The Social Network: PEEK-A-BOO! I see you...

 4 out of 5 Popcorn Kernals

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The Twins Trick: How one actor played two parts with two bodies...

Shakespeare did it best: Stories built upon human emotion and connections tend to last the longest. In The Social Network - a film mainly about geeks on the rampage - works well because the central premise of love, betrayal, friendship, and loyalty are so inter-weaved in the story, that on some level we can all relate to what these characters are going through.

The Social Network, on the surface, is about the rise of Facebook as a social-media monolith who's growth has yet to reach its full potential. The story is presented with Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), a Harvard student, in court. He is being sued by his best friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) - who funded the Facebook project, and twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (Armie Hammer - amazing technology which you can read in my link above), as the ones who fueled the idea of Facebook to Zuckerberg, by commissioning him to build a social networking site for them for the Harvard campus. Well, he promised to build this site, but took their idea a little further, and on their time, created Facebook - while delivering them what they wanted at a very low scale. When they saw the popularity of Facebook hit the national market, they went ballistic. We also have an appearance by the Napster creator, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who crawled under Zuckerberg's wing, to take Facebook to a more financial level (first changing the name from The Facebook, to just Facebook "It's more cleaner," he said).

With all these players in line, and the girlfriends that hit a more human chord with them, The Social Network becomes a film filled with backstabbing ideas, leeching friends, the fight for one's ideas, and the cost of friendship. The pace is smooth, as we slip into these men's lives and their social worlds. It shows how power can come from anywhere, and when it does, it brings a lot of drama with it. There are no car-chases, no Matrix-slow-mo fight scenes, no near-death mayhem, but we are filled with intrigue at what we may/may not use, but how it can change a nation in an instance. We are pulled into this story because these are the people and lives we never see, and that can be happening right now as we speak.

I found it fascinating about the precise of Facebook. It was a way to make us all kings of our castles, and we invite others into our world based upon our own standards. It reminded me of those lines at those exclusive clubs, where your entrance is based upon a standard you are unaware of, but you hope to meet. Just as social networks are built in high school and college, so it is here.

I also wanted to give a nod to the actor of Eduardo Saverin. An American Born / British actor, who has honed his craft in England, and has a lot of appeal as the best friend of Zuckerberg. His loyalty, even in it's betrayal, is exhibited in a full range of emotion that had me drained. He did write the book "The Accidental Billionaires, " which the movie is based, and in a small way is about him. But it makes sense, for he became the outsider, and allowed us to see who these characters were from a different standpoint - as one of us.

And it works.