Best Picture: The Social Network

You probably know by now that I think The Social Network should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture this year. Or maybe you do. You might assume I would say that about Inception, especially if you've read either this or this. But the film I personally loved the best, and the one that I strongly believe ought to have won the Oscar for being the best, don't have to be the same film.

I'll try not to belabor this point, but Network was the RIGHT film, at the RIGHT time, made by the RIGHT people, and in the RIGHT way. It was, I will argue, a vastly more important film, culturally speaking, than was Inception. This isn't a conversation about Inception, though, so that's all I'll say about it.

I should admit right now that I haven't seen The King's Speech. I want to. I plan to. I'm certain (read: no doubt) I'll love it. But the fact is that it doesn't matter how good it was, how perfectly crafted, how brilliantly acted, how expertly written and directed--it can't even approach the broad significance of the film that should have won. It could be reasonably postulated that Facebook has reached the pinnacle of its pertinence. Facebook matters more right now than it ever has, and possibly more than it ever will. That's why The Social Network's timing was perfect.

Here's an interesting fact: Aaron Sorkin (one of the best writers living) didn't have a Facebook account until he started writing a movie about Facebook. What might we then surmise about the Academy? We should at least wonder how many of them have Facebook accounts. The Academy is, demographically speaking, a bit older. A bit less wowed by things like computers and "the Twitter."

Certainly this isn't true for all of them, or maybe even most, but it's true for enough of them to have skewed the collective opinion of Fincher's nearly perfect film negatively--think dismissive, uneasy, uncomprehending. The film that got picked? The safer choice. I'm not cutting it down--like I said before, I'm sure it's wonderful. But it CANNOT be as important, or as perfect (all things considered) as the Facebook movie.

I haven't said much about the film specifically. That's because you can read my review of it here. And I'll be sure to publicly record my thoughts somewhere when I finally get around to seeing the film that did win.

Do you agree with any of what I'm saying? Disagree? How much do you even care? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.