Iffy for 14+
Fantastic performances, compelling story for teens and up.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that this movie about the creation of Facebook will appeal to media-savvy tweens and young teens, but there's so much sexuality, drug use, drinking, and swearing (lots of "a--hole," "bitch," and "s--t") that it's a better fit for older high schoolers. The sexual content includes scenes of strip poker, a scene set the morning after a one-night stand, bathroom-stall trysts (with implied oral sex), girls dancing nearly naked, and more. College students party a lot, so it's no surprise that there's plenty of drinking -- often to excess -- and drug use (mostly marijuana, but also cocaine). While teens will learn the value of being innovative, there are some very negative messages and role models in the movie. Ultimately, The Social Network isn't the typical "genius entrepreneur" biopic, because it's really a story about the personal price of success.
- Families can talk about Facebook and social networking. How have people's -- especially teens' -- lives changed as a result of Facebook's creation?
- How accurate do you think the movie is? Why might filmmakers bend the facts when making a movie based on real life? How could you find out more if you wanted to?
- What was the cost of Facebook's success for its founders? What is the movie's message about starting a huge enterprise? What does it take? What does it cost to succeed?
- Does the founder of Facebook seem like a likable guy? Does this drama make you think less or more of him? Which of his many questionable choices makes him look the most unethical?
The good stuff
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Messages: On the one hand, seeing all these young entrepreneurs be creative and innovative is a great example for teenagers, but some of the actions that lead to Facebook's success are shady and unfortunate.
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Role models: They're big thinkers with great ideas, but many of the characters make questionable, borderline unethical decisions. Mark alienates and forces out his best friend, and he's accused of stealing the overall idea of Facebook from three other Harvard students. The character of Sean Parker is egomaniacal, parties a lot, and is the main catalyst for some of the uglier wheeling and dealing that goes on behind the scenes.
What to watch for
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Violence: A couple of men nearly come to blows but are stopped by their friends before an actual punch is thrown. In one scene, security comes to escort a character after he violently destroys a laptop.
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Sex: Sexuality is one of the main themes (and one of the major motivations for Facebook) of the movie. No graphic is sex depicted, but in one scene two young women take Mark and Eduardo to bathroom stalls, where they kiss passionately before the women take off the guys' belts and perform oral sex (you see one woman squat down before the camera cuts to the guy's ecstatic face). In another scene, a couple wakes up together but neither can remember much about the other -- including their names. The girl walks around in panties and a cutoff top. There's a scene of strip poker, and lots of women come on to the guys, make out with them, and dance around them while scantily clad. In an online pre-Facebook stunt, Mark pits women against each other for others to rank according to "hotness."
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Language: Lots of casual use of words like "s--t," "a--hole," "screw," "hell," and "bitch," and even a couple "f--k"s. Also "goddamn" and "oh my God."
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Consumerism: Obviously, the movie is a huge promo for Facebook, even if the tale of its origins is at times deeply unflattering toward founder Mark Zuckerberg. Many other brands are also featured, including Gap, Livejournal, Heineken beer, and schools like Harvard, Stanford, Boston University, Columbia, and Yale.
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Drinking, drugs and smoking: College students drink like fish. Mark and his sophomore roommates get drunk and stoned in their dorm rooms and at frat parties, dinners, and nightclubs. There's lots of beer, cocktails, and champagne drinking, as well as pot smoking and even lines of some drug (probaby cocaine) about to be consumed.
Fan Reviews provided by
5
Totally Worth The Hype by chadploskina
You will realize within the first six minutes or so just how artfully crafted the dialogue is and, therefore, how underwhelming the back and forths are in most films. I love that most of the actors are not megastars. I love how there isn't anyone for whom to root. I love the subtle, scathing, whip-smart humor. I love the flashback, flashforward, Slumdog Millionaire-like method of storytelling. It's just a great movie that is so very culturally relevant.
4
Five Word Review by nickthrolson
Awesome Bright Smart Motivational Fantastic
5
The Social Network by Tracey2170
Great Movie!! Kept my interest the whole way through. Lots of action.
4
pretty good by jackjack1985
its realistic enough that you think half this stuff actually happened but also a little bit out there that you are thinking no way this crap went on. Entertaining for sure, enough plots and things going on back and forth that keeps your attention.
5
Facing the Facts by sunnyforever
I am impressed. If you like People Magazine, love to watch sports, or need air to breathe, you will like this movie. I am impressed with this fascinating story of a genius in progress. I am impressed with the mind and how an awkward mind relates to a social network. And like Forest Gump and Six Degrees of Separation, I am impressed with how movers and shakers all seem to converge instantaneously at various points in time. I am really impressed with this movie. So I am off to the internet to spend the rest of the evening researching the mind of Zuckerberg and the people who brought FACEBOOK to birth.
And if you are one of the 500 million who have signed up for FACEBOOK you will enjoy this bit of history too. The F bomb and the B word are dropped occasionally and there is a 2 minute sexual scene that gives the movie its PG13. Other than that the movie is sanitized.
4
The Social Network..'Brilliiant Cast & Movie by Javajive
The SOCIAL NETWORK is an intensely fascinating movie and Actor Jesse Eisenberg has Star quality written all over him. He was wonderfully Dramatic as the young ambitious Founder/Creator of Facebook - the youngest in US History to become a Billionaire. That's pretty heavy: great Dramatic Casting to The Social Network beside the talents of Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake a much promising Actor totally shines and I was totally blown away when legendary Haunt/Drama Actor David Selby DARK SHADOWS/FALCON CREST etc.,. made a appearance/playing the Lawyer to the Enemies. What a nice surprise that was..'he was smooth. Great movie!
4
Five Word Review by cgd
asperger twit fails to mature
5
GO movie by jajordan00
I loved this movie. Well Done
4
'The Social Network' Movie Review by vaanan_kannan
'The Social Network' lets you know right from its very first scene in the pub what you are in for. With sharp witted, clever dialogues weaving through the films entirety, and the perfect portrayal of the geeky, and supposedly extremely arrogant Zuckerberg by Jesse Eisenberg, and Andrew Garfield as the wronged Eduardo (Garfield's performance here actually gives me hope for our 'Friendly Neighborhood Wall Crawler's' reboot), 'The Social Network' hits all the right notes. But being peppered with geek-dom sequences like Mark's hacking of all the various college websites for his 'FaceMesh', the 'Next Bill Gates', etc, I just have a feeling that those people who do live the tech and online life at large may identify more with this movie.
All in all, though it may not be playing too true to the real story of Facebook (I guess this is simply Hollywood's style of 'spicing things up'!), 'The Social Network' s one Facebook related movie that I am glad does not have a 'Dislike' button...
3
Social Retard by kraduate
I almost gave this a Go but went with So-So because that's exactly what it is. It's good enough to see once but I have no desire to ever see it again.
The story of how such a socially deficient jerk ended up creating such a successful social network in facebook should be fascinating. But I found myself disliking technology's impact on our culture even more than I already did.
One of the most repeated praises I hear about this movie is it has intelligent, witty dialogue. May I suggest, if you don't know people who talk like this, perhaps you should broaden your own little network of friends. The dialogue seems very commonplace to me.
The story of how facebook was created is interesting... and also a bit depressing. Mark Zuckerberg, as portrayed in the movie, seems to have sociopathic tendencies. He is not the kind of person I would like in real life and I feel a little guilty about how much I love fb. I think I'll appreciate this movie 20 years hence after fb is a distant memory.