker like he thinks he’s the star of the story, right up until he gets that rude awakening from Zuckerberg about how little he’s actually valued by his new partner.
The rest of the cast, including Hammer, Rashida Jones, Brenda Song, Dakota Johnson, and Rooney Mara, are also quite good. But beyond Eisenberg, the movie belongs to Garfield and Timberlake.
The script jumps off the screen
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has a reputation for a being a bit insufferable. But there’s no question that Sorkin can write crackling dialogue, and The Social Network is no exception on that front. Sorkin based his script on Ben Mezrich’s unauthorized Facebook biography, The Accidental Billionaires, so there may have been some liberties taken with the actual events as they happened.
But when the story is this entertaining, few people are going to care that it’s not 100% historically accurate. There’s even a brilliant bookend to the entire film, as the story of Facebook begins with Zuckerberg getting dumped by Erica Albright (Mara), and it ends with Zuckerberg attempting to “friend” Albright on
It has a fantastic score
Film music isn’t always appreciated outside of bombastic scores by John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman, and Hans Zimmer. That’s one of the reasons why the music of The Social Network is so memorable. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (from the band Nine Inch Nails) submitted a score that didn’t play like traditional film music. Their understated touch gave the score an almost menacing tone that sets the mood for the entire picture.
Reznor and Ross’ contributions helped The Social Network resonate with viewers, and they were honored at the Academy Awards with an Oscar for Best Original Score.
We’re living in the sequel
The Social Network plays a bit differently 14 years after its release, especially when Zuckerberg suddenly seems like the reasonable one compared to Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). Musk even challenged Zuckerberg to an MMA fight, which never came to fruition. But we’re living in a bizarre world if Zuckerberg is suddenly a more heroic figure because of Musk’s slow destruction of the only true rival that Facebook really has.
Regardless of what you think about the real Zuckerberg, he’s one of the creators of social media as we know it, and there’s no putting that genie back in the bottle. There could be an interesting film that takes place after The Social Network, but it would almost be redundant when we’re already bit players who are living through the sequel.
Watch The Social Network on Max.
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