My top 5 movies of 2010

I can’t believe 2010 is already over. Unlike the movie, 2010: A Space Odyssey, we are still no closer to interplanetary travel and discovering new life forms- so disappointing. Another disappointment was this years selection of movies. There were way too many films that didn’t meet expectations like Ironman 2, TRON, The Expendables, Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Jonah Hex and much more. I even had a tough time assembling my list for the top 5 movies. That’s pretty sad. However, after trudging through the sea of mediocrity, this is what I compiled for the ‘best of the best’ in mainstream for 2010.

5. Toy Story 3
While I wasn’t too gaga over this third installment, I still have to recognize its technical and story telling achievements. Pixar, of course, did it again. As great as it was, I believe the story of these toys should have concluded with T-2 making this sequel superfluous. If the year was more fruitful, Toy Story 3 would not have made it on my top 5 list. But with that said, it was still a great film. My review here.

4. True Grit
I just watched this a couple of days ago so I haven’t had a chance to write a review nor full process it. But I can say that this is a brilliant film. I am unfamiliar with the original but this Coehn Bros remake is sharply written, masterfully performed, and was filled with rich characters. I normally don’t like movies unless it contains malevolent martians or flesh-eating robots, but True Grit was the right stuff.

3. Scott Pilgrim
Sadly, my number 3 was one of the biggest box office disappointment of 2010. After exceptional hype and promotion at the San Diego Comic Con, the nerds failed to support this video game genre love story. Despite its performance I thought Edgar Wright made one of the most original and innovative movies I have ever seen. Sure it’s not Oscar worthy material but I thought it was one of the creative experience I have had in a movie in a long time. Hopefully, Hollywood won’t just Mr Wright too harshly for the monetary loss.  

2. The Social Network
I don’t think anything can characterize the past few years of our culture than the rise of social media. So to get a behind the scenes peak at the formation of Facebook is like getting to witness the courtship of your own parents. This is another witty film that made a simple software project brilliant and engaging. Perhaps director David Fincher’s next movie should be a movie about Microsoft Word or YouTube.  My review here.

1. Inception
And finally, the jewel of 2010, Christopher Nolan’s Inception. As I shared in my earlier review, Inception was one of the rare films that reminded me of ‘why’ I review films. Mind bending in multiple ways, this film once again proved that Nolan is a genius and rightfully deserves an Oscar after being robbed for the Dark Knight. I really loved this film but really came to appreciate it after reflecting on the rest of the lack luster of ’10. Creating a masterpiece is truly near impossible work, but Nolan seems to make it look easy after Memento, DK, and now Inception. My review here.

The Town get’s an ‘honorable mention’ since it single-handedly restored my faith in the smug Ben Affleck. It’s not included because there were a grip of inferior heist movies that counted against the originality of The Town. I also didn’t count great documentaries like Restrepo on this list. 

Let’s be hopeful for 2011. It’s a new year of creativity, innovation, and story telling. While 2010 yielded a few phenomenal films, I am hoping my 2011 top 5 list is over crowded with great competitors. Thanks for following BabbleOn 5 and Happy New Year!

Be sure to check out our Annual Report and listen to our 2010 Year in Review podcast!

What did Mark Zuckerberg think about ‘The Social Network’?

Here’s what Zuckerberg had to say about the inaccuracies of ‘The Social Network’:

Where do you wanna start? I mean, I don’t know. It’s interesting what stuff they focused on getting right. Like every single fleece and shirt I had in that movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own. You know, so there’s all this stuff that they got wrong, and a bunch of random details that they got right. The thing that I think is actually most thematically interesting that they got wrong is — the whole framing of the movie, kind of the way that it starts is, I’m with this girl who doesn’t exist in real life, who dumps me, which has happened to me in real life, a lot — and basically to frame it as if the whole reason for making Facebook and building something was because I wanted to get girls or wanted to get into some sort of social institution. And the reality for people who know me is that I’ve actually been dating the same girl since before I started Facebook, so obviously that’s not a part of it. But I think it’s such a big disconnect from the way people who make movies think about what we do in Silicon Valley — building stuff. They just can’t wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things.

