Book Of A Million Faces vs The Social Network (A Banana Review)

Posted on 11 October 2010 by Philbert Lui

FaceNovel - Book Of A Million Faces

In light of David Fincher’s latest film The Social Network (if you haven’t seen it, watch it, trailer here), we here at The Banana Times would like to re-introduce a short film we made even before The Banana Times started, Book Of A Million Faces. This 9-minute piece is a mockumentary reflecting on the global Internet phenomenon of Facebook. But in this parody the social network is called “FaceNovel”, and the narrative plays out like a public service announcement spliced with real and scripted interviews to illustrate the addiction users have with this online service. Please direct your attention to the Book Of A Million Faces below!!

The Banana Times presents:
Book Of A Million Faces

This short was made in 2007 as a final film project in my sophomore year. Having made an experimental car-exploitation short and a documentary portraying our friend Dexter Chu earlier that year, I intended to simply join a project and get a decent mark as a crew mate. But succumbing to my desperate need for attention, I threw together a pitch in one day and decided to make something that makes fun of Facebook. And thus, Book Of A Million Faces was born! I talk a bit more about this old project in the video blog below:

The reason why we decided to re-release this old flick of ours was to pay tribute to the ever-expanding phenomena of Facebook, the drama that the creators had to endure in its creation, and ultimately David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s recent masterpiece in The Social Network. Even though Book Of A Million Faces pokes fun at Facebook, we only do it out of understanding and respect for what Mark Zuckerberg has done. In the end, we make fun of what we like and what’s important (:

Enjoy!

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The Social Network – A Banana Review:

The Social Network, best monologue of the film

David Fincher and Aaron Sorkins’ The Social Network is one for the books. If this film was part of the Toronto International Film Festival lineup this year, it would have rivaled 127 Hours and Black Swan. Many would object to making a film based on the lives of people who are still under 30 years old and so soon after the creation of Facebook. Less than a decade after the fact a film was already made. But due to the subject matter, I believe it was necessary to make a film this swiftly. Considering the exponential rate the cyber world is growing, in comparison to the real world, a biopic based on the lives on Mark Zuckerberg and his peers would soon become irrelevant if left untouched.

With the trending curve of Internet phenomena these days, maybe the film should have been made even sooner than it did. But having this story come out of the godly hands of Aaron Sorkin and the brilliant vision of David Fincher, The Social Network was more than anyone could have imagined. An impeccably written screenplay that drove the story with hypnotizingly great dialogue between strong yet fragile leading characters. The verdict? I’m going to watch it again. Keep in mind Inception was the only other film I watched twice in the theaters this year. Look out Oscars, we got another contender.

Banana Rating

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-phibz.

PS: The Social Network raked in 45.9 million dollars at the box office in its 10 days in cinemas. Chyeah.

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