The Social Network Gives Audience Look At Different Facebook Page By Art Byrd

I was reluctant to be on Facebook for awhile because I am really a private person.  At the suggestion of Michele, the newsletter’s editor, I signed up for the social network. To be honest, I still have mixed feelings about it. Yet, I’ve reconnected with old friends, family and feel closer to current friends. So it has been a good thing.

Facebook has become popular world wide, but many may not be familiar with the story behind its creation. They get that chance with The Social Network. The story is based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. The screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin (Sports Night, The West Wing) and directed by David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).

What makes the movie so interesting is that the events of the story happened in the last eight years. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, and others in the film are real people. It seems the names have not been changed to protect the innocent.

The cast in The Social Network is so strong it’s frightening. Let’s start with one of my favorite young actors, Jessie Eisenberg (Zombieland, Adventureland and Roger Dodger), who plays Zuckerberg. Eisenberg’s portrayal is incredibly intense as the driven Harvard student who wants to be accepted by social groups at the Ivy-League school. One night after a relationship crash, he embarks on building a social network through his computer, initially called Facemash.  

Zuckerberg does some cruel things, especially to Eduardo, played by Andrew Garfield ( Spiderman in the upcoming reboot). Garfield did a great job playing Zuckerberg’s best friend and the co-founder of Facebook, who was constantly dealing with Zuckerberg’s irrational behavior, trying to figure out his role in the company, and coping with a crazy jealous girlfriend, Alice, played Malese Jow. It was very funny to see Eduardo deal with Alice, Zuckerberg and Facebook at the same time. 

A surprising casting choice is pop singer Justin Timberlake, who plays Sean Parker, creator of Napster. To Timberlake’s credit, he’s been in such films as Alpha Dog and Edison Force and does sport some acting chops.

Rooney Mara plays Zuckerberg’s former girlfriend, Erica Albright. After she decided they should only be friends, Zuckerberg wrote nasty things about her on his blog. Mara didn’t play a weak woman; she was extremely strong, especially in a scene where Zuckerberg comes up to her while she sitting with a table full of friends. She put him in his place in a very direct way.

The movie mixes such events with different court depositions involving Zuckerberg and people who sued him over the creation of Facebook. Usually this technique would bog down a movie, but Fincher does an excellent job of making the transition smooth for the audience. It’s in the deposition scenes where Eisenberg’s acting hits a supreme level. He was icy cool and calm.  

The Social Network brings to the screen real-life events surrounding the birth of the most famous Web site to date. Whether you are interested in how Facebook began or not, you will be enlightened and entertained by this movie. Sometimes, it is personal and not just business.

edited by Michele Ristich Gatts

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Wakes Many to Hidden World of Finance By Art Byrd

If a movie is a hit at the box office -- with great characters and an interesting storyline -- we can expect a sequel within two or three years. In this case, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps was 23 years in the making. It is worth the wait.

Original Wall Street (1987) director Oliver Stone oversees the sequel by blending great creative shots and screen eye-candy such as spilt screens, animation and graphics to the emphasizes points of the story.

The film is set in 2008 at the collapse of the financial market in the U.S. The story centers on Wall Street go-getter Jake Moore, played Shia LaBeouf (Transformers, Disturbia), who works for Keller Zebel, a well known Wall Street firm. One of the original founders of the firm and Jake’s mentor, Lou, played by Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon), is under stress due to financial trouble the firm is experiencing.

After a heart-to-heart about the firm with Lou, Jake still believes in him and the firm. Lou goes to the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, to get financial help, but his effort is halted by Bretton James, played by Josh Brolin (W), who is at a rival firm. James offers to buy Lou’s firm at a bottom-basement price. Lou balks at the offer.

Jake is shaken with the news of Lou’s suicide by jumping in front of a subway car.  His bright future is traveling into a long dark tunnel.

Jake’s world is not completely dark, as the light of his life is his girlfriend, Winnie, played by all-kinds-of-cute Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan (An Education). Winnie runs a popular political blog. On top of that, Winnie is Gordon Gekko’s estranged daughter.

This is a crucial twist in the story because this throws Gekko – the antagonist of Wall Street --into the mix. He is played by Michael Douglas, who won an Oscar for his 1987 performance. He may be up for another Oscar after his performance in this movie.

Gekko has been in prison for several years. There is a great scene with him getting his belongings back, especially a huge cell phone.

Months later, Gekko rebrands himself as an author with a book called “Is Greed Good?” He is speaking in front of students and is in the audience. After the speech, Jake forces himself upon Gekko by saying “ I am going to marry your daughter.” The two became fast friends. We learn that Gekko has not lost his Wall Street, shark-like sharpness as he gives Jake some advice on life and stocks while riding the subway.

Winnie warns Jake that her father will hurt both of them. Gekko proves her somewhat right. His actions indicate that prison did not give him a conscience.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps offers a solid story with an unexpected twist and situations. The movie even features original protagonist Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, in an interesting cameo with Gekko, who seems not to hold a grudge even though Fox helped bring him down.

The movie can leave the moviegoer confused with the Wall Street terms and jargon. Still, Wall Street: Money Never Sleep was worth the 23-year wait with a storyline that affected us all financially and offers the comeback of one cinema’s greatest villains (or heroes?) in Gekko, as well as featuring great characters who move the story. 

One guarantee, you will not fall asleep in the theater and you may get a different respect for Wall Street and its much hidden world.

edited by Michele Ristich Gatts