‘The Social Reckoning’ fails on every level

“The Social Reckoning” is billed as a sequel to “The Social Network,” the 2010 masterpiece written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, starring Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook (now Meta) CEO Mark Zuckerberg – a man who built a massive connection network despite having no idea how to connect with real, actual people.

This time around, Fincher is out, leaving Sorkin to write and direct the film on his own. And “The Social Reckoning,” for all it shares in common with “The Social Network,” doesn’t quite feel like a sequel. Not just because Zuckerberg (now played by Jeremy Strong) barely factors into the film, and not just because it’s a far more straightforward journalism movie than the almost Shakespearean drama of “The Social Network.” It doesn’t feel like a sequel because, like the majority of Sorkin directed projects, it lacks the verve of the films that come out of his creative partnerships.

This is Sorkin’s fourth feature directorial effort since 2017’s “Molly’s Game.” And while not all of those efforts are bad, they have all failed to sing in the way his films do when another director takes the lead (Danny Boyle, Rob Reiner, Bennett Miller, etc.). But “The Social Reckoning” doesn’t just fail in the fact that it’s ill-directed – that, based on previous examples, we could have predicted. This time, the whole endeavor falls flat, from the screenplay, to the casting, to the hollow sense of hope.

“The Social Reckoning” dramatizes the reporting of the Facebook Files, a series of published articles in the Wall Street Journal, and focuses mostly on reporter Jeff Horwitz’s (Jeremy Allen White) relationship with whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison). Dismayed by how easily a friend of hers became radicalized online – the film opens with said friend drunkenly yelling at fairly benign police officers for harassing her “because she’s white” – Frances tries to figure out what happened and comes to a horrifying conclusion: the Facebook algorithm is driving people towards radicalization.

This was just the start of Horwitz’s deep dive into Facebook (the articles were filled with evidence that Facebook knew it was causing harm to people, but persisted in the name of profit). And the spectre of Zuckerberg’s evils looms over the film – that is, until he actually shows up on screen. If you’ve ever seen Zuckerberg talk, he does seem a bit like a robot attempting to be human. But Strong’s commitment to the automaton bit makes everything feel a bit more cartoonish than you might want for your very serious journalism movie. He looks ridiculous, and the whole thing often feels like bad Zuckerberg cosplay.

Strong works best when he’s playing off Bill Burr (one of the only actors in the film who finds the right tone), playing a former friend of Zuckerberg’s and Facebook investor who spars with Mark over free speech. At one point, the two battle it out over whether Facebook should fact check political ads or not, and it’s the only time the movie feels like something close to a good Sorkin film – moralizing, sure, but performed with such vigor and passion, it’s hard not to be affected by his belief.

Read Sammie’s full list on Rough Draft