The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

David Fincher's take on the massively popular The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo phenom is a slick, glossy tale of nihilism and sadism, all with the pre-packaging of an exploitation flick masquerading as feminist fantasy.  That being said, he is the best suited auteur for such an undertaking.  The thriller procedural, based on the bestselling novels (and already the source for another popular film franchise; the clunky Swedish films directed by Niels Arden Oplev) starts with a teasingly abstract opening credits sequence, with a Karen O. doing her now-famous cover of the Led Zeppelin tune "Immigrant Song."  It's all splashy and dark, grinning with the impending violence and thrills to come-- Fincher has always had a gift for starting his films with the most precise mood, and here it feels like he's both showing off and having a ball.  And as ridiculous as it may sound for a film that's so sinister, there is a certain joie de vivre in watching it-- for the story and elemental mystery that rests at the center of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is really just a hyped up, R-rated version of a TV crime drama mashed up with a little Euro-spliced Silence of the Lambs matted with slight and out-dated political commentary.

Yet Fincher seems aware of this, as does writer Steven Zaillian, for the rooting factor of the series rest not of invention of story, but rather the titular lady.  The goth-agnst-ridden-punkette Lisbeth Salander has become a certain kind of icon, a variation on the women in jeopardy\women who kick ass sub-genres-- for she's a total mess, but sly and smart.  The best upgrade from the first feature to Fincher's take is the upping of the ante of her character study.  And while the original films starred the interesting Noomi Rapace-- the best decision upgrade is in the casting of Rooney Mara; she was the girl who called Mark Zuckerberg an asshole in the first scene of last years The Social Network.  Wirey and mousey, the starkly pale Mara gives an electrifying performance, one that not only elevates the film, but marks a seething impression.  She imbues her Lisbeth with such ripe timidity and rage it's startling and scary, until one gives in and falls for her anyway.  A violent, anti-social ward of the state (stemming from a doomed childhood, and bouts of lethal malevolence), Lisbeth is a hacker and feels like a stand in not only for the over-caffeinated, computer geeks of the world, but also the rebels of punk past, presented with her choice in hair styles, thrift shop clothing, and multiple piercing and tattoos.  She's an odd character, but Mara gives her such texture and expressiveness (she's even more haunting when trying to remain perfectly still), that however Lisbeth may or may not be defined by her authors creator, the late Stieg Larson, she feels almost complete.

It's a bit of shame that it takes the film so long to pick up the pieces that most of us by now can see coming.  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, with its two leads-- the other being Daniel Craig as discredited journalist Mikael Blomkvist, takes its sweet time in strolling through its narrative.  It takes the film over an hour for our heroes to even meet.  What feels like endless exposition, despite featuring some incredible sequences and accomplished acting, as Blomkvst, dour and near financial ruin, accepts an assignment to investigate to the forty-year old murder case of Harriet Vanger, who was likely killed by a member of her eccentric and vindictive family, one of the richest and most lofty of all of Sweden, but most of us already know about that.  As we chart Lisbeth's life pre-Blomkvist, and her troubles with her new guardian, a tubby misogynist.  Fincher has great fun with the set-ups, as well he should, as he is totally within his wheelhouse with a story so grimy and dangerous-- he's one of the great stylists currently working in cinema; it's just a shame that generica of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's premise doesn't match his nor his actors panache.

At the very least he's lightened up the sodden Swiss version, with a bit more humor and firmer hold of the treacly relationship between Lisbeth and Mikael-- the two of course bed early after meeting, but there's both a sort of tenderness and awkwardness to their rapport that feels more appropriate, given age, background, and the fact that Lisbeth, despite her talents and scarily fit photographic memory, is a bit of a loon.  Mara is whip smart with the selective words she always her Lisbeth to say, but with the soft and pleasing Swiss accent, and always ironic eye roll, the most joyful and frightening part of the feature is her teasing but succinct line readings, off set by an ever smooth performance from Craig.  The film meanders, as it must, in solving the mystery of the Vanger clan, and adheres close enough to the original material, so as not to offend the devout, while Fincher and team gently crack the artifice of built-in franchising.  However, little can really be done with the case itself, it's solved before it's cracked.

