A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Social Reckoning”. (2026, 2.5*, 15).
One of the films recently previewed that I have been looking forward to, The Social Reckoning speeds us ten years forward from the 2009 ending of The Social Network and finds Facebook a long way from “the dorm room”. A title proclaims that Facebook now has 2.8 billion users and is valued at $1 trillion. With Aaron Sorkin at the helm of both the writing and the directing, it should have been great… but…
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Based on a true story, politics reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) arrives in the San Francisco office of the Wall Street Journal to run an investigation into Facebook. After trawling for contacts in a ‘weak link’ department he lucks onto Frances Haugen (Oscar-winner Mikey Madison) who becomes the only crack in a well-secured castle.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC website: “Strong language.”)
Talent:
Starring: Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Betty Gilpin, Anna Lambe, Billy Magnussen, Wunmi Mosaku, Patrick Fischler, Bill Burr, Portia Doubleday, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Nelson Franklin.
Directed by: Aaron Sorkin.
Written by: Aaron Sorkin.
Running Time: 1h 52m.
Review:
Positives:
- The story has every making of a classic to rival All the President’s Men. Facebook, now Meta, has become the dominant force in how a huge percentage of the world’s population gets its news and information… and, as we know, with great power comes great responsibility. The film maintains interest by zipping backwards and forwards between 2019 – the first meetings of Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) and Haugen (Mikey Madison) – and 2021 and a ‘humanising’ practice session that Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) is having with his team prior to an important Senate hearing. The date in 2021 on which he is having this rehearsal is pretty significant.
- Mikey Madison comes out really well from this film – her acting is on point and up to par. The way she spits out her words – “64% of people who joined extremist groups were sent there by Facebook recommendation” – is compelling. Jeremy Strong is also excellent, at least for most of the film, as Zuckerberg, who appears skin-crawlingly abrasive and unpleasant: as an audience member for a corporate presentation, I have notes.
- Given this is an Aaron Sorkin film, it is very wordy and many of those words are good. There are a few chuckles raised at some of the dialogue. For example, Horwitz displays his ineptitude in tech by being unable to work out how to use the GPS navigation in his hire car. And some of the lines really sizzle: “Nature abhors a vacuum. Facebook abhors friction. Don’t be friction,” Frances is warned.
- I liked the ‘Prologue’ sequence – “White Girl Wasted”. This is about a Facebook video post concerning an obnoxious, apparently drunk, white woman being questioned by two black cops. It’s an intriguing sequence in its own right and it does slot into the film well a bit later.
Negatives:
- Despite all the good words, there are sections of this film that made me slightly cringe in their contrived clunkiness. Some of the wordy exchanges seemed forced and false: one about Frank Capra movies for example; Frances intervening in a dinner conversation about a schoolgirl being bullied; a tie-choosing assistant dumping a pile of ties on the corridor floor when a crisis occurs. Clunkiest of all for me was a hugely telling shot of a basketball player fist-pumping the air with delight and Frances telling Horwitz “I don’t think I’ve ever been that happy”. You just KNOW that that situation is going to be returned to, and… sure enough… ugh! Sorkin also wrote the ‘prequel’ to this film, “The Social Network”, but what would the director David Fincher have done with this script? Something very different I think.
- I have generally loved Jeremy Allen White in everything he’s done, but I’m afraid I didn’t love him in this film. He seems to be trying to emulate the ‘little puppy dog lost’ of Dustin Hoffman’s Carl Bernstein and not quite pulling it off.
- Why do filmmakers think we need chapter markers in movies? These seem particularly redundant given the fractured timeline of the film.
Summary Thoughts:
I started off this review with a figure of 3 stars in my head, but the more I wrote the more I think it’s a flawed film. The subject matter is great and interesting, but I think it is an opportunity that has been missed.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfHEZw7Xw_c.
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