THE SOCIAL RECKONING Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Stars: Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Bill Burr, Betty Gilpin, Billy Magnussen.
Aaron Sorkin won an Oscar for writing the 2010 drama The Social Network, which detailed the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg while at Harvard and his subsequent legal stoush with the Winklevoss twins who claimed that he stole their idea. Sixteen years on Sorkin turns the blowtorch onto both Zuckerberg and Facebook and takes them to task for the damage they have caused through the spreading of misinformation. This was particularly obvious during the years of the COVID pandemic and its dissemination of anti-vaccine propaganda, the lies about the 2020 election being stolen, and Sorkin explicitly shows how this led to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
The film is a sequel of sorts but works as a stand-alone drama. The Social Reckoning is based on a series of articles written by Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz which revealed how the Facebook algorithms were being deliberately manipulated. 64% of people who joined extremist groups were sent there by Facebook algorithms. Horwitz was the technology reporter for the WSJ even though he was practically a luddite. He had some concerns about Facebook but was uncertain how to locate an employee who was willing to talk to him. In desperation he reached out to Facebook employees via email, hoping to be able to find someone to pass on information.
The ultimate source for the revelations he published was Frances Haughen who worked with the civil integrity unit of Facebook. While watching a viral video of a woman arguing with police who were trying to arrest her, she became increasingly concerned about the manipulation of Facebook algorithms and how it seemed to be inspiring greater violence in the US. She became alarmed with what she perceived as the radicalisation of users. She passed on information to Horowitz on the condition of anonymity, but eventually she agreed to testify before a Senate hearing on Facebook. Haughen became a whistleblower and exposed its dirty secrets.
There have been a number of films about whistleblowers – key amongst them are Silkwood, with Meryl Streep as a worker who exposed safety violations within a plutonium processing plant; The Insider with Russell Crowe as a research chemist who exposed secrets about big tobacco companies on 60 Minutes; Snowden, with Joseph Gordon Levitt as a soldier who leaked secrets about the NSA’s surveillance techniques.
The film unfolds in two timelines and moves back and forth between the two. In 2019 Horwitz begins investigating Facebook, liaising with Haughen and researching his articles. In 2021 Zuckerberg is undergoing crisis counselling sessions to prepare him for the upcoming senate hearings.
I get the impression that Sorkin doesn’t think much of either Zuckerberg and the social media giant, and he makes his feelings pretty obvious with this takedown. Sorkin paints a rather negative portrait of Zuckerberg here. As played by Jeremy Strong (from tv series Succession and who also played Roy Cohn in the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice), Zuckerberg comes across as supercilious, almost robotic in demeanour and emotionless, possibly somewhere on the spectrum. Strong is chillingly controlled here and nails Zuckerberg’s mannerisms. He makes Zuckerberg seem almost like a Bond villain. His performance is a marked contrast to how Jesse Eisenberg brought an innate likeability to the character in The Social Network.
Mikey Madison (who won an Oscar for her energetic performance in Anora) is a bit more laid back and restrained as Haughen, but she brings passion and intelligence to the role, and she is a sympathetic heroine. Jeremy Allen White (from tv series The Bear, etc) is solid as the dogged Horwitz.
This is also something of a drama about an investigative reporter uncovering nasty secrets and exposing corruption, but somehow those scenes set within the editorial offices of the Wall Street Journal lack the insight and urgency of similar scenes that were a hallmark of the Oscar winning drama All The President’s Men. Although The Social Reckoning is based on actual events Sorkin has taken liberties for dramatic effect. The film also tackles the changing face of journalism as it moves away from print media to click bait and social media. A startling statistic at the end of the film informs us that 43% of Americans still get their news from Facebook.
The film features Sorkin’s trademark fast delivery of dialogue, often overlapping dialogue, and the rapid delivery of very technical details that fly past the audience. Sorkin has also directed the film, but his handling of the material lacks the gravitas and dramatic impetus that David Fincher brought to The Social Network. However, Sorkin has included dramatic footage of the January 6 riots to emphasis the damage that Facebook and Zuckerberg’s deliberate policies have caused.
This is a visually bland drama, even though it has been shot in almost documentary fashion by Jeff Cronenweth, who also shot The Social Network. There is some great production design from Jon Hutman (Unbroken, etc), which recreates the Facebook offices, the interiors of the Wall Street Journal and Horwitz’s hotel room.
Although The Social Reckoning is an important and contemporary film and it serves as a warning about the dangers of social media, it’s a bit pedestrian as Sorkin’s direction undercuts the potent drama. While it is clear he is passionate about this subject, he lacks Fincher’s sense of pacing and dramatic eye and this film is not as strong or as engaging as its predecessor.
★★★
