Ken Bakely (@kbake_99), Freelance for Film Pulse

As the decade has progressed, we have seen how social media sites, such as Facebook, have fundamentally changed how we communicate. The flip side is that they also have proven the ability to render significant damage on our society and democracy, thus far with little accountability or lasting chance at reform. With every rewatch over the years, “The Social Network” feels more and more like an essential commentary in figuring out how we got here. Dramatizing of the birth of Facebook and the toxic, damaging behaviors at the center of this current era, it’s a biopic that feels increasingly more relevant, immediate, and observant as time goes on.

Mike McGranaghan (@AisleSeat), The Aisle Seat / Ranker

I’d have to go with “The Social Network.” David Fincher’s film told us at the start of the decade that Facebook is evil. Every passing day, we find out more and more just how true that is. We now know that its origins were rooted in ego and betrayal, its leader is a morally questionable tool, and Russia used our collective addiction to it against us by spreading fake news that has helped tear our country apart. I think singer James Taylor said it best in Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” when he said, “Fuck Facebook!” We should have listened to “The Social Network” a lot more closely than we did.

Don Shanahan (@casablancadon), Every Movie Has a Lesson, 25YL, and Medium.com

In my eyes, the rapid growth, scope, and immersion of social media typifies this past decade. Websites that were novelties for young people to follow friends and celebrity culture up close and personal even from far away have become the baobab trees, agoras, water coolers, and watering holes of our digitally-powered 21st century culture. The benchmark time capsule movie that showcases that is David Fincher’s “The Social Network.” The pulsating drama chronicles the beginning of a modern history story that is still living its middle with an unknown ending, a risky prospect no matter the time. Powered by Aaron Sorkin’s gift of gab, its biting social commentary pulled back to the curtain on Facebook and its founders to distill all its hot-headed emotion down to a “money cannot buy happiness” allegory not all that removed from the likes of George Bailey, only uglier. Rightly winning Oscars for its editing, score, and screenplay, it was robbed of the Best Picture prize. A movie that stood ahead of its time then feels like a monument today at the end of the decade.

Allison Shoemaker (@allisonshoe), Consequence of Sound / The A.V. Club / RogerEbert.com

I imagine this will be a very popular answer, but to hell with it: It’s hard to imagine a more 2010s film than David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Network,” and that was true before Facebook’s most recent spate of bad press kicked up in earnest. It might be even more relevant and resonant today. That wonderful Rooney Mara scene (“It’ll be because you’re an asshole”) pops up in my social media feeds at least once a week.

When the Facebook company rebranded (as F A C E B O O K) a few weeks back, everyone seemed to have their Justin-Timberlake-as-Sean-Parker jokes ready to go. We’re still talking about connectedness, honesty, the ownership of ideas, the entitlement of petulant white dudes, and any number of other themes and ideas the film touches on, and it still adds to that conversation. It’s also, one assumes, largely responsible for the endless parade of ominous pop covers in movie trailers we’re dealing with today, so there’s that, too.

‘The Social Network’ Is the Movie that Defined its Decade

We asked our panel of critics to name the film that defined this decade, and David Fincher's Facebook movie was the most popular response.