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THE SOCIAL RECKONING MOVIE REVIEW
It’s been 16 years since David Fincher’s masterpiece, The Social Network, hit the silver screen. It felt timely and acted as a cautionary tale of how one’s ego could effect millions of people. Now, Aaron Sorkin, the original screenwriter, wanted to go back into the Facebook feed and tell another story about the drastic effects of social media with The Social Reckoning. Starting in 2019 and spanning a few years until 2021, the film follows data engineer Frances (Mikey Madison) whose growing concerns of Facebook’s manipulation of it’s algorithm to force negative information to the public, drives her to reach out to anyone who will listen. Then enters Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), a political journalist assigned to uncover how Facebook has become so addictive to the public. What starts to occur is more of a two-hander between Frances and Jeff much like All The President’s Men where they find more and more nefarious actions that Facebook has taken to expose the world to misinformation. While all of this is taking place, we jump to 2021 and watch Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) prepare for his infamous congressional hearing regarding the effects of Facebook. It’s an electrifying chamber piece where his handlers are trying to make him somewhat likable while his old colleague, Bill Burr, challenges him every step of the way. The film is structured more as an investigative journalism film as opposed to The Social Network‘s character study which is where the film could turn some viewers off. Sorkin’s distinctive writing style flourishes in this type of story, but at times becomes overwritten and eye-rolling. The performances are up to task and even Strong’s Zuckerberg is more mature and diabolical which fits with the character as so much time has passed since the creation of Facebook. Listen to Rhett, Rod, and Wright discuss if the film is worth a ‘like’ emoji.
DIRECTED BY: Aaron Sorkin
STARRING: Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Bill Burr, Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin, Billy Magnussen
YOUR REVIEWERS
Wright Sulek (The Other Boss, Trash in the Can, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, One Man’s Trash, Screener Squad)
Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox. As of 2024, Wright has now been inducted into the Austin Film Critics Association as well as co-owns the One of Us network with Chris Cox.
Rod Nunley (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)
An Austin native born military brat, Rod Nunley picked up his first comic book in Holland while waiting for his father to get out of work and was thrust into a world of nerdom. Now a full time single father he spends his days educating his son in the ways of being a geek with great bombast. Teaching his young pasawan the ways of D&D, sci-fi, fantasy books and all the great nerd films and content rivers he himself swam in his whole life. A karaoke singing, photo shoot taking, apartment locating and every doggo/kitty petting fan of all of all things geeky.
Rhett O’Hara (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Trash in the Can)
Rhett O’Hara has really been looking forward to writing this “about me”. He blames movies for a lot of things in his life. He blames seeing Batman Returns as a child for his interest in all things goth and camp. He blames seeing Akira at far too young of an age for his interest in films that dare to venture into the weirder side of things. He blames Midsommar for never visiting Sweden. Rhett has lived in Austin for a couple of decades, so he can speak fondly of the old days of renting DVDs from I Luv Video (Tetsuo the Iron Man left a mark) and buying peculiar documentaries (The Nomi Song, Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist) from Waterloo Video. Rhett also remembers reading an “about me” that stuck with him a few years back. Time continued and he felt a constant need to share “about me” as well. It wasn’t a voice telling him to do this but something akin to the feeling of knowing that someone is watching you without ever actually seeing that person. Rhett has been anxious and is only just now feeling a sense of relief writing this. He feels selfish though, knowing that this will continue on to the next host; the desire…. the urge…. no….the need to pass along a message that has existed ever since humanity started sharing thoughts in a written form. You must understand that he had no choice in this matter. Rhett is truly sorry for this, but he’s every bit of a pawn as you are now. Rhett is also contractually obligated to let you know that he has been a guest on the hit podcast Trash in the Can.
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