In January, Quentin Tarantino revealed on The Rewatchables podcast that he was rewatching a bunch of films from the 2010s to come up with his list of best movies of the decade (2010 – 2019). We’re still eagerly anticipating Tarantino to reveal his complete list, but the director recently spoiled what tops his 2010s ranking. In an interview with Premiere Magazine, the critically acclaimed helmer (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, etc.) mentioned that his favourite film of the past decade is none other than David Fincher’s 2010 film, The Social Network.
When asked why, Tarantino in typical Tarantino fashion said:
“It’s The Social Network, hands down (…) It is Number 1 because it’s the best, that’s all! It crushes all the competition.”
I totally agree with Mr Tarantino here. The Social Network is a goddamn masterpiece. It’s one of my favourite films, not just of the decade but of all time. Late last year, Samuel Lim and I co-wrote a piece (after much debate and lightsaber duels) on the 25 greatest films of the 2010s. The Social Network placed 10th. On the David Fincher film, I wrote:
In lesser hands, the story about Mark Zuckerberg, the Harvard dropout who programmed Facebook would’ve been a colossal bore. Seriously, how do you make a movie about computer programming interesting? In the hands of director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin, though, you get a highly riveting, ridiculously addictive tale brimming with characters who feel almost mythical in nature, yet are completely grounded in reality. The Social Network is a dense and layered character drama about creativity, insecurity and the ugliness of the male ego. With Sorkin’s intelligent, hyper-realistic rhythmic dialogue and the modern master of thrills captaining the ship, Social Network hooks you right from its opening sentence. It doesn’t let go. It doesn’t even let you breathe. You feel the proverbial noose tighten from scene to scene to scene. Choke me to death goddammit! you scream as you sit at the edge of your seat salivating in anticipation. Yes, we’re still talking about a biopic about a computer programmer.
The Social Network is currently streaming on Netflix.
