Facebook Movie Paints Zuckerberg as 'Sex Maniac'

In private, Zuck is 'gracious' about movie

(NEWSER) - Mark Zuckerberg certainly seems unhappy about The Social Network —but in private, it may be a different story. Jesse Eisenberg , who plays the Facebook founder in the movie, says his cousin works at Facebook—and when he met the big boss, Zuck said, “I think your cousin is playing me in a movie; that's really cool.” In fact, Eisenberg tells Reuters , “Mark couldn't have been more gracious toward him.” More»

Critics still raving about the Facebook movie

(NEWSER) - On the eve of its opening, the Social Network continues to get serious love from reviewers. The Facebook movie's Rotten Tomatoes score is humming along at a 98% positive clip. Samples:

• Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal : It "quickly lifts you to a state of exhilaration, and pretty much keeps you there for two hours." The film "is devastating as biography—an unfriending of epic proportions—and dazzling as contemporary cultural history."
• Ty Burr, Boston Globe : "On the level of craft, the movie’s just absurdly enjoyable." It "moves like a shark, but it’s hardly soulless." As Mark Zuckerberg, "Jesse Eisenberg comes of age as an actor."

Critics are already calling it a classic

(NEWSER) - Mark Zuckerberg already hates The Social Network —but after hearing the early reviews, he probably hates it even more. It doesn’t open until Friday, but critics are already calling "The Facebook Movie" a masterpiece, predicting an Oscar, and comparing it to Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Balzac, and Rashomon, the Daily Beast reports. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is 100%; some are calling it generation-defining; one even uses the term “Shakespearean.” More»

Harvard classmate says Mark was cool kid on campus

(NEWSER) - Aaron Sorkin’s new movie, The Social Network, appears to be a "paranoid, sleazy, and grim" imagining of the founding of Facebook, in which Mark Zuckerberg, a cantankerous outsider, creates his social network in a bid to impress buxom women and callow preppies. “That completely misses the point,” writes Rebecca Davis O’Brien in the Daily Beast . O’Brien lived in Zuckerberg’s dorm, and says the savant was never a friendless loner. "Back before he was a household name, before thefacebook.com, Mark Zuckerberg was a dorm room name." More»

Otherwise known as Justin Timberlake in The Social Network

(NEWSER) - According to Sean Parker, Sean Parker has "helped change the world, at least three times." Two of those times, one assumes, are related to his involvement in the early days of Napster and Facebook: "Two of the most significant companies in the history of the Internet," says a colleague. "And in both cases Parker spotted them earlier than anyone." The budding billionaire—soon to be portrayed by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network —is notoriously press-shy, but agreed to sit for a Vanity Fair interview with David Kirkpatrick. More»