Review: "The Social Reckoning"
The Social Reckoning is this year’s All the President’s Men (1976). That’s quite a claim, but both movies are remarkable true stories of relentless investigative reporters and courageous whistleblowers on a mission to save freedom and democracy and bring powerful men to justice.
Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men was about Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal and the two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) who brought down a sitting president with the help of a mysterious source dubbed “Deep Throat.” The movie, based on their best-selling book, was and is a classic.
The Social Reckoning is a similar story. it’s the follow-up film to Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant 2010 film The Social Network about a young Mark Zuckerberg, the creation of Facebook and the birth of social media.
The Social Reckoning picks up the story 16 years later, tracing what Facebook had become—a real life horror show about a monstrous technological breakthrough slowly being misused and corrupted by the people who created it.
The movie opens with a young woman being pulled over by a male and female police officer in the middle of the night. Her paranoid rambling and hysteria play like a scene right out of any version of The Body Snatchers. It’s terrifying. And it sets the wheels in motion for a story about Facebook and what they did to contribute to her disturbing meltdown.
It’s a dark tale about a social media giant essentially monetizing misinformation. We learn that Zuckerberg’s empire had begun to run off the tracks with regard to the fact checking of content with regard to personal posts and political ads. They discovered along the way that hate is an algorithm that can drive business and increase profits.
One dedicated young employee, Frances Haugen (played by Mikey Madison) doesn’t like what she sees and begins to reach out to a Wall Street Journal investigative reporter named Jeff Horwitz (played by Jeremy Allen White). Horwitz is a formidable journalist who is clueless when it comes to social media. He understands enough to know that something behind the scenes at Facebook is terribly wrong. Frances patiently educates and guides him.
What follows is high-stakes drama as Frances and Jeff form a partnership and attempt to topple a giant. Writer/director Aaron Sorkin ramps up the intensity of the story by interjecting and crosscutting to a dark, secret training session in which Zuckerberg (played by Jeremy Strong) is being prepped to face attacks from both politicians and the media.
He faces a firing squad of preparatory questions and accusations from his staff including a former friend and colleague, Charlie Garrigan (played by Bill Burr) who knows how to get under Zuckerberg’s skin and penetrate his emotional firewalls.
There are many reasons to see The Social Reckoning. First, there is the enormity and importance of the story. It’s a movie everyone should see since many of us are unaware of the details.
In strictly cinematic terms, it’s a movie worth seeing based on the brilliance of the script and the power of the performances. At the top of the list is Mikey Madison who won an Oscar back in 2024 for her bold, controversial starring role as a Russian stripper in Anora. She proves her incredible acting ability here for anyone who ever had any doubts.
Interesting, she adds a steamy touch to the story when she arrives at Jeff’s hotel room one night disguised as a call girl, in order to avoid detection from surveillance cameras. Her appearance is a mild flashback to her Anora character, and obviously added some sexual tension to the story. The romance never develops in a story that is strictly business.
Jeremy Allen White dials in another memorable performance and Jeremy Strong’s method acting approach to Mark Zuckerberg is riveting. Bill Burr is remarkably intense as Zuckerberg’s cast-off friend, serving up some in-your-face, heated exchanges that rattle the walls of the mock TV studio set.
Sorkin pulls out the stops in the movie’s climax bringing the storyline to a crashing collision with the events of January 6th, recreated in shocking detail. It’s a double fisted finale.
The Social Reckoning is a must-see movie. The time to see it is now. You’ll understand all the critical praise and upcoming Oscar nominations possibly including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director and maybe even Best Picture.
The Social Reckoning is rated R.
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