Aaron Sorkin goes back to Facebook. This time, Mark Zuckerberg is background noise. The Social Reckoning feels like a leap away from the original. And honestly, I get why.
This is not really a Mark Zuckerberg movie. Jeremy Strong plays him, and he’s there as the guy in the corner office whose decisions ripple out over everyone else. But he’s more of a plot point than a character. The real story belongs to Frances Haugen, the Facebook engineer who took the company’s internal research to The Wall Street Journal.
Sixteen years ago, The Social Network was about how Facebook got built. The Social Reckoning is about what it built.
Sorkin, by Sorkin
This is an Aaron Sorkin movie written by Aaron Sorkin. And directed by Aaron Sorkin. You can feel all three jobs.
The dialogue is beautifully whippy. People talk fast, think faster, and land lines like they’ve been rehearsing them in the shower all week. If you love the Sorkin rhythm, you’re going to have a great time.
The direction is where it wobbles. Some scenes feel a little lost, like the camera is just waiting around for the next great line. Sorkin wrote the original too, but David Fincher directed it, and you notice he’s gone. The Social Network had that cold, precise look and the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score humming under everything. Both are missed here.
The cast
Mikey Madison is great as Haugen. She plays it quiet and steady, which is exactly what you want from someone about to torch her career on principle.
Jeremy Allen White plays Jeff Horwitz, the Journal reporter who helps her get the story out. He’s good. He’s also, and I say this with love, kind of playing his Bear character in a new job. Same intensity. Same tired eyes. Swap the kitchen for a newsroom and you’re most of the way there.
Why it hit
Overall, I liked the movie.
What surprised me was how much it helped me understand January 6. The film draws on the Journal’s Facebook Files reporting, and watching the platform’s role in the lead-up to the Capitol attack play out on screen connected dots I hadn’t fully connected before.
Then real life made the whole thing feel immersive. Only a few hours after I saw the film, President Trump told a rally crowd in Nebraska that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego. The White House later said he meant it as a warning about Iran getting a nuclear weapon. California leaders did not hear it that way.
Either way, I walked out of a movie about online noise turning into real-world consequences and straight into a news cycle about my own backyard. Not the post-credits scene I was hoping for.
The verdict
Whether the movie will do well remains to be seen. It is now playing in theaters
Does it have social relevance? Absolutely.
Just maybe don’t check the news on the drive home.
