The Social Reckoning
★★
(NOTE: For the sake of brevity, The Social Network and The Social Reckoning will occasionally be referred to as Network and Reckoning respectively)
In my Letterboxd review for The Social Network last year — the fifteenth anniversary of the film, to be specific — I wrote that I was “cautiously optimistic” about its sequel (which at the time was recently announced). I also wrote that it wouldn’t quite “reach the same level as [Network].” I was right about the latter; this spiritual sequel is a huge disappointment.
The Social Reckoning is written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, who has previously only written Network. With Jeremy Strong now playing the role of Facebook/Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the film also stars Mikey Madison as whistleblower Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White as Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz. The film dramatizes the 2021 Facebook leak by Haugen and Horwitz, which documented the social network’s prioritization of profits over people, and the events that led up to it starting in 2019. Thrown into it all as flash forwards is Zuckerberg rehearsing a congressional hearing.
For the record, Sorkin is a good writer. He’s written some fantastic films and television series in the past three decades; other than The Social Network, The West Wing and Steve Jobs are both incredible. But that’s the thing; he’s a good writer. As a director, Sorkin is the complete opposite. He doesn’t have the finesse to make his films visually appealing nor emotionally resonant; his directorial efforts are plain white tees in contrast to colorful tie-dye tops. And again, Network is very tight as a script. However, it’s considered amazing as a film because of the various aspects that communicate the main essence of the script. Director David Fincher’s style, in the muted cool-colored grading that creates a gritty realism and the various camera angles and shot compositions to visually tell a story, helped establish Network’s themes, tone, and characters. There are astounding performances from its lead and supporting cast that capture the complex moral ambiguities of these characters. Furthermore, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score is a mesmerizing blend of melodies that allow you to understand the emotions it’s conveying, subtle or not. Not only does Reckoning have very little to do with Network, but it lacks any of what made its predecessor work so well.
The film is less of a character study and more like a whistleblower story à la The Insider, which is fine; it’s a fresh take. On a narrative level though, it’s rather uninspiring. While I agree with its heavy condemnation of Facebook/Meta and Zuckerberg, the film doesn’t put in the necessary effort to make its themes thoughtful or go beyond scratching the surface. There are interesting ideas presented such as corporate profit vs people’s welfare, the moral inhumanity of tech billionaires, and the risks of whistleblowing and incendiary statements against individuals in power, but the manner in which it’s done lacks the emotional gravitas needed to make an impact. Moreover, these themes are mainly presented through the characters of Haugen and Horwitz, who are arguably the most interesting aspect of the film; like the themes though, these characters are very undercooked in terms of complexities. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg, who was a very nuanced character in Network, is now reduced to a one-note caricature with all nuances removed in his short amount of screen time (again, I’m not defending the real-life Zuckerberg nor his dramatized character). On the other hand, the dialogue ranges from mild cleverness to a rapid sludge of loosely-related metaphors and topics with all the snarks in between. This is on par or a tad below it for Sorkin’s writing style, but without a great director to rein it all in, the dialogue can come off as tonally dissonant and overdoing all the heavy lifting.
On that topic, Sorkin’s directorial style for Reckoning is much worse. Apart from all the relative Sorkinisms now unfiltered, the film looks and sounds aggressively uninteresting. The lighting and color scheme are so flat it makes the film look like a made-for-streaming movie. The cinematography, while it gets the job done, doesn’t communicate anything with its overuse of medium and close shots nor does it tell a story through its shot compositions. The graphics used to jump through time and present the film through chapters look very cheap, like they’re last-minute Adobe Premiere Pro transitions. Alexandre Desplat’s score, although alright on its own merits if not overdramatic, pales in comparison to Network’s Reznor/Ross score; no track in Reckoning comes close to being even half as memorably unique as “Hand Covers Bruise.”
As per the film’s three lead actors, I hold nothing but varying levels of praise for them; as a matter of fact, they’re my reason why Reckoning was on my watchlist to begin with. The film really doesn’t do them a lot of justice as immensely talented actors, though they try and it sometimes manages to hit. The best of the trio is its only Oscar winner: Madison. Perhaps it’s my bias because her lead performance in Anora is one of my favorites of all time (let alone of 2024), but she’s more than able to adapt to the Sorkinisms, flaws and all, and create decent chemistry with her co-lead. Speaking of whom, White also gives a solid performance and is just as able to adapt. Strong gets the short end of the stick by barely being able to work with the aforementioned caricature of Zuckerberg, which sucks because he seems like the second best choice to play the role after Jesse Eisenberg. I would comment on the supporting cast, but they’re so forgettable that it’s not even worth bringing up.
In conclusion, The Social Reckoning is a underwhelming companion piece to The Social Network and even if you were to divorce it from its predecessor, the film is just plain dull. Unlike Network which remains timeless sixteen years after its release, Reckoning will not get very far.
