Now Playing: ‘The Social Network’ Connects

At the press conference following the New York Film Festival press screening of ‘The Social Network,’ director David Fincher jokingly compared his college-set tale of betrayal and jealousy to ‘American Graffiti.’ I say “jokingly,” because he’s constantly been calling it “the ‘Citizen Kane’ of John Hughes movies.” At least superficially, ‘The Social Network’ – with all of its late night parties and petty squabbling – could be something like a post-millennial ‘Animal House.’ But it’s with the ‘American Graffiti’ comparison that I’d rather dwell. Just in the same way that ‘American Graffiti,’ at the time, defined a generation that had just passed, so too will ‘The Social Network.’ As brilliant and gutsy as any film I’ve seen this year, it will define this particular moment in American culture, for better or worse.

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