The first reactions to The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to The Social Network, are circulating on social media. Full critical reviews for the film don’t drop until tomorrow. Still, the first reactions to Sorkin’s slow-burning legal drama are mixed, with some calling it an engaging experience featuring riveting performances from the lead trio: Mark Strong, Mickey Madison, and Jeremy Allen White, while others say it’s a weak showing from Sorkin, with historical inaccuracies galore.
The Whistleblower and the Newsroom
Sorkin, who wrote the original film, returned to write and direct The Social Reckoning, which is more of a companion film than a direct sequel. The film stars Mikey Madison (Anora) as whistleblower Frances Haugen; Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) as Jeff Horowitz, the Wall Street Journal reporter who wrote a series of articles exposing troubling revelations about Facebook’s inner workings and global impact; and Jeremy Strong (Succession) as Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO.
Here’s the official logline for The Social Reckoning:
“A companion piece to the hit film, The Social Network, Sorkin’s original screenplay tells the true story of how Frances Haugen (Madison), a young Facebook engineer, enlists the help of Jeff Horwitz (White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, to go on a dangerous journey that ends up blowing the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets.”
Critics React: “Damning With Faint Praise”
As you can see in the X post above, our own critic, Chris Bumbray, saw it last night and enjoyed it – with some serious reservations. The review drops tomorrow morning at 9am ET.
Cole Groth of FandomWire said, “THE SOCIAL RECKONING: Aaron Sorkin’s terrible direction is somehow better than his awful script in this obnoxious, pathetic, banal “sequel” to one of the 21st Century’s best movies. You know the craziest part? The word “Trump” is not said one single time. Hilariously bad.”
Meanwhile, Tom Chatalbash of FilmSpeak wrote, “#TheSocialReckoning is a timely and compelling companion piece to The Social Network, sharing more DNA with Sorkin’s The Newsroom than its predecessor however. Madison and Allen White are quietly magnetic, Burr and Gilpin seem born and bred to deliver Sorkin dialogue and Strong is a ferocious force as Zuckerberg, gliding past sheer imitation with ease. Sorkin’s dialogue still crackles and tears like razor blades, especially as this investigative story reaches its fever pitch delving into Facebook’s murky practices, but it’s far from his best work on the page. His rather flat direction and the film’s listless pacing nearly blunt its overall emotional impact, but this is a story that not only deserves to be told, but is an engrossing investigative journalism film that still manages to land the plane despite some turbulence. It’s a good, just not great film that made me angry, but it should’ve made me furious. Full review Wednesday!”
Alex B. of FirstShowing.net shared their mixed feelings about the film, saying, “The Social Reckoning – Cinematically uninteresting, script is painfully okay. Definitely no “reckoning” found in here. But I do appreciate how clearly it explains & shows how Facebook directly contributes to mass brainwashing/radicalizing no matter what they claim in public.”
Joey Magidson of AwardsRadar weighed in by saying, “The Social Reckoning, while not the masterpiece that was The Social Network, still fully engaged me. A slow and steady build leads to a climax that suitably got my blood boiling. Hardly subtle, it works well as a companion piece to Aaron Sorkin’s prior look at Facebook.”
Finally, Matt Neglia of Next Best Picture wrote, The Social Network “is an old-fashioned investigative journalism drama from Aaron Sorkin examining the dangers and manipulations of Facebook, as they prioritize profits over people at an alarming rate of growth. As usual with Sorkin, it moves at a good pace, plowing through facts and figures at a mile a minute while delivering colorful dialogue that occasionally makes you laugh, though mostly because you know there’s no world in which actual human beings, either online or in real life, would ever talk like this. Thankfully, the film doesn’t simply recycle what worked in the far superior 2010 film (Alexandre Desplat’s score is entirely original), allowing it to stand on its own. That doesn’t mean the comparisons will stop but the far greater problem is that what’s here is neither particularly interesting nor revelatory. The performances range from fine to mediocre, while the material feels like it’s arriving five years too late. An eye-rolling film with good intentions but will probably not receive many likes or re-shares.”
There are plenty of other reactions if you search “The Social Reckoning” on social media outlets, though most of what I’ve found is damning with faint praise. I’ve struggled with social media for years. Part of me wants nothing to do with it, yet as a journalist, if I don’t engage, my writing reaches only a specific audience. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Ugh!
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