‘The Social Network’ opens today – & Facebook will never be the same

The movie trailer

Early reviews are enthusiastic about film depicting early years of Facebook

For those of us who live and work in the world of social media, Silicon Valley and technology, today’s opening of the movie The Social Network is a big deal.

A close friend visited Facebook‘s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., a couple of days ago, and company staffers said they would be heading out to see the movie as a group some time this weekend.

Because they know this is how Facebook will be indelibly fixed in the public’s mind for years to come. David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network is already being mentioned as a candidate for the Best Picture Oscar.

The critics’ verdict? It’s a hit!

Here are some early reviews of “The Social Network” — which, let’s be clear, is a high-flying Hollywood entertainment, not a documentary:

Roger Ebert: “”The Social Network” is a great film not because of its dazzling style or visual cleverness, but because it is splendidly well-made.”

New York Times: “In ‘The Social Network,’ David Fincher’s fleet, weirdly funny, exhilarating, alarming and fictionalized look at the man behind the social-media phenomenon Facebook — 500 million active users, oops, friends, and counting — Mark runs and he runs, sometimes in flip-flops and a hoodie, across Harvard Yard and straight at his first billion. … Although the names have remained the same, “The Social Network” is less of a biopic of the real Mr. Zuckerberg than a gloss on the boot-up, log-on, plug-in generation. … Despite its insistently unsexy moving parts (software, algorithms), the movie is paced like a thriller, if one in which ideas, words and bank books blow up rather than cars.”

Mashable: “As Zuckerberg, Jesse Eisenberg is brilliant. I fully expect to see his name on the shortlist for Best Actor nominees when award season ramps up. He manages to make Zuckerberg sympathetic but not pathetic — there’s actually a nuanced difference. … Watching the film, I was often struck by two things: First, how quickly it all moved. It’s almost jarring to think that the majority of the major events in the film took place over the course of 18 months. Second, I was once again reminded of just how young everyone involved in the early days of Facebook really was.”

And here’s my contribution: Several photos of Mark Zuckerberg released under a Creative Commons BY NC license:

JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.