THE SOCIAL RECKONING: What Went Wrong?

I don't understand what happened here at all. I was ready to get on here to defend this movie, The Social Reckoning, the sequel. That's not a sequel. It's a spiritual companion piece as if it's your Patronus charm from Harry Potter. It's here. This movie is coming out 16 years after The Social Network, widely regarded as one of the best films of the 21st century. It follows whistleblower Frances Haugen as she leaks information regarding Facebook's algorithm to Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jeff Horowitz, and the platform's lead to misinformation and extremism. Aaron Sorkin, the writer of The Social Network, both writes and directs this one, and what a goddamn disappointment this was. I can't believe I'm in this position right now. Now, why am I acting surprised, considering if you go on certain parts of Twitter and film Twitter, people were dogging on this movie since it was announced. And I'll tell you why. It's because I believed. That was my flaw. That I believed in this movie. The Social Network is one of my favorite films of all time. So I hold that movie in such a high regard. And still, I went in with an open heart. With an open mind. Pure soul going in there. And I think it helps because I like Aaron Sorkin. I think people know how good a writer he is and his whole filmography. But even the movies that he's directed. Molly's Game. bang, film Twitter's enemy, the trial of the Chicago 7, bang, being the Ricardos, I don't remember that one, I don't remember that one, I think it was solid when I saw it, I don't know, but regardless, I was like, I'm for this, I can get behind this, because if you ask me, there absolutely is more to talk about with Facebook, considering it has grown at Exponential rate a whistleblower leaking internal documents about Facebook and its algorithm and it's pushed to extremism Is that not an interesting story to tell in fact, I was talking with a friend and he said, you know Be for real with me. Do you think you're going to like this movie? And I said, I think I would like it I said I am expecting a fast-paced good dialogue journalism Investigative movie with pretty much no visual flair at all. And I'm honestly okay with that. All right, I get it So when I say I went in with an open heart I went in with a smile on my face. I was ready for this. I was so ready to defend this. And unfortunately, I have to put the sword and shield down because this was not it. This was not it. There's just so much I can talk about. Just, oh my God. Let's start with something here. This is Aaron Sorkin's... Weakest script, maybe? Not only is this film divided up into sections of prologue, part one, part two, part three, which don't really flow well at all, but even the one-line zingers, the fire bars that you usually get are just absent here. And I hope people don't take this the wrong way, what I'm about to say, as if we're like trying to be nice to Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. That is not what I'm saying at all. But this movie felt... Like, Aaron Sorkin just had to get ---- off his chest and talk to Mark Zuckerberg. I don't mind a heavy-handed movie. I really don't. Especially in regards to certain topics, I don't care if filmmakers are very on-the-nose. That doesn't usually bother me. But this just felt as if some news site gave him an opinion piece to talk about. And I think that comes across because this was just watching things happen. The movie. And I am shocked by this because, again, speaking personally, Chicago 7, there are moments where they really ramp it up. Molly's Game, incredibly tense moments. But in The Social Reckoning, that sense of drama, or tension feels so deflating and so flat. I thought I could at least rely upon two characters going at it with their dialogue. I forget who but someone has described Aaron Sorkin's scripts as action movies with words and I find that to be true for a lot. Steve Jobs I feel exactly that way and there's one scene in here that manages to hit that point but everything else that surrounds it's just watching things happen. I can't believe how little emotion I felt. And it got to the point where I'm like, I don't know if Aaron Sorkin trusts the audience. This movie, something similar to The Social Network actually, does cut back and forth between two different events. There's the investigative journal part, which happens basically around 2019, 2020. And then there's a different section where they're essentially preparing Mark Zuckerberg to stand in front of Congress, which is kind of towards the election in 2020, 2021. And it intercuts between that. And you would think that would make for some riveting cinema, But it just doesn't. And obviously, I'm not spoiling anything here. But when it jumps back the first time, it has a little timeline. I'll say, oh, from 2019, it'll kind of jump to 2021 or whatever it is. And I saw that. I said, okay, cool. Like, thank you. You let me know. I got it. Now, when it's in Mark Zuckerberg, we're in 2021, 2020, the election, whatever. And when we're with Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, we're back in 2019, closer to 2020. Got it. Easy to remember. A good chunk of the movie, every time it would go back and forth, it would keep including that timeline