To the surprise of very few moviegoers, it’s sequel time at the ole’ multiplex. Ah, but this film is fairly unique, since it’s based on actual events. That’s happened with biographies, going back to THE JOLSON STORY and JOLSON SINGS AGAIN (almost the best sequel title after BREAKIN’ 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO), but this is closer to THE GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL and DAY OF THE GUN, in that it’s a “follow-up”, a “what happened later” exploration. And while those movies spanned ten years, there are sixteen years between these two. And the principals are still in the news. None of the cast members of the 2010 film return, but its Oscar-winning screenwriter is back, and sitting in the director’s chair. After THE SOCIAL NETWORK comes THE SOCIAL RECKONING.
The film’s main story is structured almost as a novel, but one that has us “flipping back the pages”. The prologue is the kind of uncomfortable police interaction so common on streaming video websites, as two officers encounter an angry, possibly inebriated young woman (Portia Doubleday) waiting for a tow service for her stalled vehicle along a dark, rain-soaked highway. Next chapter: It’s 2029, and we meet a data engineer named Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), who doesn’t get a chance to ask a question or voice her concerns (on several index cards) during a big tri-monthly staff meeting. On the way back to her desk, she brings her inquiry up to a supervisor, who quickly dismisses her. Around the same time, East Coast reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) arrives at the West Coast offices of the Wall Street Journal, where Bureau chief Kris (Betty Gilpin) tells him that he’ll be covering the high-tech world (but the guy can’t use a map app to get him there on time). Later, Jeff and his aides send out some email “feelers’ about Facebook “worries”. The “bait” is taken by Frances, who meets with Jeff in a public park. She is alarmed about how the site’s algorithms direct users to several radical “outrage’ groups in order to increase their site usage (some folks stay on for over nine hours a day). Jeff needs this explained, and he still begs her for more evidence, but the young woman is jittery and hesitant. It’s the first of many clandestine meetings. The timeline shifts to 2021 during the preparations for testimony before a Senate subcommittee. In a huge, brightly lit, sterile room, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) is being coached by a media consultant named Maya (Wunmi Mosaku). She’s also brought in a former investor, now critic, Charlie Garrigan (Bill Burr), to throw a few “curveballs” at the stoic, prickly billionaire. The film continues to skip and backtrack during those years to highlight Jeff’s research, Frances becoming bolder, and the often volatile policies at the home of the popular website, before everything collides on a fateful January day prior to a major congressional hearing.
Well, I should begin with the casting choice that has been at the forefront of the film’s media blitz. When Jesse Eisenberg declined to return after scoring an Oscar nom for his last turn as Zuckerberg (and passing on a huge paycheck), Strong stepped up, since he’s played versions of real people before (his Roy Cohn in THE APPRENTICE is superb). In his take, the older Mark is a mix of socially awkward, stiff-postured, prickly, and defiant, with a “my way or the highway” bluster and superiority (he has no time for lessers). And yeah, we get that “Data’s other brother” vibe (something for the Trekkers). Sure, Strong’s doing a bit of parody, but he draws us in, becoming the focus of any scene. The other casting “coup” may be the big-screen return of 2025 Oscar winner Madison, playing someone with little in common with her ANORA. However, Frances wins us over, despite her many quirks (those “warmers”) and impatience (I flashed to Jimmy Fallon on SNL as IT guy, “Moooove!”). Aside from the fear-based reluctance, Frances feels a loyalty to the company, much like to a person who had good intentions but has wildly strayed from them. This makes her burst out of her paranoia bonds more powerful as she “puts herself out there”. There’s also a nice chemistry, but not romantic, between her and White as the “tech fumbler”, who is also playing “catch up”. Still, there’s that reporter’s dogged determination to get the story, which propels him and endears us to him, even as he pushes Frances and his pair of overworked interns. Kudos to stand-up comic, now film actor, Burr, who is a great verbal sparring partner for Strong. Plus, there are great supporting turns by Mosaku as the very patient (she’s tested) “media coach, Gilpin as the demanding, but still compassionate editor, Billy Magnussen as the sneering FB “tech-bro”, and Doubleday as the product of online “radicalization”.
That writer-turned-director is Oscar-winner Aaron Sorkin, who doesn’t quite have the same visual flair as David Fincher, but crafts the scenes around his “rat-a-tat,” sometimes “too smart,” dialogue. Iconic Golden Age filmmaker Frank Capra is referenced here, though many of the Frances and Jeff exchanges remind us of Howard Hawks and his newspaper classic comedy HIS GIRL FRIDAY (again, minus the “lovey-dubby”). But, like Capra and Hawks, Sorkin has passion in many scenes that recreate events that were watched with horror on our “devices”. And there are several plot contrivances (Frances has dinner next to a family discussing online bullies), along with a final scene “call back” that will induce a “c’mon” jolt, but it’s refreshing to see a talent using his art to comment and perhaps “sway” , much like many of the films of Oliver Stone. This helps to make the wild “re-imaginings” more palatable. Sorkin does try for some visuals that highlight character, like the warm, cozy wood and brick apartment of Sarah and the frigid, cool blues and wide expanses of Mark’s “workspace” (some could be the HQ of a Bond mastermind). Plus, Sorkin conveys the rainy Northwest in constant Fall mode, while making Puerto Rico a non-stop party (Canada stands in for both). But the main delight of the film is that whip-cracking script, often peppered with almost too many “factoids” (it’s his “calling card”), and the solid acting ensemble that make THE SOCIAL RECKONING worthy of a theatre night rather than a download.
3 Out of 4
THE SOCIAL RECKONING is now playing in theatres
