16 years after The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin says Mark Zuckerberg and co. still don’t know the damage they’ve done in The Social Reckoning.
It’s crazy to think how omnipresent Facebook still is in society. TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, and even Snapchat feel like the more popular social media sites today. Meanwhile, people using Facebook Marketplace is heard about more than anyone poking each other on the main site. Yet families, friends, co-workers, and others have all uttered the same phrase: “I read it on Facebook.”
According to Frances Haugen, that statement has done quite a bit of damage to American minds over the last 10 years. She would know, being a former product manager for Facebook who leaked thousands of documents to The Wall Street Journal in 2021. This turned into a shocking expose revealing that the social media site started in a college dorm is responsible for everything from middle school cyberbullying to alt-right extremist groups ballooning in size. But who’s to blame: the people posting or the people who let the posts go live?
Aaron Sorkin has a pretty clear answer with The Social Reckoning. But let’s step back; it’s 2019 and Frances (Mikey Madison) is a socially-awkward cog in the gargantuan Facebook machine. Though she believes in the company’s message of connecting people, she also sees the company responsible for promoting engagement with posts that are inaccurate, offensive, and amplifying the worst of human behavior. That’s when she gets a message from Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), who’s new to the tech world but has enough experience covering politics to know overreaching authority when he sees it. Jeff and Frances’ work over the ensuing two years builds such a damning narrative that it reaches the ears of Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong), who is tweaking his awkward social demeanor just enough to seem trustworthy to a government hearing.
Writing’s on the wall.
Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
Sorkin takes both the writer and director roles this time around. Don’t worry though, he’s not trying to mimic David Fincher. Sorkin isn’t the most stylish filmmaker, keeping simple shot-reverse shot formatting when his characters are talking. His greatest skill as a director is orchestrating the right timing and energy out of his actors to deliver his motor-mouthed dialogue. However, you’d think a story as impactful as The Social Reckoning would require a director with some visual punch to make the revelations feel as shocking as they sound. Without that, you have something that looks like a TV movie of the week doing little else to make itself memorable.
Thankfully, Sorkin’s pen is still quite mighty. The algorithm-based exposition is never too dense for the Oscar-winner to deliver in his trademark wit and he still has a soft spot for awkward nerds trying to solve problems. Sorkin does let the information of the movie be more prominent than any distinct character development, which makes The Social Reckoning feel closer to a documentary (or even a lecture) than a drama. The movie at least has a solid-enough pace to pack everything it wants to say into its sub-two hour runtime. But just before the movie crosses the finish line, Sorkin tries to end the movie on a “happy” note. Given everything we learn about how responsible Facebook is for some major historical blunders and how complicit they were in it happening, the “victory” Sorkin gives his two leads rings a bit hollow.
With friends like these.
Speaking of hollow, let’s talk about Strong’s Zuckerberg. In The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg did an excellent job portraying the Facebook founder as a driven, vindictive, but still emotionally fragile person who didn’t see the cost of his own success until it was too late. In The Social Reckoning, Strong portrays Zuckerberg like a supervillain with little to no depth. Maybe it’s because Zuck is a supporting character here, but Strong doesn’t have any room to do more with a modern-day Zuckerberg. Instead he just stands behinds desks with stoic concern and occasional bursts of anger. It doesn’t seem too off-base to portray Zuckerberg today as the evil emperor of tech bros, but Sorkin needs to give one of the most significant CEOs in human history more characterization than how hard he nods during questioning.
Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
The good news is that Sorkin doesn’t waste the rest of the cast, especially his two leads. Madison is fantastic at both embodying the social awkwardness of her character and running through Sorkin’s hefty dialogue. After displaying such a confident screen presence in Anora, it’s nice to know the Oscar-winner can play the other end of the spectrum. White also does well with the nervous energy of an intrepid reporter. There’s a focus and reliability to his performance that’s reminiscent of a young Dustin Hoffman in All the President’s Men. Like with other Sorkin projects, the supporting cast is peppered with quality talent: Betty Gilpin has fun moments as the Journal‘s grumpy editor, Wunmi Mosaku makes a nice foil for Strong’s emotional void, and even Bill Burr makes the most of a monologue Facebook’s faulty policy on content moderation.
The bottom line.
It’s a shame that The Social Reckoning is as safe as it is. When dealing with such a timely topic in a way that rightfully challenges one of the most powerful people in the world, you need a presentation that shows (or in the case of Sorkin, tells) in a more impactful way. The Social Reckoning is a well-made but underwhelming retelling of a wide-reaching internet plague due to bland direction and lack of emotional resonance. Sorkin understands the facts and figures of “The Facebook Files,” but someone else needs to drive home the emotional point of how so many lose themselves behind a keyboard.
The Social Reckoning is now playing in theaters everywhere. Watch the trailer below.
Images courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing.
REVIEW RATING
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The Social Reckoning - 6/10
6/10