What needed a bit more finessing was the excess of this overly long feature.  At two-hours and thirty-eight minutes, it felt unfathomably interminable for the last stretch of the film, where it diverges from the source, and decides it doesn't want to finish.  I'm fairly convinced that Fincher and team are still working on the film for there's more multiple endings that damage the small and graceful closing shot.  What starts and promises as a swift thrill ride, ends as a meandering and slow stroll through Fincher's angry mind.  B

The Social Network

The Social Network, the latest work of unsettling ambition by David Fincher, opens with an already much talked about scene set in a bar near Harvard University, where are hero\villain Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) rattles on and on before being dumped by his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara, soon to be media firestorm when she takes center stage as the American Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.)  She seethes with the same wordy dialogue courtesy of Aaron Sorkin as Zuckerberg, and ends with: "you might think girls won't like you because you're a nerd, but you're wrong, it's because you're an asshole."  Cue to opening credits.  Not many films would open with such a seething indictment of their leading men, but The Social Network isn't like other films.  It's an exciting, verbose account of the foundation of Facebook, and in great American filmmaking fashion, hearkening back to the glory days of the '70s, which is where aesthetically, if not historically, where it lives; it also perhaps the first 21st century film, at least one funded by a big Hollywood studio, that culturally and impeccably examines our cyber age.  The age of which, for better and worse, was partially indebted to Zuckerberg, and the other nerds\assholes at center stage in Fincher's great suspenseful morality play.

Fueled by alcohol and rage, with perhaps a hint of shame that he wouldn't dare let out, Zuckerberg lashes out after being dumped.  First with lashing insults on his blog, then with a vision, a revenge vision of creating a website where one can vote on the hotness of Harvard gals.  The site becomes a smash, big enough to crash the Harvard server, and bigger enough to attract the attention of the Winklevoss brothers, members of the Harvard elite, and twins, both played by Armie Hammer, with the help of some Benjamin Button digital craftsmanship.  They invite Zuckerberg to their inner circle of prestige, and perhaps a chance mingling of Harvard's exclusive clubs that Mark craves membership of; the talk mostly is of business, as the Winklevi want Zuckerberg's cyber-inclined brain power in starting up a Harvard-only social networking site.  The main function mostly, is simply put by one the twins: "Girl want to hook up with Harvard guys."  And thus a generational zeitgeist is formed.  Zuckerberg (allegedly as it is purported that the film may perhaps be bending the truth, the screenplay was based on the novel "The Accidental Billionaire, by Ben Mezrich) took the idea and ran with it, creating "The Facebook," with his friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), but mostly his checkbook.


The Social Network entertainingly and extremely pleasurably rat-a-tats back and forth between Zuckerberg, the Winklevi and Saverin over the foundation and eventual litigation process both parties took with Zuckerberg, but the excitement is electric because it's current enough that everybody remembers the birth of Facebook, which again for better or worse defines a large chunk of our modern time.  The fantasy\reality of Facebook is that you can create almost another world of perception, which the film examines.  As in such, the subjects of The Social Network are neither heroes nor villains; Fincher and Sorkin are far too multi-faceted artists for that, and the perception of Zuckerberg namely largely seats in the eye of the beholder.  That this nerd\asshole, one of limited friends (perhaps Saverin, at first, being his only true one) was able to tap into a generational divide of kids practically raised online is revolutionary, until you think about how truly sad, and kind of revolting it is.

