The Social Reckoning

By Joanna Langfield

Aaron Sorkin’s follow up to The Social Network is not just flying the flag for great journalism, it’s also a lusty annihilation of the Facebook empire, proclaimed loudly enough to rattle even the people who can’t handle the truth.

Based on the true story of the Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz and whistleblower Frances Haugen, this could have been simply a certain kind of thriller, one in which the intrepid investigator and wary insider take down the massive empire wreaking havoc. And, while there is that here, what very much feels like the real purpose of the film is to pick up where the Pulitzer Prize winning story left off. And while there’s not much new information shared, what Sorkin insists we remember is horrifying enough.

Besides a somewhat curious playing around with the timeline, the movie never tries to go for the “big swings” others are offering. Sorkin keeps the story pounding along, revealing the true ambitions of the site that started with supposedly benign goals. Mark Zuckerberg, as portrayed by an almost monolithic Jeremy Strong, has a lot going on behind those shark eyes. His unwavering commitment to free speech is more than a business model. It offers some very frightening users access and influence anyone using the platforms should be aware of.

The more traditional scenes involving the reporting of it all are fine (Jeremy Allen White and Mikey Madison do nicely) but the heart pounding energy comes from the corporate nastiness behind the “let’s make friends” façade of the Facebook world. I wish Sorkin had not made the (few) women in the film so, as he describes, mean and not much else. But empathy is not his goal. This is a filmmaker who is clearly seething and wants us all to reckon with our reliance and support of these anything but benign platforms.

I still really do like the birthday reminders though.