Whistleblowers are a very important part of society: in fact, there are laws in the US that protect them when they come forward. Some of the most well-known of these are Karen Silkwood, W. Mark Felt (Deep Throat), and even Edward Snowden, and each of these have had their stories told in feature films, and the latest of these is The Social Reckoning.
Aaron Sorkin not only writes this follow up to The Social Network, but he also directs it as well with a cast that includes Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Wunmi Mosaku, and Billy Magnussen. Taking place about a decade or so after The Social Network, Jeff Horwitz (Allen White) is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who moves from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco to cover the inner workings of Facebook. In his research, he makes contact with Frances Haugen (Madison), a data engineer who has discovered some dangerous goings on with the site’s coding that seems to be falling on deaf ears. Horowitz teams up with her to expose the information in the hopes that Facebook will pay attention and avoid what could be the inevitable.
The performances of White and Madison are very good to the point where I could see some nominations coming for both of them. However, Strong’s Mark Zuckerberg has me conflicted because as much as I like him as an actor, especially in Succession, I don’t if he truly portrayed Zuckerberg properly to what I know of him. This film is also shot well and adds to the mood that Sorkin is putting across to his audience.
Comparing The Social Reckoning to The Social Network, this second installment in Facebook’s story falls short. I loved Eisenberg’s performance as Zuckerberg a lot more than Strong’s, and the former of the two had a better mix of comedy and drama. There ARE some good moments here, but it could have been a bit shorter even though it is paced well. I do see what Sorkin is trying to do here, but that special feeling was not there. I did not love this film, but I did not hate it either, so I will recommend seeing this film on a cable streaming service like Netflix.