The last main character to be introduced is Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), as the visionary, and criminal mind behind Napster, who seduces Zuckerberg from the refined Harvard elitism into the Silicon Valley elite.  Like Zuckerberg, Parker is a game changer, and like Parker, Zuckerberg later has to pay for the damage he's caused by "his" idea.  Through the chronicle of the story, we see the litigation hearings of the men who sued Zuckerberg, first the Winklevoss twins, and then Saverin, and while the idea of a courtroom drama may be old hat, Fincher and Sorkin stage them with such an immediacy, that in a perverse way, it's almost crowd-pleasing.  I suppose, at least on paper, that Fincher and Sorkin would be an odd fit together, what with Fincher's reputation of a visionary auteur, fond of ultra-controlled settings and low light mood, and Sorkin's dialogue tripping verbosity, but here they strike the right balance between complementing each other, and it works as the best of both worlds. 

And perhaps both artisans have found their muse in Jesse Eisenberg, who is in short spectacular.  Understated, in a similar mopped-top goofball\nerd way that made him so in agreeable in films like Adventureland and The Squid & the Whale, but with a detached glare that's almost nihilistic, he devours the Sorkian language, making Zuckerberg a consummate intellectual bully, but with an "I'm bored, now" stillness.  I wouldn't go so far as to say that he makes one compassionate about Zuckerberg, who in real life is still the youngest billionaire ever, but humanizes him to a degree in that when he attacks with his words, we hate him more, perhaps because he might actually be right.  The acting surrounding Eisenberg is nearly across the board as rich, with Garfield, Timberlake and Hammer all nailing their characterizations, no matter how factually based, and all turning the drama on each other in such unsettling ways that it's hard to come up with a winner or loser in this morality play.

It might feel like cinematic blasphemy, or hyperbolic absurdity, but since it's been mentioned before, I don't quite so stupid, but long stretches of The Social Network feel achingly and spine-tingly in sync with Citizen Kane.  I'm not exactly saying Fincher's film is as good, I wouldn't dare, but since both films are warts and all, take no prisoners accounts of media behemoths, and both are in their respective time periods, blazing assaults of language and scope, I feel the comparison is apt.  Yet the wonder of Fincher's magnum opus here, is that like the expert handling of Zodiac, he has the control and ideas of a filmmaker of early-'70s, the look and mingling of character study vs. bigger meaning is so expertly and unobtrusively handled (one never gets the sense of a bigger idea being forced fed into our mouths) feels achingly in tune with films like All the President's Men and Network.  But comparison means nothing, for The Social Network is a grand and meaningful entertainment all its own, and while parts play as though Zuckerberg is bullying us with his barrage of dialogue, I for one welcome a second visit.  A

The Social Network

The teaser trailer has arrived for David Fincher's The Social Network.



I think it might be my favorite trailer so far this year.  No visuals just striking dialogue heard, while ominious music plays in the back.  I'm fascinated by how this will work, and the teaser thankfully answers no questions.  I loathe trailers that give away the whole film.  I'm sure the next trailer will probably do just that, especially if Sony Pictures gets freaked out what of movie this turns out to be.  All i know is I'd like to see this now, and if a teaser trailer provokes that, it's very effective.

The Social Network

The first artwork for David Fincher's latest film, The Social Network has been unveiled. The film, about the founders of social networking site Facebook, stars Jesse Eisenberg, Max Minghella, Joseph Mazzello, and Justin Timberlake, from a script by Aaron Sorkin. I'm excited for this one for a number of reasons, namely Fincher. Far and away one of the most invaluable filmmakers currently working in Hollywood, he's one of the few not afraid to add substance with his unique and illuminating style. I recently re-watched Zodiac, his 2007 masterpiece and was taken aback for the second time at the assurance and magnificence of the film; how on earth did that gem not garner a single Oscar nomination. Of course by going the traditional prestige route the following year with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button he finally netted his first (and by saying that I assume many will follow; I hope) Oscar nomination. But back to The Social Network, I'm "curious" which side of Fincher we'll encounter-- the refined maturity of Zodiac and Benjamin Button or the nilistic behind Seven and Fight Club-- I kind of want the anarchic spirit back again, and why not take it out the Facebook mania. Then again, I'm also "curious" about this one coming out, just so he can get started on the much-anticipated English version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

The Social Network is scheduled to arrive, via Sony Pictures, on October 1st.