“Every creation myth needs a devil,” notes one of Mark Zuckerberg’s attorneys as the Facebook creator resigns himself to legal defeat. The Social Network is the story of one man’s God complex igniting his demonisation. It’s what happens when anarchy is assim𒐪ilated – how rebellion gets contorted into money.

Facebook began as a ꧟popularity contest and, beneath🌼 the six-year digital limescale of Pokes and Likes and earnest Comments and ranty Wall postings, it still is.

Writer Aaron Sorkin skewers Zuckerberg (Jesse 𒉰Eisenberg) as a talented hacker/pranꦇkster who took someone else’s good idea and made it better. Stung and steaming after being dumped by his girlfriend (Rooney Mara), Zuckerberg vents by keyboard, launching a fusillade of bilious blog posts which tickle the prurience of his fellow Harvard students.

From there, he strips﷽ yearbook photos from the various Harvard houses and compi♈les ‘Facemash’ - a compulsive binary game of ‘Who’s Hottest?’.

Juiced by the campus-wide voyeuristic zeal and smꦺarting from an IT knuckle-rap, Zuckerberg evolves the idea of a self-serving social matr🌳ix – a buzzing, organic hive of clutter, chatter and personal affect.

But where did he get this crazy idea from? As the renamed ‘thefaceꦑbook’ mutates and circulates from college to college, state to state and country to country, he’s challenged for intellectual ownership by fellow students Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer).

How much ownership can roommate and financial backer Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) cling to? Will Zuckerberg’s friendship with Napster fouܫnder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) boost or break his real-world social standing?

And can he transform his ꧙petulant pleasure into a gainful business plan? Does he even want to?

From here, Fincher and Sorkin split the tale into thr♉ee timelines, skipping back and forth between the emerging present and Zuckerberg’s double-headed future deposition.

It’s bold - risking confusion and fatigue from anyone unfamiliar with the story. But the restless context and precision editing meshes thrillingly with the verve and venom and the ricocheting blame and counter-blame.

Sorkin’s view of his characters’ cultural awareness is a little too pat, too researched. “We used to live on farms, then in cities&hel♑lip;” splutters Parker. “Now we’re all 🗹living on the internet!”

There’s also little sense of where these people came from – making it 💙an effort to care about where they’re goi🍌ng. Rich kids getting screwed out of money? Surely they can just get a top-up from the trust-fund…

Garfield is wronged and whiney, while Timberlake plays Parker as a swaggering playboy &ജndash; the bad influence that curdles Zuckerberg’s good inte♛ntions.

In a curious echo of Fight Club, he’s the film’s Tyler Durd♕en – a cooler, sharper avatar/mentor whose charm blinds Zuckerberg to the implications of his bad deciꦓsions.

But it’s Eisenberg&rsqu♏o;s performance that captivates - icky and icy but strangely 👍sympathetic.

He captures Zuckerberg’s jittery cadence and sharkish propulsion without resorting to Rain Man caricature, giving him the air of someone struggling to squeeze a little gain from༒ all the pain; who’s started something he can’t figure out how to finish.

Next: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: The Social Network verdict [page-break]

The story of Facebook runs parallel with the story of how the internet has blurred our public and private lives. It&r💖squo;s a story that, like the social network iꦯtself, is still in motion, constantly being revised and rewritten.

But in the glare of such a contemporary spotlight, Fincher hasn’t flinched. His unreliable narrators and mu🥃ltiple🔥 perspectives present a case that could be argued in many ways but isn’t drained of drama by aiming for journalistic balance.

He’s found the elusive sweet spot between offering a dry faux-d𝓡ocumentary and printing the l𒀰egend.

So, The Social Network is a creation myth.

But it succeeds because it doesn’t portray Zuckerberg a🦂s the devil🍨 – just a nerdy guy who hit on a cool and easy way to make friends and was a little too eager to pick up a few enemies along the way.

Or, as the attorney so memo﷽rably summarises, “You’re not an asshole, Mark. Just someone who’s trying too hard to be an asshole&rdq🐼uo;.