When Aaron Sorkin wrote 2010’s The Social Network, Barack Obama was President, Donald Trump was starring in Season 7 of The Apprentice, and social media was still relatively new, alight with the belief that connecting people online would improve society. Sixteen years later, well… We get The Social Reckoning, with Sorkin stepping up to write as well as direct a blistering movie pointing out the corrosive effects of Facebook on society, based on the true story of whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), who stepped forward to reveal secrets Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) would prefer not be revealed.
The Social Reckoning takes place largely between 2019 and 2021 (yes, the pandemic is a plot point), as Facebook data scientist/smartypants Frances uncovers the ways Facebook is manipulating its users through the content they see in their feeds. When she tries to raise her concerns to her higher-ups, she’s told to let it go, and so when she gets a LinkedIn message from Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) looking for dirt on her employers, she begins the process of feeding him information.
Those who have closely followed the news around Facebook over the past few years may not find many of the revelations featured shocking, especially the knowledge that the platform’s desperation for engagement has helped drive its users down some dark paths. However, the platform still remains painfully prevalent today, especially for older adults, making this movie feel all the more essential. It’s one thing to know that rage bait posted online will get more attention than posts about flowers and sunsets. It’s another thing to know that the platform is deliberately encouraging that, damn the real effect it might have on people.
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Representing those lost souls radicalized by political groups online is Portia Doubleday (perhaps best known as a series regular on Mr. Robot), playing a young white woman who only a few years ago was a passionate progressive. After enough time on Facebook, though, she’s spouting racist invective and taking a trip to the Capitol building on January 6th, 2021. It’s this character who woke Frances up to Facebook’s impact on its users, though Sorkin scatters in plenty of other examples of social media’s evils, from pre-teen bullying to COVID disinformation.
To this movie’s version of Mark Zuckerberg, though, these issues aren’t good enough reason for Facebook to engage in deeper moderation, or other potential harm-reduction practices like fact-checking political ads. This gets discussed in depth during scenes in which Mark is rehearsing for an upcoming congressional appearance, getting grilled by a crisis PR representative played by Wunmi Mosaku and a former ally of Mark’s, played by Bill Burr in full Bill Burr mode. This framework allows the film to regurgitate an impressive amount of information, which nicely complements Frances’ own explanations to Jeff (a self-professed idiot when it comes to technology) about the disturbing material she’s uncovered.
The Social Reckoning is not, technically, a sequel to The Social Network (call it that and you might get an email from the Sony PR team). And despite sharing a writer, they are indeed very different projects. The biggest difference is that the 2010 film, directed by David Fincher, was about the creation of a social media platform, but it really wasn’t that interested in the actual use of the social media platform. Instead, the behind-the-scenes business deals and backstabbings were its focus.
The Social Reckoning (Sony)
Reckoning, meanwhile, is all about the algorithms and their impact — explained with remarkable coherence by the script. Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, for what it’s worth, isn’t quite as effective in dramatizing its own technology-focused story — Sorkin does have a real knack for making complex topics like this palatable on screen. And in this case, these topics are incredibly important.
Of course, Sorkin can’t resist some casual sexism in the guise of intended comedy (yes, it’s hilarious to refer to your female intern as “Girl Intern,” not to mention rejecting the entire concept of “mansplaining” with a presumably clever quip). He does, however, show some restraint in terms of recycling his own dialogue, a past issue: There’s no blatant reusing of barely-funny-the-first-time jokes like “one egg is an oeuf,” thankfully.
Also thankfully, he’s got a cast that can handle the complexities of his dialogue: Those who watched the FX series Better Things were aware well before 2024’s Anora that Mikey Madison is a gifted actress, and her work here only continues to prove that. Her take on Frances brings out the character’s sharper edges and her social insecurities, making her one of Sorkin’s more well-rounded female characters to date. (Especially compared to his most recent writing/directing effort, Being the Ricardos.)
Jeremy Allen White ends up being more of a cypher by comparison, but still delivers Jeff’s snarkier lines with plenty of snap. As for the other Jeremy in the cast, Strong’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg is incredibly locked-in, by the method actor’s design. There’s no effort to draw us into his point of view (the way The Social Network sometimes did), leaving the viewer to draw a lot from his face twitches and deliberate blinks. Fortunately, Strong is such a deliberate actor that a lot does still get communicated that way. His blank stare ends up being a true reflection of a broken world, one that remains haunting well after the film ends.
Say this for Facebook’s claims that it does not censor content: There is a Social Reckoning Facebook page, and its posts do show some signs of engagement, with a few posts even getting over a hundred likes. That said, after watching this movie, and really taking in the full knowledge of how social media manipulates us all, the urge to go outside and watch the sun set might be hard to ignore. You might not even post a photo afterwards.
The Social Reckoning updates its status to “in theaters” on October 9th. Check out the latest trailer below.
