Review: The Social Reckoning

 

Official Synopsis: Follows Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a young Facebook engineer, who enlisted the help of Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, to blow the whistle on the social network's most guarded secrets.

Writer/Director Aaaron Sorkin follows up the very successful 2010 feature he also wrote, The Social Network with how Facebook is still ruining people’s lives. Only this time he loses Director David Fincher, his Oscar nominated star in Jesse Eisenberg, but you know what? That’s fine! He doesn’t want you to view this as a sequel anyways.

And it’s true. this isn’t exactly a sequel, but Fincher, Eisenberg, and I’d argue even Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross cast heavy shadows over the film that is sometimes just impossible to get around.

I’ll start with the good. Because there IS good here. I’ve always been a big fan of Sorkin’s writing, even if his directing isn’t as strong. The rapid fire dialogue has always appealed to me and because of it, his films are paced very well. This is no exception, though as good as White and Madison are, I don’t think they handle it as well as some of the supporting cast like Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin and Bill Burr do. I also like that Sorkin focused on the January 6th riots, because Facebook loves to scrub everything they can about that. Showing how long it took Zuckerberg to take action was a good call and that particular scene was probably the only one Jeremy Strong convinced me in.

Let’s talk about the Jeremy Strong of it all. Because one of the biggest stories about this film aside from Fincher not returning was Jesse Eisenberg not returning because he no longer wanted to be associated with Zuckerberg. A bold move that I respect, because I’m sure he would’ve gotten a lot of money for this…but man, Eisenberg was just better. It’s impossible not to compare the two. I love Jeremy Strong, but I was never fully convinced with his performance. I felt like I was watching Jeremy Strong try really hard to nail a part. 

I enjoyed the rest of the actors in their roles. I feel like I have to shout out Portia Doubleday for taking on the most cringe character I’ve seen on film this year. Maybe it’s because I know people like her who have been radicalized by the misinformation Facebook spreads. But I was surprised  that she’ go for a part like that. Mikey is great at playing the very awkward Frances, though I think Sorkin weirdly sexualizes the character, which feels a bit icky when Mikey has spoken a bout how Sorkin told her not to make herself look like the real Frances. 

Overall, I don’t think this film is a disaster. It’s works really well when it’s focused on the investigative journalism piece. I think it’s Sorkin’s worst outing as a director, but his writing does make up for most of his shortcomings behind the camera. 

Grade: C+