'The Social Reckoning' Review: Zuckerberg, Facebook are the enemy in preachy slop disguised as journo drama

In the era of Trump 2.0, the tech titans once championed by the liberal left have been ostracized for the appearance of embracing or bending the knee to President after the 2024 election, whether it be Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or — in this particular case — Mark Zuckerberg. 

Zuckerberg, and the CEO of Meta, was famously depicted on the big screen in the 2010 film, "The Social Network," which followed his creation of the culture-reshaping social media platform from his Harvard dorm room and the lawsuits that ensued after. 

Directed by David Fincher, written by Aaron Sorkin and with dead ringer Jesse Eisenberg playing Zuckerberg, the trio delivered one of this century's greatest films that truly captured the zeitgeist of the emerging digital age. Sorkin won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and both Fincher and Eisenberg scored nominations in their respective categories. 

But 16 years later, what's been billed as a sequel to "The Social Network" only tarnishes its legacy. 

For "The Social Reckoning," neither Fincher nor Eisenberg chose to return, leaving Sorkin to both write and direct the sequel that no one really asked for and cast Jeremy Strong ("Succession," "The Apprentice") as Zuckerberg. 

The sequel revisits the Wall Street Journal's bombshell series of reports dubbed "The Facebook Files," spearheaded by investigative reporter Jeff Horowitz (Jeremy Allen White) and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison). 

The uncovered dirt ranged from Facebook implementing algorithms that drove its users to join hate groups to the company knowing about the toxicity of Instagram on the . 

Most of us can agree that social media platforms broadly, not just Facebook, have negative impacts on society, while also having benefits. What was previously reported about Facebook has been a stain on the company. And maybe that does warrant a movie. 

What's disagreeable is the narrow universe Sorkin creates, one where Facebook, and only Facebook, is responsible for fomenting right-wing radicalism and that is nonexistent.

The culminating scene of "The Social Reckoning" involves Zuckerberg and his staff rushing to their war room to watch news coverage of the Capitol riot. The rioters might as well have been waving flags that read, "Brought to you by Facebook," at least according to Sorkin. 

Everyone around Zuckerberg demanded him to ban Trump from their platform. And as we all know, .  

Haugen's findings, at least presented in this film, show that Facebook makes people racists. There's no mention of any sort of far-left radicalization Americans have witnessed, (or "Woke 1" as ) nor any mention of the Black Lives Matter riots that erupted across the country in the months leading up to Jan. 6. 

Lest we forget that the COVID lockdowns truly fueled societal paranoia, there isn't any "reckoning" from Sorkin for the government officials who enforced them. For a man who prides himself on his hyperintellectual dialogue, Sorkin finds little room for nuance. 

The film's only saving grace is how it goes about Zuckerberg's stance as a absolutist. Sorkin broadly portrays him as a sociopathic villain who cares about the bottom line at society's expense. But there's one scene where he's arguing with a former investor (played by Bill Burr) that Facebook is a public square and that its users don't need to be treated like children, as Burr's character deems Zuckerberg's philosophy reckless for letting falsehoods go unfettered. 

It's clear Sorkin wants his audience to be on Team Burr in that particular scene, but true champions of free speech side with Zuckerberg — at least until he caves to pressure and bans Trump.

"The Social Reckoning" attempts to be the "All the President's Men" of the social media era, but it lacks any emotional depth beyond its blatant appeal to partisan leftists. None of the film's three leads operate like normal human beings (to be fair,