Before watching The Social Reckoning, a sort of sequel to David Fincher’s 2010 film The Social Network, I was hesitant about how relevant a film about Facebook could be, considering that I haven’t used the platform in nearly ten years. I mean, who uses Facebook these days when we have Instagram and WhatsApp? Yes, don’t make fun of me, but I had completely forgotten that they are also part of Facebook, or rather, under the Meta umbrella. Eventually, I decided it was worth giving this film a chance, since quite a few significant events have taken place since I left Facebook.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal, among many others. But I suppose the biggest change since then has been Mark Zuckerberg growing his hair out and starting to act like a normal person. However, the film doesn’t reflect the more entertaining personality he has acquired through his image makeover. He is played by Jeremy Strong, who maintains the character’s rather cold, robotic demeanour. Then again, I can’t think of anyone more strong than Strong when it comes to playing an emotionless, robot-like character.
The Social Reckoning was written by Aaron Sorkin, who also wrote the 2010 film The Social Network, and this time, he has taken the director’s chair as well. The absence of David Fincher is quite noticeable. Fincher knows how to delve into the emotional worlds of his characters and give them a certain depth, but his style has been replaced by Sorkin’s sometimes exhausting approach to storytelling. At times, the film feels less like a feature film and more like a stage play driven by dense dialogue, or even a lecture.
Sorkin’s fast-paced, sharp dialogue can be a real treat, especially for those who enjoy dialogue-heavy films, but this approach can also prevent the characters and the story from being explored in a more cinematically compelling way. The absence of Fincher, who complemented the tension generated by the dialogue in The Social Network with his visual storytelling, is all the more noticeable here.
As you may know, The Wall Street Journal published a series of reports titled The Facebook Files in 2021. The film focuses on how these reports came to light and how they were put together. Moving back and forth between 2019 and 2021, it tells the story of Frances Haugen, a data engineer working on Facebook’s Civic Integrity team, who discovers problems revealed by the company’s internal research and secretly collaborates with The Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz.
Haugen comes across documents showing that the company’s algorithms amplify anger and divisive content, pushing users towards radicalisation, while Instagram has a negative impact on the mental health of teenage girls in particular. The company’s failure to take the necessary action despite being aware of these problems lies at the heart of the film. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg’s preparations for a congressional hearing and the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol are explored in parallel. As a result, the film does more than simply recount the making of a series of investigative reports; it also offers an opportunity to revisit the political events that have shaped the past six years.
But I honestly can’t decide whether it’s too late or too early to tell this story. Watching Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, and seeing how it all began, might have been a good idea twenty years ago, but watching a man we are already constantly exposed to today doesn’t sound particularly appealing. To be fair, though, The Social Network was also made just a few years after Facebook was founded. So the issue isn’t simply how much time has passed since the events in question, but what they mean to audiences today.
In an age when everything—information, art, celebrity gossip, and so much more—is consumed at such a rapid pace, going back to remember what happened six years ago may not be an appealing prospect for many viewers. Moreover, the societal impact of Facebook’s algorithms, the ways social media affects people, and the responsibility of technology companies are no longer unfamiliar subjects. Although the film brings these issues back into the spotlight, I’m not sure it manages to make a sufficiently compelling case for why they still matter today.
For someone already familiar with the subject, this film could be an almost documentary-like and thoroughly enjoyable experience. Watching how internal company research becomes the basis for investigative journalism, how Frances Haugen and Jeff Horwitz collaborate throughout the process, and how all of this plays out in Zuckerberg’s world can be a rewarding experience, particularly for those interested in the story behind The Facebook Files. However, I don’t think a sequel to The Social Network was ever a good idea in the first place.
Although Aaron Sorkin delivers a satisfying experience for those who enjoy dense dialogue and has made a film that can be rewarding if watched attentively and with focus, The Social Reckoning alienates viewers like me, who were sceptical about a sequel to The Social Network from the outset, and ultimately fails to live up to its own potential. Perhaps it would have been a more satisfying film if it hadn’t placed so much emphasis on its connection to The Social Network and had instead focused on its own potential: the promise of being a compelling film about investigative journalism. But it fails to do so.