Johnny Knoxville Kicks Jackass in the box office



It’s kind of a sad world we live in where Jackass 3-D has a $50 million opening weekend. Not only does it perpetuate the silly antics of Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and boys, but the myth that 3-D makes for a good movie. Oh well, I guess there is no accounting for taste. It’s unfortunate since an infinitely more creative movie like Bruce Willis’ RED earned only $22 million- a far second from first. Budgeted at $40 million, The Social Network has brought in a modest $63 mil in it’s third week. Nothing of consequence opens next weekend, which means Knoxville and boys will probably kick jackass for one more weekend (*sigh).

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		Jackass 3D	Paramount Pictures	$50,000,000	$50,000,000	1
2		Red	N/A	$22,500,000	$22,500,000	1
3		The Social Network	Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group	$11,000,000	$63,119,000	3
4		Secretariat	Walt Disney Studios Distribution	$9,503,000	$27,517,000	2
5		Life as We Know It	Warner Bros. Pictures	$9,200,000	$28,865,000	2

The Real Eduardo Slaverin

Here’s what Eduardo Slaverin (played by Andrew Garfield) had to say after watching ‘The Social Network’:

“What I gleaned from viewing “The Social Network” was bigger and more important than whether the scenes and details included in the script were accurate. After all, the movie was clearly intended to be entertainment and not a fact-based documentary. What struck me most was not what happened – and what did not – and who said what to whom and why. The true takeaway for me was that entrepreneurship and creativity, however complicated, difficult or tortured to execute, are perhaps the most important drivers of business today and the growth of our economy. … While watching the “Hollywood version” of one’s college life is both humbling and entertaining, I hope that this film inspires countless others to create and take that leap to start a new business. With a little luck, you might even change the world.” 

The Social Network

This is a good film all around: writing, directing, producing, acting – the opening scene proves all of that. The dialogue is witty, fast, pointed and sets the tone for the movie. It also lays out the basis of the whole story: here’s a kid who is intelligent, but has incredible social B.O. He can’t get along with people, desperately wants to be liked and accepted and rages against those who (he perceives) judges him.
He’s a typical American high school student – though he’s in college at this point. He wants to run with the popular kids, who he believes won’t accept him so he judges them… and why do you want to join their clubs so badly?

It reminds me of “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell where he talks about super-genius Chris Langan. Chris has amazing “intellectual knowledge” but almost no “practical knowledge.” He can’t relate with people and navigate a relationship. He’s abrasive, condescending and judging. One version of knowledge or the other will get you some places, but you need both to “succeed” in life… though clearly not both are required to succeed in business.

While this film has some truth to it, it is filtered though at least a few people. The story is written in the book “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal” by Ben Mezrich. The screen play is written by Aaron Sorkin (“Charlie Wilson’s War”, “A Few Good Men”). And the film is directed by David Fincher (“Fight Club”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Seven”, “Zodiac”). So while it’s hard to say how accurate it is, we do know some facts.

These facts make up, what I consider to be, one half of the story: the legal aspects. Through the course of starting and growing facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is accused of stealing the idea and cheating his co-founder. That part of the story is interesting and dramatic. But in my opinion, is open to too much interpretation, exaggeration and emotional dramatization to make much of a movie. It’s interesting, but I’d be more interested in a 1-hour documentary about these people: What’s their story (though they probably can’t say), what did they do after, etc.

I did like they way Fincher mixed the past, present, dispute meetings, etc. It made the story move and stay relevant. But I preferred, as far as movie goes, the other half of the story.

Mark wants to be liked and has (maybe) only one friend. He napalms his dating relationship in one conversation and does little to help his “friends list” any other time. But he’s smart and calculated and clearly wants attention regardless of how he gets it and who he hurts. When the Winklevoss twins come to him and offer to hire him (and help him), he, according to the movie (and later monetary settlement, imo), steals their idea, deceives them and the rest is history.

He weasels out of just about every real tight situation and seems to uses a few others to his advantage. He’s condescending at best to his friend. Eduardo, when good fortune comes to Eduardo. Is childish in meetings, selfish in the business and generally self-centered all around. The only reason he brought Eduardo in was for money and when that need was gone, so was Eduardo.

