The Social Reckoning

Check out my full review @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/the-social-reckoning-movie-review-aaron-sorkin-turns-the-facebook-files-into-an-infuriating-essential-wake-up-call/ Rating: A THE SOCIAL RECKONING sits on the same pedestal as THE SOCIAL NETWORK for me, and here's an add-on to that already massively hot take: this one matters more! Aaron Sorkin turns the Facebook Files into an infuriating film about a company that knew exactly what it was doing. The free speech debate at its core refuses easy answers, and Sorkin's analogies hit hard. Some say it comes too late because all of this is public, but public isn't the same as known. Mikey Madison is excellent as a whistleblower driven by love, not spite. Jeremy Strong's Zuckerberg is a caricature I believed anyway. Sure, it looks like TV, but who cares when the story is this vital? I didn't know nearly enough going in, and I haven't stopped reading the articles since. It's one of the most riveting films I've seen this year, and I'm still angry about it.

Films designed to evoke righteous indignation among audience members have one vital task to fulfill: make sure they produce content and yield feelings that live up to their intentions. Unfortunately, that’s where this latest offering from writer-director Aaron Sorkin routinely swings and misses. Often inaccurately billed as a sequel to the screenwriter’s 2010 sensation “The Social Network,” this standalone companion piece to that release once again takes viewers inside the world of Facebook to expose the cracks in the social media giant’s supposedly impenetrable armor. This fact-based offering, spanning the years 2018-2021, focuses on idealistic Facebook researcher Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a firm believer in the organization’s mission of bringing people closer together but who uncovers some troubling secrets that shake her faith in the company’s allegedly altruistic objectives. And, when she attempts to raise her concerns with higher-ups, she’s summarily dismissed or politely told to shut up. That begins to change, though, when she meets an investigative reporter from The Wall Street Journal, Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), who’s anxious to tell the big story with Haugen’s help. Frances is initially reluctant, not willing to take down her employer, but, when she digs deeper into the organization’s dirty laundry, she’s appalled by what she finds: a company that claims to be all for free speech but is indifferent about factual accuracy, a vehicle that contributed to the astronomical growth in the cyberbullying of youngsters by peer users and an algorithm that purposely directs unsuspecting site users into the arms of extremist groups. It’s enough to get Haugen to change her mind and work with Horwitz to blow the whistle. Given the size of Facebook’s user audience and the number of individuals who rely on it as their principal source of news and information, the scope and magnitude of this story are immense – but perhaps a little too much so to adequately address these issues in a two-hour movie. And, regrettably, the impact of that scenario doesn’t come through as powerfully as it should in the course of the film’s narrative. For one thing, the script is far too technical, bandying about social media jargon with the expectation that viewers will clearly comprehend everything that’s being discussed (while I appreciate the filmmaker’s avoidance of spoon-feeding the audience, there comes a point where enough is enough on this score). Then there’s the somewhat insipid portrayal of Horwitz, whose intrepidity in investigating the story is so downplayed that it might well lead audiences to wonder why he’s even bothering (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein he ain’t). To make matters worse, the pacing is periodically sluggish, in large part due to the underwhelming performance of Madison, whose weakness as an actress is nakedly exposed for all to see. But perhaps my biggest issue with “The Social Reckoning” is its ironic hypocrisy: in the closing credits, the picture features a disclaimer seen in many fact-based sagas indicating that some material was created for dramatic effect. However, how appropriate is that in a story where the matter of factual accuracy is a core theme of the narrative? (I’ll give credit to the filmmaker for acknowledging this, but that admission still raises the question of how much was made up and how significant was it to the truth of the story?) There’s also another key point that’s never meaningfully addressed in the film: While it’s difficult to defend the litany of Facebook’s sins, in the organization’s defense, the question remains, why did all those followers of extremist groups blindly allow themselves to be drawn into them by an algorithm? Didn’t any of those individuals ever hear of free will? And why is this subject never raised? (Seems to be a legitimate question to me.) Those considerations aside, however, the primary saving grace here is the absolutely spot-on portrayal of Jeremy Strong as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, effectively building on the character first brought to life by Jesse Eisenberg in this offering’s predecessor only in an older (though not necessarily wiser) version. Kudos also go out to many of the other supporting players, such as Bill Burr, Betty Gilpin, Wunmi Mosaku and Gbenga Akinnagbe. Nevertheless, despite the strengths of these performances and the filmmaker’s willingness to tackle this inherently thorny tale, these accolades are not enough to overcome the production’s many other drawbacks. In fact, viewers looking to know more about the disquieting subjects raised in this film (and not just where Facebook is concerned) would better serve themselves to watch the excellent newly released documentary “Your Attention Please,” showing the reach of social media and the influence it has over us, especially among today’s youth. In the end, “The Social Reckoning” may not be a complete misfire, but it’s definitely not the bullseye or home run that it could or should have been – or that many audience members were probably anticipating.

Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) has put together quite a concerning list of questions that are continually being sidelined by her Facebook bosses. Despite ostensibly working for the integrity unit of this corporation, it's all about loyalty to the business and to the cause and so they are specifically warned off pesky journalists trying to rock the boat like Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White). He's no geeky tech journo, but a political hatchet-man who is out for a story that will expose just how manipulative this organisation is with regard to it's users and their data. Of course there is ample speculation out there, but he needs proof - and when Frances (aka "Fred") realises some frankly startling statistics, she begins a sort of "Deep Throat" dialogue with this luddite reporter. What now ensues varies the timelines from the early 2020s as their work in progress assault on the innermost secrets of the business gains traction whilst CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) is being coached for a forthcoming appearance before the United States Congress. As that investigative rapport gathers pace, some of their work starts to arouse suspicions amongst the erstwhile somewhat arrogant management that the results of their studies will draw some very unpleasant correlations between the controlling nature of their algorithms and sexploitation; people trading; terrorism and even the Capitol riots - and that these accusations will appear front and centre in the Wall Street Journal. I like Aaron Sorkin's writing and here, by ascribing Horwitz with virtually no knowledge of the acronym-speak used in this industry, he allows his writing and her often quite acerbically tolerant explanations to read us into just what this film is really about. A critique of what was essentially a benign service designed to help bring us all together is now one that needs to keep us all together amidst our ever addictive culture of validation and approval if it is to survive at all. This drama also poses some questions of the boss too. Does he really understand quite what the implications of Facebook policies are? Do the scrutinising politicians? There is one line from one his apparatchiks (Billy Magnussen) that quite plausibly reminds the intrepid Jeff that their company is beyond the reach of any governmental jurisdiction. It is simply too big, too powerful and too essential in the lives of getting on for one third of the human population. Is he right and moreover to what extent do any governments other than Uncle Sam's really have any control over how their citizenry are coralled into certain ways of behaving or thinking or acting? For that matter, does Uncle Sam either? Strong's effort as Zuckerberg I think maybe illustrates as much about Sorkin's opinion of that man as it reflects any accurate personality analysis. He presents us with an almost robotic individual surrounded by acoltyles, who has about the same amount of humanity and quite possibly power as "Gort" from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), and I think rather potently points at the continuing problem the real, entirely charm-free, man has in getting his position across to an increasingly suspicious if not downright hostile public. The production of the film itself is nothing much to write home about nor really is the acting and the pacing can be a little erratic at times, but the punchy dialogue does at least try to crack this particular nut in a way that many of us can relate to and possibly take warning from. As someone who has never engaged with social media on any level, I do sometimes count my blessings that - in theory - I am not part of this world of likes, relikes, shares and endless searches for friends.