Is The Social Network The Best Movie Of The Year?

I watched The Social Network about a couple weeks ago and I have been struggling with this question. I know many people have said they feel it is the best movie of the year, but I'm not completely sure I agree with them.

I want to get this out of the way immediately and say that I thought The Social Network is an amazing movie. It takes some talent to take relatively boring proceedings and come up with a film that is very exciting and engaging. Scenes where all that happened was computer coding were made to seem like momentous occasions. I realize that is very difficult to pull off and The Social Network does it with very little problem.

The only reason I don't say it is the best movie of the year in my opinion is because I enjoyed Inception a lot more. Now that is my personal preference. I can see why many believe that The Social Network is the best movie of 2010. I have a couple problems with that movie which keeps it from being the best movie of the year.

While the story is based on the origins of Facebook and is for all intensive purposes a "true story", I feel like a large part of the story was dramatized for the big screen. Now The Social Network was not the first movie to take some liberties with a true story, nor will it be the last to do so. Nonetheless it brought me out of the experience to think that this really happened. On a number of levels I just couldn't imagine that is the way things turned out, which brought me out of the experience.

Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg was really amazing. Andrew Garfield also did a great job as Eduardo Saverin. The acting as a whole in the movie was spectacular. In a movie of this type the acting needs to be pin point perfect to lift a movie to the heights that The Social Network often reaches. Despite all that I kept coming back to the notion that the story was too unbelievable.

I know that criticism seems really childish when I say that Inception was my favorite movie of the year, but when a movie is based in reality I can't help but notice when something seems out of place. A movie like Inception is based in another world essentially so my belief is suspended, I am just along for the magical ride. When you tell me something actually happened, then there are certain expectations that come with that.

So is The Social Network the best movie of the year? Well in my opinion it is not, but it is awfully close to being the best movie of the year. It's all subjective anyways and I know many people do not agree with me, but the movie that mesmerized me the most this past year was Inception.

Christopher Nolan Deserved Best Director Nomination For Inception

I absolutely LOVED Inception. So it really pains me to see that as the Oscars are coming up soon that Christopher Nolan was not nominated for Best Director for that movie. The vision of that movie was immense and no one else other than him could have done it.

This movie was totally up my alley. I watch all kinds of movies and don't stick to a particular genre, but Inception was my favorite type of movie. I like movies that take you to another world. This probably stems from my love of video games, being able to escape to another imaginative world other than my own is extremely appealing to me.

The way I feel about these movies is also why it hurts to see them under appreciated when it comes time for Oscars. You see many times people win Oscars for normal roles and nothing imaginative. Fantasy worlds don't tend to be as well received as the realistic movies you see all over the place.

For the 2.5 hrs I was watching Inception I was completely enthralled in the story. I didn't want the movie to end and was very sad when it did. Not many movies make me feel that way. This kind of unique imaginative work is what makes Nolan so great at what he does. Memento was equally inventive and mesmerizing. Nolan didn't win a best director Oscar for that movie either.

Inception had a little bit of everything which is what made it so great. The action was great but it wasn't the only thing the movie had going for it. The story itself was very emotional. You had plenty of suspense and humor as well. It's rare to find a movie that hits on all these things at once. Most of the time a movie gets one or two things done well and ignores the rest. A movie that has it all is truly rare.

If you have yet to watch either Memento or Inception then you definitely owe it to yourself to watch them as soon as you can. While it is nominated for Best Picture, I highly doubt there is any chance of it winning. Which is truly a shame because a movie that visually stunning should get more consideration.