Why The Social Network Should Win Tonight But Won't

We all know that the Oscars haven't always been about merit. Many a film has been critically praised and financially successful yet still ignored by the Academy (The Dark Knight comes to mind). As we look back on nearly a century of Best Pictures, the first thing that comes to mind as to what an Oscar-winning film should be is relevant. Not necessarily relevant in the sense that people talk about it, although that helps, but the film should define the time in which it's set while examining the era in which it is made. Most importantly, it should reflect upon its targets. I can't think of a better example, in many years in fact, of a film that does just this than David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network.

Typically a 'relevant film' we agree on is about our country's wars - WWII, Vietnam or the Middle East (Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, Three Kings, The Hurt Locker). Or it will deals with the modern family (American Beauty, Mystic River). This year we finally had a film that stared into the face of an entire decade, illustrating the monster of technology and its fiendish conspirator, ambition and greed. At the same time, it presented us with a true film of the modern college experience and with only one vomit gag. More than that, it showed us the true fragility of friendship and the choices we make in life.

So why won't The Social Network win Best Picture? Well, obviously it's complicated by nine other films in the category. And it's not a safe film. It doesn't easily fit into a particular genre. Nobody dies, nobody goes to war, nobody dresses in period attire, nobody loses a child and most importantly, nobody overcomes a crippling disability. Every other year or more, there seems to be a need for the warm comfort of a crowd-pleasing historical film, replete with affable dialog, cozy scenes of non-fictional retrospect and of course, the touching performances of British thoroughbreds.

We're talking about The King's Speech. It has the vibe of Howard's End as well as The Queen which gave Helen Mirren her first Oscar, and it will be the same with Colin Firth. While no doubt deserving on every level, Firth (and perhaps Bonham-Carter and Rush) should be winners in this film. It is a thespian's film, but not a story-driven film. It's just not a film that we'll look back on as a defining film. It's Rocky with studdering. It's The Karate Kid with studdering. It's a feel-good movie, one where every beat hits its perfectly played-out note. You never doubt that the good Duke is going to triumph over his tongue-tied torment.

The Social Network, on the other hand, does not play to the grandeur of a world on the bring of war. It does not deal with the triumph of the human spirit, nor does it contain a single British character (just a few very talented young British actors). For those of you who keep score, Oscar loves it some Brits. Just ask Harvey Weinstein, who knows when to play the Union Jack card come campaign time in January.

What Fincher's film does is draw the curtain on the young 21st century mind and its unabashed pursuit of creating an idea that nobody else can touch. We can barely crack the surface of how the internet has changed modern society, let alone the impact Facebook has had on how we communicate and represent our daily lives to one another. This film explores our love affair with success, technology and Faustian complexity while still delivering grade-A entertainment. And in doing so, the film delivers 2010's finest dialog, cinematography, a rapturous modern score by Trent Reznnor and Atticus Ross, starmaking performances by fresh actors and a window into America when a few group of young minds changed the face of modern communication. These young upstarts did all of this under the noses of the wealthiest businesses and greatest educational institutions in the world. Shakespeare by way of Pinter and Mamet. In this case, Sorkin.

Decades from now, people will remember The Social Network as a generational film, the way they remember The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, All the President's Men. (Sheer coincidence those three films all star Dustin Hoffman!) They will remember The King's Speech as the well-done Oscar winner of 2010.