Aaron Sorkin, who won an Oscar for scripting The Social Network, returns to exploring the sins of Facebook with The Social Reckoning, a sequel companion piece to that David Fincher-directed 2010 film that feels late to its own party.

The Sorkin-directed film chronicles how Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) collaborated with Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) to reveal the social media company’s dirtiest laundry in the 2021 multi-article series The Facebook Files. Thanks to the information and documents that Frances leaked to Jeff, the Journal claimed to expose how the platforms owned by mogul Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong, stepping in for Jesse Eisenberg) knowingly made life shittier for everybody so they could stay profitable. It’s more complex than that but that’s the gist.

Despite being sharply written and engagingly performed by a great cast, The Social Reckoning never reaches the dramatic heights of its 2010 predecessor. The Social Network was a more personal story about ambitious young friends dreaming big and ferociously falling out. It was a story where people confront each other face to face.

The Social Reckoning, on the other hand, is a whistleblower/journalist movie where the main conflict is between a hero who is only in the same room with the villain once and never speaks to them. Sorkin’s script is entertaining and features his signature punchy, smarmy dialogue that actors love to say, but many of these characters feel like functionaries.

We don't learn much about Jeff except that he’s ignorant about tech but is a good reporter.

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