There is something inherently satisfying about watching a woman decide that enough is enough. The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s dramatization of Frances Haugen’s 2021 whistleblowing and the subsequent Wall Street Journal investigation known as “The Facebook Files”, is, at its heart, a very good-for-her film.
Mikey Madison is insanely good. Following her Oscar-winning turn in Anora and her memorable appearance as Sadie in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Madison has already demonstrated an ability to play fiery, unpredictable women. Frances Haugen is something quite different. She is quiet, considered and driven less by a desire for attention than by an overwhelming urge for justice. Madison captures that beautifully, giving Haugen a restrained determination that makes her increasingly difficult to look away from.
It is also a performance that makes one particularly questionable creative decision all the more frustrating.
At one point, Haugen is dressed in a series of notably sultry outfits as part of a disguise to sneak into journalist Jeff Horowitz’s hotel room. This was to make it seem like she was on a date to avoid suspicion. While watching the scene, I found myself thinking, “I really hope this isn’t a Hollywoodized addition designed to give us a woman in sexy outfits.” After leaving the cinema, I looked into it and couldn’t find anything suggesting that the real Haugen did this. It feels particularly unnecessary in a film whose central character is compelling precisely because of her intellect, conviction and willingness to risk everything for what she believes is right. Thankfully, the film surrounding Madison is considerably stronger.
Jeremy Allen White is superb as Jeff Horowitz, bringing a likeability and strong-mindedness to the journalist. His chemistry with Madison is one of the film’s greatest strengths. Their rapport gives the film some much-needed levity, particularly when Sorkin’s dialogue begins firing off at its fastest.
Then there is Jeremy Strong’s Mark Zuckerberg. Coming out of the screening, I found myself discussing Strong’s performance with a group of journalists, one of whom commented that Jesse Eisenberg had demonstrated considerably more range when playing Zuckerberg in The Social Network. I actually think that misses the point. Eisenberg played the Zuckerberg of his early twenties. Strong is playing the Zuckerberg we recognise today. And he is wooden. Flat. Almost completely emotionless. That’s precisely what makes the performance work. Strong presents Zuckerberg as a man who has become so detached from the human consequences of the machine he has built that there is barely anything left behind his eyes. Whether intentional or not, the performance becomes a fascinating counterpoint to Madison’s increasingly impassioned Haugen.
Some of the editing choices are downright jarring. In one scene, two interns ask Horowitz to look at something, before an abrupt cut suddenly transports us to Puerto Rico. When I watched it, I genuinely wondered whether this was a mistake by the editor. The nonlinear structure repeatedly jumps backwards and forwards through events, but I wasn’t convinced that this added anything particularly meaningful to the story. In fact, I think a straightforward linear narrative might have allowed the emotional weight of Haugen’s revelations to build much more effectively.
Where The Social Reckoning absolutely excels, however, is in Sorkin’s screenplay. The dialogue is sharp, witty and packed with the kind of rapid-fire exchanges we have come to associate with his work. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, the script knows when to allow a joke or a lighter moment to break through the tension. Madison and White’s performances are particularly effective in this regard. There are moments when Sorkin’s writing does veer towards the cliched. References to Frank Capra’s oeuvre, Show Boat and even The Breakfast Club‘s iconic fist bump can feel slightly unnatural within the conversation. Were some of these moments cringey? Absolutely. Did I also quite enjoy them? Yes. There is something almost deliberately nostalgic about it. Sorkin is making a very old-fashioned kind of Hollywood film about a very modern problem, constantly connecting the present back to the cinema of the past. It can be a little cheesy, but there is something rather charming about that. And perhaps that is what makes the film work so well.
For all its stylistic quirks, The Social Reckoning is an incredibly gripping and deeply relevant story. It is the kind of film that makes you want to leave the cinema and immediately start researching. It makes you question what you are doing online, what information you are giving away and what responsibility enormous platforms have for the consequences of their own algorithms. It also makes you angry.
One sequence involving the social media posts made by Donald Trump as the Capitol was stormed genuinely moved me to tears. Watching the consequences of a platform’s ability to amplify a single person’s words is frightening. It raises uncomfortable questions about free speech, democracy and the extraordinary power that social media companies now possess.
How much responsibility should a platform have for what happens on it? And how much engagement is too much if protecting that engagement comes at the expense of people’s safety?
The film doesn’t necessarily provide easy answers, but it does something arguably more important: it makes you want to ask the questions.
Visually, The Social Reckoning is just as slick as you would expect from a film about the technology industry. The cinematography has a polished, almost clinical quality, with certain scenes deliberately lit to create an aura of importance and technological sophistication. There is a constant sense that we are looking at something enormous, something that exists beyond the people standing in front of us.
Sorkin is no stranger to the director’s chair, having previously directed Molly’s Game and The Trial of the Chicago 7, but The Social Reckoning brings him back to the world of Facebook that he first explored as the screenwriter of David Fincher’s The Social Network. Comparisons between the two films are inevitable, but The Social Reckoning isn’t trying to recreate The Social Network. Instead, it looks beyond the mythology of Facebook’s creation to examine what that creation has become, and the consequences that have followed. And that makes it an interesting companion piece.
Where The Social Network was fascinated by the creation of Facebook, The Social Reckoning is interested in what that creation has become.
It isn’t perfect. The nonlinear structure occasionally gets in its own way, some dialogue feels overly constructed and the decision to sexualise Haugen in a story that absolutely doesn’t need it left me questioning the choices being made behind the camera. But Madison is phenomenal. White is equally brilliant. Strong’s deliberately lifeless Zuckerberg is more effective than it initially appears. And Sorkin has created a film that is entertaining enough to pull you in while leaving you with enough questions to make you uncomfortable on the way home.
Most importantly, it makes Frances Haugen’s story feel urgent. Watching a woman look at one of the most powerful companies in the world and decide that she isn’t going to let it get away with something feels extremely powerful.
