The Social Network - David Fincher

There are very few young filmmakers as dynamic as David Fincher. In fact, Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky come to mind. In his career so far, Fincher has taken on a piece of the Alien franchise, created the film that has, more than any other film defined Generation X, he's definitively proven the guilt of San Francisco's Zodiac Killer and he showed us that people who age backwards are people too...they just lead more complicated lives.

Two years ago, with the release of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher finally broke into the "Oscar Nominee" category; with October's release of The Social Network, it seems determined that David Fincher will join the immortal group of Oscar winners. Fincher's film may not be the best film of this year; it is; however, the most timely, generation defining and possibly, important film of 2010. When all is said and done, the 500,000,000 members of Facebook are very real. And when you're able to, not only show the genesis of such a defining tool of the age,  but to show it with the grace and power that Fincher and star, Jesse Eisenberg bring to this film, there is something special afoot.

If you're one of us--and by us, I mean the 500 M members of Mark Zuckerberg's website--this is a must see. If you're not one of us--and by this, I mean a person outside of the social networking generation, a generation that spans the concept of age--this film is a tool to help you understand us. Just like 1999's controversial but defining Fight Club, The Social Network takes the defining quality of a generation, boils it down to the elemental and puts it under the microscope.

In short: See. This. Film.