Armond White‘s contrarian rep will obviously be compromised if he approves of The Social Network. I’m guessing he’ll write a pan and thereby wreck the current 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, based on 14 reviews thus far. That’s not counting another rave from Newark Star Ledger critic Stephen J. Whitty, and an especially well-written one by Some Came Running‘s Glenn Kenny.

The Social Network “does throw you into the insular but seminal Ivy League world of its characters pretty much head-first,” Kenny notes, “and then zooms along, and if you don’t get into the swim of it right away, you may get lost. You may think that the film is asking you to know what a ‘final club’ is. It isn’t. It’s just asking you on for the ride. Once you’re in and you stop worrying, it doesn’t matter.

“And then, once you understand what screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher are doing with the structure — it’s not as straightforward as it initially seems, chronology-wise — you’re ready for it, and it’s a pleasure to get it. And to switch metaphors, and worse yet, to resort to a really hoary one, it’s like being in a supercharged Lamborghini on a clear road with an expert driver who just opens the thing up, and the shift to the high gear is the smoothest rush ever. Nice.”