In the era of Trump 2.0, the tech titans once championed by the liberal left have been ostracized for the appearance of embracing or bending the knee to President Donald Trump after the 2024 election, whether it be Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or — in this particular case — Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and the CEO of Meta, was famously depicted on the big screen in the 2010 film, “The Social Network,” which followed his creation of the culture-reshaping social media platform from his Harvard dorm room and the lawsuits that ensued after.
Directed by David Fincher, written by Aaron Sorkin and with dead ringer Jesse Eisenberg playing Zuckerberg, the trio delivered one of this century’s greatest films that truly captured the zeitgeist of the emerging digital age. Sorkin won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and both Fincher and Eisenberg scored nominations in their respective categories.
But 16 years later, what’s been billed as a sequel to “The Social Network” only tarnishes its legacy.
For “The Social Reckoning,” neither Fincher nor Eisenberg chose to return, leaving Sorkin to both write and direct the sequel that no one really asked for and cast Jeremy Strong (“Succession,” “The Apprentice”) as Zuckerberg.
The sequel revisits the Wall Street Journal’s bombshell series of reports dubbed “The Facebook Files,” spearheaded by investigative reporter Jeff Horowitz (Jeremy Allen White) and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison).
The uncovered dirt ranged from Facebook implementing algorithms that drove its users to join hate groups to the company knowing about the toxicity of Instagram on the mental health of young girls.
Most of us can agree that social media platforms broadly, not just Facebook, have negative impacts on society, while also having benefits. What was previously reported about Facebook has been a stain on the company. And maybe that does warrant a movie.
What’s disagreeable is the narrow universe Sorkin creates, one where Facebook, and only Facebook, is responsible for fomenting right-wing radicalism and that left-wing radicalism is nonexistent.
In the film, Haugen, the Facebook data scientist who made waves when she came forward in 2021, is haunted by a former friend, who she described as once being a “progressive” but has been radicalized by the platform becoming an unhinged racist. The film also blames Facebook for the spread of QAnon conspiracy theories and vaccine “lies,” as well as Jan. 6.
The culminating scene of “The Social Reckoning” involves Zuckerberg and his staff rushing to their war room to watch news coverage of the Capitol riot. The rioters might as well have been waving flags that read, “Brought to you by Facebook,” at least according to Sorkin.
Everyone around Zuckerberg demanded him to ban Trump from their platform. And as we all know, Zuckerberg acquiesced.
Haugen’s findings, at least presented in this film, show that Facebook makes people racists. There’s no mention of any sort of far-left radicalization Americans have witnessed, (or “Woke 1” as AOC recently coined) nor any mention of the Black Lives Matter riots that erupted across the country in the months leading up to Jan. 6.
Lest we forget that the COVID lockdowns truly fueled societal paranoia, there isn’t any “reckoning” from Sorkin for the government officials who enforced them. For a man who prides himself on his hyperintellectual dialogue, Sorkin finds little room for nuance.
The film’s only saving grace is how it goes about Zuckerberg’s stance as a free speech absolutist. Sorkin broadly portrays him as a sociopathic villain who cares about the bottom line at society’s expense. But there’s one scene where he’s arguing with a former investor (played by Bill Burr) that Facebook is a public square and that its users don’t need to be treated like children, as Burr’s character deems Zuckerberg’s philosophy reckless for letting falsehoods go unfettered.
It’s clear Sorkin wants his audience to be on Team Burr in that particular scene, but true champions of free speech side with Zuckerberg — at least until he caves to pressure and bans Trump.
“The Social Reckoning” attempts to be the “All the President’s Men” of the social media era, but it lacks any emotional depth beyond its blatant appeal to partisan leftists. None of the film’s three leads operate like normal human beings (to be fair, Zuckerberg’s public persona has always been, well, peculiar).
Every scene between Horowitz and Haugen is full of unnaturally witty and scholarly dialogue that could’ve easily been borrowed from “The West Wing.”
It’s tiresome.
Unlike his predecessor in “The Social Network,” Strong looks remotely nothing like Zuckerberg but gives a dedicated performance and, admittedly, kind of nails the voice. The Facebook chief had no involvement with either film, so it’s difficult to tell where the reality ends and the fiction begins. Yet Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg was far more emotionally ranging, while Strong’s Zuckerberg is essentially an alien-like caricature.
There’s also a stark contrast in the pure filmmaking. Without Fincher at the helm, Sorkin is left artistically rudderless despite his top-notch collaborators like Oscar-nominated cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth (who previously shot “The Social Network”) and Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat.
This isn’t Sorkin’s first time in the director’s chair. There’s no questioning his talents as a screenwriter, but while he has successfully found his unique voice on the page, he has yet to craft his own vision as a director.
Having rewatched “The Social Network,” it’s wild to think both were written by Sorkin. One is captivating, smooth, biting and tangible to the average viewer. The other is dull, disjointed, self-righteous and elitist.
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“The Social Reckoning” tries to recreate the magic of its predecessor. In reality, it’s leftist revisionist slop disguised as a harrowing journalist drama. It’s a film that only caters to a narrow audience of coastal liberals who despise Zuckerberg/Trump and journalists who regard themselves as heroes — many happen to be both. What’s unfortunate is that “The Social Reckoning” doesn’t exist with the purpose of entertaining. Its purpose is to lecture.
And for that reason, Sorkin ought to log off.
“The Social Reckoning” is rated R for language. Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes. In theaters now.