of going forward a year, going backward a year, going forward. We're only jumping like two years ahead and there's only two different sections. This shouldn't be hard to follow once you establish that already. And I haven't even talked about what this movie is actually about. What is this movie trying to accomplish outside of the obvious? And this might sound weird because obviously the movie is about misinformation and the political ads and everything like that and the push to extremism engagement algorithm. We get it. I was trying to figure out the why. I think most people are aware of at least somewhat of a vague Facebook CEO tech bro Silicon Valley problem. So I was like, what can this movie achieve that goes even further than that? What is it going to do outside of just tell us kind of what we already vaguely know? And the answer is not much of any. I think it goes a little too far if people say this movie goes out of its way to humanize Mark Zuckerberg. I don't see that at all. All I will say is. If people have a problem with Aaron Sorkin's optimistic view of politics and his endings, oh my god, you will laugh at this movie's ending. I will repeat myself. I'm a fan, okay? I, like, I am. That ---- doesn't bother me. I can see, like, it's a movie, right? At the end of the day, it's a movie. I get it. But this ending, what the fu- When I say it ends with a fist pump, It's really tough. I really did not expect to be here to make this video. Oh my gosh. So there isn't too much to unveil to the audience that they might not already know. It's like, okay. There isn't actually a lot of tension within the scenes, especially during the investigative part where you really feel that Mikey Madison's character is constantly under attack and the walls are closing in on her. You don't actually do that very well at all. And this is probably Probably Aaron Sorkin's weakest script to me, outside of being the Ricardos, which again, I just don't remember. I'm sorry, I don't remember. So what does this movie have? Bill Burr. I can't say I foresaw his career going this way when I saw him do edgy stand-up comedy back in the day. But he's turned into a very good actor. Because the best scene in this movie that I mentioned earlier is the thing that Aaron Sorkin usually does best. Which is, in a closed, somewhat private environment, two characters with opposing beliefs going at each other's throats. Jeremy Strong and Bill Burr. There's a moment where Mark Zuckerberg is kind of practicing and rehearsing his answers in front of everybody and Bill Burr is constantly pushing back and it gets to the point where they kind of have to take a side conversation and that whole extended stretch was the only time in the movie where I leaned forward. It's the one time in the movie where it does hit on something a little bit deeper. The writing is good there, it's crisp, it's clear, it's fast and what they're talking about outside of some good Analogies that, you know, Sorkinisms there. You at the very least understand what they're saying even if you would disagree with Mark Zuckerberg. And it just pains me that that was the one moment. That was it. Mikey Madison, she deserved the Oscar for Anora. I don't want to hear it. I don't think this was right and not even for her per se. I just feel like she was miscast. I don't feel this character actually suits her sensibilities very well. And Jeremy Allen White, It's kind of just playing the straight man. He's an investigative reporter. He doesn't have a lot of emotion. You know, he kind of stays within like a calming sense of himself. Aaron Sorkin clearly doesn't have a problem kind of stretching the truth on things. And he really shouldn't in a movie. I think he is one of those people that is actually aware that he's making a movie and not a documentary. But then I'm like. You couldn't have given them a little bit more to do. You couldn't have given them a little bit more of a range of emotions. These are high, high stakes we're dealing with here. I never felt their range of emotions go past a certain point, nor did it feel like people were really going after them. And on top of that all, obviously there's no visual flair. That was even the case in Chicago 7, a movie I like. Molly's Game, a movie I like. I think overall, Assuming there's not people who are here to lick the boot of Facebook, most general audiences will watch this and have like a decent enough time. But I have a feeling that The knives have been out for this movie since it began. And if I feel this way about this movie, a movie that I was looking forward to genuinely, I cannot imagine what people are going to think about this movie if they don't like Aaron Sorkin movies and they just have a problem with this movie existing in the first place. Because this movie ventures off in places that does not make sense, that does not flow together well, and the writing is not enough to carry it this time. Did I mention the 2020 election? So uh yeah, that's a disappointment. The Social Reckoning. Two stars. God damn, man. 2026. I need something. You got to give me something. I can't wait for Dune 3. You got to give me something now. Let me know what you all think once you see it. Maybe I'm hating. I really don't think I am, though. 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