The point is, he wants to be liked but no one is good enough to like him. Except Sean Parker who, in the movie at least, seems to also be in it for himself, tells Mark want he wants to hear – that he’s right, a big man, important, a genius, this is a billion dollar company and Eduardo is dead weight. He has a telling scene, his first scene, he has a question for a girl, but she’s in the shower in the other room. To get her out there, he yells “There’s a snake in here!” She runs out and he asks his question. Does this sound like a person who will say anything to get what he wants?

I think the opening and closing scenes say it well. In the first scene, his now-ex-girlfriend tells him “You going to think people don’t like you because you’re a nerd, but it’s because you’re an a-hole.” and the legal representative at the end who says “You’re not an a-hole. You’re just trying so hard to be one.”

IMO, if you’re trying as hard as him, you’ve succeeded. Whether you think he did these things in a calculated effort to get to the top or just let weasels push him around to allow it, it still comes back to him. I’d say the “super-rich club” has plenty of people that had to sacrifice relationships for memberships and those ends certainly don’t justify the means.

I don’t know his side of the story and certainly some good has come of it, but in the realm of personal values, integrity and general consideration of others, he’s a fail.

As a caveat, I want to say I’m speaking of this story/film only. I can’t say what the full truth is and it probably can’t fully be known.

Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Armie Hammer all perform their roles with full awesomeness.

I give it 4 out of 5 Babbles.

My review of The Social Network

I was really looking forward to seeing The Social Network from the very first trailer months ago. As an avid Facebooker, Twitter, and blogger, I was super pumped about seeing the genesis of what would become a social revolution. I can’t think of any other modern tool that has affected our daily interactions and has allowed us to connect with so many as quickly and easily as Facebook- as my newly re-aquainted list of elementary school ‘friends’ would reflect.

At first glance you would expect The Social Network to be about the impact of the greatest social networking platform in history, Facebook. In actuality, it’s more about the pain of birthing something original and it’s effects on friendships. Maybe this should have been more aptly called ‘The Social Experiment’. In a way, I would describe this like antithesis to the ’Titanic’- the ship survives but the relationships sink. The enjoyment or value of The Social Network is watching those relationships go all the way down to the bottom of the ocean.

Because of this fact, The Social Network has drawn a variety of responses. People loved the manipulative nature of the friendships and also hated them at the same time. There are no true heroes or villains, everyone is a little brilliant and evil. The fact is that according to this semi-ficticious story, FB was birthed, developed, and succeeded from selfish and arrogant motivations. At this point it almost doesn’t matter if it’s true or not because now it’s out there. This fact is hard for many to swallow for their beloved social media site. Many of my own friends have a new-found respect for founder Mark Zuckerberg while others have wanted to shut down their FB account (yea right). Whatever your view is, the dichotomy is very interesting and I love the fact that it has polarized so many.

Personally, I really enjoyed this ‘based on a true rumor’ story. The story telling is sharp, the characters are creatively flawed, and the outcome is not glamorize. I started to become interested in Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland but now I am a bona-fide fan. Mark Zuckerberg depiction is a neurotic, brilliant, cold, insecure, and a calculating genius. Eisenberg did a phenomenal job of making you identify with your inner and evil nerd. The stand out performance to me was Justin Timerlake. I felt he lit up the screen with charisma and attitude. Mid way through, the film needed a little Red bull and Timberlake delivered it by the case load. I’m looking forward to his career too. Even the Winklevoss twins brought some life into their potential 2-D roles against Zuckerberg (Shockingly, they are both played by a single actor Armie Hammer thanks to movie black-magic).

