2020 Muriel Awards: 10th Anniversary Award

 

“It's more than a little tempting to dismiss The Social Network. David Fincher is a director who would always rather be clever than insightful; Aaron Sorkin a screenwriter who thinks of himself as insightful but who has barely had a new insight in decades, mostly recycling a handful of old ones (and the associated bon mots) instead. How could a collaboration between the two, and especially one about a new medium like Facebook, be anything but insufferable?

“And yet. Rewatching the film, ten years on, it's still relentlessly entertaining and sharp, from the Rooney Mara opening scene (everyone remembers the final line, but ‘Dating you is like dating a Stairmaster’ is a zinger, too) to the final shot of Jesse Eisenberg, his face lit only by a laptop. Even Sorkin's disregard for the truth doesn't bother me here*: Eisenberg's Zuck is a better cinematic villain than the blandly blinkered 'real' Zuckerberg could ever be. Looking at footage of Zuckerberg now, it's difficult not to see Eisenberg's face glitching on top, like a Tyler Durden appearance in that other Fincher film about the potential destructiveness of male self-actualization.

“The rest of the casting is fantastic, too. Armie Hammer's slightly (and seeing it today: very) sinister sheen of privilege is perfect for the Winklevii. No other movie has ever weaponized Justin Timberlake's inherent smarminess and self-aggrandizing quite as well. And then of course there's the pulsating Trent Reznor score, propelling everyone along - and following the trajectory set out here, the various consequences of Facebook's every increasing influence seem almost inevitable. It's difficult to make a movie about recent history. It's even harder to make one that, with the benefit of ten years of hindsight, looks even more like it had its finger on the pulse.”

*whereas the final scene of The Trial of the Chicago Seven set my teeth on edge even before I realize it was wholly fabricated

"Hedwig van Driel only occasionally writes about film nowadays - but every time she does, it reminds her that she should really do it more. It's been a year since her last cinema visit, and she misses the big screen dearly. In the meantime, she's revisiting old favorites, and trying to convince others of the value of looking back at film history."

10th Anniversary Award - Best Films of 2010:
1. The Social Network (dir. David Fincher, USA) [116/17]
2. Certified Copy (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, Iran) [107/15]
3. Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky, USA) [73/12]
4. Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich, USA) [62/10]
5. Meek's Cutoff (dir. Kelly Reichardt, USA) [60/10]
6. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) [46/8]
7. Exit Through the Gift Shop (dir. Banksy, UK) [45/7]
8. (tie) Carlos (dir. Olivier Assayas, France) [37/6]
8. (tie) Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan, USA) [37/6]
10. Another Year (dir. Mike Leigh, UK) [35/6]

Coming at 8 PM: Our favorite lead performance of 2020!