Parents' Guide to The Social Network

There was a lot of hype for this dramatic biopic before it came out, and, for once, the buzz was well-deserved. The Social Network is truly enthralling; all of the pieces—writing, plot, direction, acting, soundtrack—create a memorable movie that perfectly captured the zeitgeist when it released in 2010. If a story about a business' Ivy League founders or Harvard social intrigue or young billionaires in the making doesn't sound compelling, this movie will surprise you. And the credit for that must go to director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin, who've taken what sounds like a very boring premise—boy genius possibly steals an idea to create one of the dominating media forces of the decade—and turned it into an award-worthy film.

Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg as a socially awkward computer genius who isn't an adorable geek (like many of Eisenberg's previous roles). He's a huge jerk—or, as his date tells him in the first scene, a first-class "a--hole"—obsessed with status and, later, getting back at said date for rejecting him. Scene-stealer Timberlake is all slimy, paranoid charm as Parker, and, as Saverin, Garfield is pitch perfect. He exudes the confidence that comes with wealth, but, unlike Zuckerberg or the Winklevoss twins, he's not condescending. In many ways, he's the heart of the movie, because his character is so much more likable than Zuckerberg—so much so that you want him to win his lawsuit against Facebook. What's true and what isn't doesn't quite matter for the purposes of this film; in the end, Facebook's "status" is bigger than all its players.