Director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network hits theaters today riding an overwhelming positive bank of critical praise.
There are contrarians to the majority, of course, but the numbers don’t lie. Only 3 of the 123 counted critic reviews of The Social Network at Rotten Tomatoes have been deemed “rotten.” That’s an impressive 98% “fresh” rating which is hard to ignore.
One of those “rotten” reviews comes from maverick reviewer Armond White of the New York Press, known amongst his peers as someone who consistently goes against the grain. Thanks to his take of claiming the film is “excusing Hollywood ruthlessness,” he has thousands more comments than any other review on the site. The other two reviews call the film “hollow” and “an infomercial in biopic clothing,” neither of which I find justifiable having already seen and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Social Network is already being mentioned in talks for a Best Picture Oscar. Two of its stars, Andrew Garfield and Rooney Mara, recently landed leads in the upcoming reboots of Spider-Man and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, respectively, thanks to their stand out performances. All that’s missing is Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg making the rounds and promoting it himself.
Call it unauthorized, not completely factual or a “boring” idea to make a movie about the birth of Facebook, but The Social Network is clearly racking up “likes” as it attempts to win its first weekend in theaters.
