I like this

Or, in both movie review and Facebook parlance... thumbs up. Initially met with shrugs or shudders upon its announcement, The Social Network turns out to be an absolutely electric flick. Well, maybe one qualification: beware the over-the-top buzz. Like many things that are big on the internet, it's possible to get wrapped up in the gush of purple praise and walk into the theater expecting some sort of Casablanca meets Citizen Kane mashup – the greatest film in the history of cinema.

It's not that, but is up there with the best movies of the year.

It's built on a brilliant script from Aaron Sorkin. Facebook (co-)founder Mark Zuckerberg was a fencer in real life, and on-screen his dialogue crackles as he verbally parries with friends and enemies, trading blades for overly honest observations and backhanded barbs. But the film isn't burdened with "Sorkin-speak." While everyone speaks extremely intelligently (as it does, you know, take place at Harvard ;) they're not spitting out sound bites left and right, and he doesn't resort to the trademark "walk and talks" of the West Wing and other Sorkin productions.

The action bounces from the dorm rooms where Facebook was created to the board rooms where its ownership was debated – traditionally I'm not crazy about framing stories, but here director David Fincher uses the device to maintain a singular narrative that illustrates a few points of view. So rather than a "lemme tell you a tale" vibe that plagues similar films, watching The Social Network is like living the events in the midst of their narration. Fincher kicks off the tension in scene one and never lets up on the noose. It's one of the few films that caught me off guard when the credits rolled; the two-hour run time felt like no time at all.

The performances are uniformly terrific – Jesse Eisenberg lends layers to Zuckerberg, who in less capable hands could have come off simply as a mouthy jerk instead of a complex character who's likely too smart for his own good. While it's yet to be seen how he'll play as Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield shines as co-founder Eduardo Saverin. In a minor role as Mark's unwitting inspiration Erica Albright, Rooney Mara's performance should set Dragon Tattoo fans' minds at ease when she takes the role of the titular Girl. Even when one actor plays two characters (Armie Hammer digitally manipulated to portray the Winklevoss twins who may or may not have thought up Facebook first), handles both roles with ease.

Raves aside, what's the source of my earlier (admittedly minor) qualification? Well, at heart, the movie covers territory we've seen before – unchecked ambition, cutthroat business deals, etc... it relies on recency and the gee-whizness of seeing the seedy side of our digital world to set it apart from similar films. So while its "of the moment" status may deservedly create several "you like me" moments come award season, we'll have to wait and see how it holds up historically.

But the fact that the lone watchout I can offer up is that it may not go down as one of The Great Films is high praise indeed. So update your status to "is watching social network," as it's an absolute must-see.