(The real Mark Zuckerberg)

For me, the most enjoyable parts were the themes of irony from The Social Network. Here is a guy who can’t get along with others that drops out of college to create a social network for the college community. He has helped billions become friends by creating enemies at the inception. It just goes to show you that those who ‘can’t’ teach. It was also ironic that the lead vocal of one of the most successful ‘boy bands’ in history played Sean Parker the founder of Napster- the very tool used to steal music like NSync and ultimately bring down the moguls grip on the music industry. The last irony was the lesson that something as philanthropic as Facebook can be birthed from selfishness. Don’t be naive to think this is isolated to Facebook, try doing some research on the very Mac Book you are using to read this blog (Jobs was fired from Apple in the early years) or the coffee shop that you are reading it in. The pain of birthing something great is the unfortunate reality of many of the luxuries we enjoy. For instance, I just watched a documentary about how Disney fired John Lasseter (future Pixar founder) because they didn’t ‘get’ 3-D animation. After founding Pixar, Lasseter now runs all the Disney theme parks. Back to TSN- I appreciate Director David Fincher’s boldness to tell a less than idealic origin story for a wonderfully idealic social media website.

I know the events of The Social Network are in question. Director David Fincher never spoke to nor consulted with Mark Zuckerberg for this film. So most of this is hear say and highly interpreted. Just like any social media tool, The Social Media is what you make of it. This wasn’t as fantastic and RottenTomatoes reviewed it to be at 98% but it was a solid endeavour and probably one of the best films of 2010.

I give it a 4 out of 5 Babbles and a thumbs up ‘like’.

The Socal Network has a lot of ‘friends’

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		The Social Network	Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group	$15,500,000	$46,069,000	2
2		Life as We Know It	Warner Bros. Pictures	$14,635,000	$14,635,000	1
3		Secretariat	Walt Disney Studios Distribution	$12,600,000	$12,600,000	1
4		Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$7,015,000	$39,401,000	3
5		My Soul to Take	Universal Pictures	$6,919,000	$6,919,000	1

The Social Network

Special thanks to guest Babbler Billy Cuchens for his thoughts today!

The Social Network begins with dialogue between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his girlfriend, Erica, (Rooney Mara) who is breaking up with him. She tells him that girls will break up with him not because he’s a genius but because he’s an a**hole. This phrase becomes a weight that Zuckerberg carries on his back as he creates the most profitable social network in history and becomes the youngest billionaire in the world.

The film begins with the site’s inception in the dorms at in 2003 at Harvard and continues through its explosion in California. At first, it is Zuckerberg’s story as told through a series of flashbacks that center on a deposition in which several people who played a pivotal role in the creation of Facebook.com are suing Zuckerberg. Midway through, the film becomes more about the site and who is ambitious enough to fulfill the site’s potential.

Director David Fincher, best known for the underrated Panic Room and the overrated Fight Club, has hit another home run, although a subtle one. Fans of his darker films will likely struggle to find his distinct style, but he made the right choice not to interfere with the theme of the film, which is the study of human behavior. However, true Fincher fans will find one of the film’s high points to be the musical score by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who provided the song for the opening credits for Seven. Reznor’s music is tense, sad, and original. There are long sequences in the film with uninterrupted music. It reminds me of The Departed, in which the first music break doesn’t occur until over an hour into the film.

Fincher also made the most important decisions in his casting. Lesser films beat us to death with exaggerated stereotypes of the nerdy underdog, the handsome and successful overachievers, and the sleazy businessman. But characters’ emotions are portrayed with more subtlety. The young Eisenberg, best known for The Squid and the Whale and last year’s Zombieland, has the difficult task of playing a complex role and carrying the character through a complicated film, which he successfully pulls off. Perhaps the most interesting performance is Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker, the creator of Napster who takes Facebook to the next level. Parker is sleazy, ruthless, and brilliant, and Timberlake’s performance is terrific.

Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay, based on a book by Ben Mezrich, bears his signature stamp of quick dialogue. Somehow, he has made a film about computer programming so interesting that when it ends abruptly, I looked at my watch and thought, It’s over already? The story is that compelling.

Of course The Social Network not without it’s imperfections. The story seems to take potshots at the Winklevoss twins, whose only faults are lives filled with unrelenting success. Zuckerberg supposedly takes parts of their idea for a social network, improves on it, and leaves them in the dust. But since they are wealthy and good-looking, we’re supposed to feel cathartic when Mark the underdog sticks it to them.

Nevertheless, Zuckerberg is an interesting character, possibly more so than the film presents. The mind-boggling irony is that an antisocial computer nerd created the most successful social website in history. Only a genius who understands the complexities of human wants and needs could have done this.

I give it a 4 out of 5 Babbles