Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, The Social Reckoning tells the tale of Frances (Mikey Madison) who is working at Facebook (pre-Meta) because she believes in the mission of connecting people. Unfortunately, she becomes jaded by many of the companies’ policies that seem to go against this mission. So, when Jeff Horowitz (Jeremy Allen White) contacts her to talk about what’s going on at the social media behemoth, the two of them slowly begin working together to expose said policies.
Shifting timelines between the early 2020s and the 2010s, The Social Reckoning ultimately culminates with the insurrection that took place (yes, word salad it any way you want, but it was an insurrection) at the Nation’s Capital on January 6th, 2021. Filled with a lot of tech-talk and fancy algorithmic innuendo, The Social Reckoning is an incredibly well-made film with a truly stellar cast.
The biggest problem is that many viewers today don’t seem like they are going to the movies for THIS kind of experience. Given the high cost of ticket prices, it seems a little odd that this $42 million dollar affair would galvanize audiences, when they could most likely rewatch an episode of 60 Minutes and get this story on YouTube.
I say all that to make the point that you SHOULD see this movie. It should be required viewing of us all. While watching it, I was reminded very briefly of how things used to be in the world. I was reminded of times when not everything needed to be shared on social media. Nobody felt like they had to have everyone know their opinions (heck, you didn’t generally want to share that much of yourself), and it just seemed like a calmer more benign time. Maybe it wasn’t and all social media did was shine a light on what was already there?
In the end, The Social Reckoning makes it clear that just because everyone has a voice that doesn’t mean everyone deserves to have a platform to have that voice amplified. The fact that people realized they could gain an audience by trafficking in the gutter of junk science and “fear of the other,” only makes this whole social media experiment seem more vapid and silly. Honestly, seeing the effects of social media through Director/Writer Aaron Sorkin’s lens is downright embarrassing.
If that sounds like the kind of thing you wanna spend Saturday night or Sunday afternoon watching then The Social Reckoning is your movie. In a time where we often get not what we want, but what we deserve, this is very much the movie we deserve at this time. If you want a different opinion, you can check out Paulington’s review at Letterboxd.
