Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning” is not a sequel to “The Social Network.”
It’s an entirely different movie about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. So let’s get that off the table.
The only character held over from the first movie is Zuckerberg, now played by Jeremy Strong as oddly autistic-seeming and robot like.
It’s a real life story about a Facebook whistle blower named Frances Haugen — played by Oscar winner Mikey Madison — and a Wall Street Journal reporter named Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White).
The core of the story is that with Haugen’s help, Horwitz published something called The Facebook Papers in 2021. The gist of that report was that Facebook had tossed out all controls over ethics and civic responsibility just to make money. Hate groups had infiltrated all aspects of the platform.
It was brave of Haugen to step up, and Horwitz produced a compelling report. One question now is, Does anyone care? That’s unclear.
“The Social Reckoning” has so far registered a rather low 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. I see the problem. I liked the film as a procedural, but it’s lacing a compelling purpose. There’s no “gotcha” moment, like in “Spotlight.” Sorkin knows that, too, so in the final quarter of the film he tries to lay responsibility for the January 6th Capitol riots on Zuckerberg.
Suddenly, the most striking part of the film is watching footage of the insurrection. Prior to that, the movie is mostly Jeremy Allen White and Mikey Madison in a two hander, talking about the ills of a social platform. Can we handle the truth? Yes, actually.
When “The Social Network” was released, there was a lot of hope it would win the Oscar and make a lot of money. Domestically, it failed to make $100 million and the Oscars went elsewhere. The movie was well made, but there was a problem: who really cared about these dorky kids screwing each other over for money? The answer was: not a lot.
Facebook may have been a vehicle for the January 6th rioters. But so, too, was Twitter, and other social media sites. However, the real culprit was Donald Trump, whose name is never uttered in this movie. He encouraged the rioters, worked them into a frenzy, and then did nothing to stop them from violently breaking into the Capitol.
The two Jeremy’s and Mikey Madison are all fine, capable actors but there’s not much here for them to bite into acting wise. I did really like Betty Gilpin as the socially awkward WSJ editor, and Billy Magnussen twirling his mustache — so to speak — as Zuck’s piece of work comms director.
“The Social Reckoning” will come and go now, paving the way in December for the ChatGPT movie, “Artificial.” That will be confusing since Andrew Garfield was in “The Social Network” and is now playing Sam Altman. Do any of the movies matter, in the long run? They’re focused on these evil, no conscience billionaires without looking at the effect of their creations on real people. They’re like “Norma Rae” if it had been about the factory owners. There’s just no sympathy for these devils.
