Inspired by fact, The Social Reckoning is one of my movies of the year. Based on the 2021 Facebook Files leak by whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) and the reporting of Wall Street Journal investigative journalist Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), it is intoxicating. In fact, it is mighty scary and thrilling at the same time. It speaks to the adage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, a line attributed to Lord Acton in 1887.
While the core of the story is real, writer/director Araon Sorkin adjusted the timeline and included fictionalised elements, composite characters and dramatised scenes. The movie starts with a standoff between a female driver standing by her locked car on a busy road when she is approached by law enforcement officers. The woman live streamed the interaction. Haugen who works at Facebook and knew the person concerned four years earlier, saw the vision and uses the footage as proof of Facebook radicalising users.
Even though Haugen approaches people within Facebook to point out her concerns, none is prepared to listen. Horwitz, who had recently joined the Wall Street Journal, had already been digging around Facebook. He sent out hundreds of unsolicited emails to members of Facebook’s Civic Integrity Team, among them Haugen. Having not found satisfaction internally, Haugen responded to Horwitz, stating that anything she told him would be anonymous and off the record. The situation escalated from there over the ensuring two years (between 2019 and 2021) to the point where she became the ultimate whistleblower.
Concurrently, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong), unaware of what Horwitz was about to publish, was being subjected to hostile preparation in a crisis management grilling. What is repeatedly stated as fact at the time was that 64 per cent of those who joined extremist groups on Facebook were sent there by Facebook’s own algorithms. So it is that The Social Reckoning is a powder keg of a movie, a companion piece to The Social Network (2010), which Sorkin co-wrote and won an Oscar for. The heat is continually ratcheted up as the narrative develops.
Everything about its execution is top shelf, starting with Sorkin’s compelling writing and astute direction. The performances are superb, led from the front by Mikey Madison’s intelligent, righteous and driven turn as Frances Haugen. She is spine tinglingly good. So too Jeremy Allen White as the conscientious and persistent investigative reporter without a strong understanding of IT to begin with. Again, such a measured performance. And then there is the steely eyed, controlled showing of Jeremy Strong as the head of Facebook, which shouts “no nonsense”. The supporting cast is also suitably strong.
I also liked the settings and the cinematography thereof by Jeff Cronenweth. So it is that I was fascinated, intrigued and horrified by what Sorkin et al presented. To state the bleeding obvious, Social media has a lot to answer for. Rated M, The Social Reckoning scores a 9 out of 10.
Alex First
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- The Trial of the Chicago 7 – movie review
- Molly’s Game – movie review
- Being the Ricardos – movie review
Alex First is the editor of The Blurb. Alex is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He also contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.
