09 October,2026 10:46 PM IST | Mumbai | Mayank Shekhar
The Social Reckoning (Pic/X)
The Social Reckoning is, obviously, the mouse-lion, David-Goliath kinda story - the sorts, where the eventual victory of the underdog offers humanity hope and goosebumps, in equal measure.
And, yes, you do feel both. But to think of it - isn't this film the David of that story itself?
To be fierce yet fair - how frickin' wildly can you possibly swing against a living man, i.e. tech czar Mark Zuckerberg, so bloody powerful that he rightly considers himself "post-government" (in the picture), while his might has only grown rather than diminished since the case/inquiry, as surveyed in this pic, was publicly brought to light?
It's still all about the numbers, isn't it? 64 is the key one for this movie - basically an exposé to do with the social media network Facebook that, at the point of its setting, circa 2020, had 2.8 billion users, with valuation of a trillion dollars.
What's 64? The percentage of people sent over to extremist groups on Facebook, pushed toward communal hate, through the algorithm, consciously designed such by Facebook itself.
What if you could, journalistically, prove this, and other stuff that made the corporation complicit in similarly divisive and dangerous moves - chasing numbers at whatever human cost?
Well, the proof was there. What was the real-world consequence? To the best of my knowledge - since most things around tech majors tend to be classified - Facebook merely changed its name to Meta! This movie's narrative can barely go beyond the metaphor then.
How does one make it so hugely engaging, still? Well, powering through dialogues, bordering on the literary - that writer-director Aaron Sorkin's indisputably the king of (A Few Good Men, The West Wing).
And two deeply relatable, vulnerable, yet passionate characters, who find a purpose beyond their profession.
That is, the Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), and his brave source inside Facebook, Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison).
They feel so tentative, hesitant in each other's company, while their relationship develops, as it only can, with unquestioningly blind trust/faith.
Such that if The Social Reckoning wasn't a corporate/political drama - it could have well been an equally watchable romantic comedy. Although it's highly unlikely that the thoroughly clinical, Sorkin, has a hardcore romantic bone in his body (of work)!
For the subtlety/facts of the said case, it's also hardly surprising that the real cinematic drama - where you sense some motion in your throat - only kicks in over the final 45 minutes of the film, leading to a finale, that had me viscerally clapping in absolute joy, while Madison pumps her fist! What a moment.
Could the movie have been restructured better for a more emotionally seamless experience - who's to know! The Social Reckoning is the sequel-in-spirit to
David Fincher's The Social Network (2010), also written by Sorkin.
The actual sequel, I think, are Zuckerberg's own depositions before US authorities in the past that we've all watched live, and they're fine documentaries by themselves.
It could be unfair to compare Fincher's pure filmmaking finesse with Sorkin's more urgently talkie style. Take Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) on political protests/dissent that's proving to be so prophetic.
It's probably just as unfair to compare The Social Network with The Social Reckoning, but for one PoV. Which is Zuckerberg himself - far more humanised in the former (Jesse Eisenberg), gently bordering on the caricature with the latter (Jeremy Strong).
Or, maybe, it's just the visual hangover of Strong from Succession - I can't seem to take him out of the show, even while he plays such a different, morally unambiguous sorta guy.
Perhaps, more likely, it's gotta do with the aforementioned power and resultant self-censorship - what level of access with Zuckerberg could the filmmakers have been privileged with, anyway?
Consider the scenes to do with the infamous, 2021 Capitol riots in Washington in the film. They refer to Donald Trump as "he", talking about him all through.
Contrast this with Trump's forceful biopic, Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice (2024), that pulls no punches. Strong so strikingly shone out there playing Trump's mentor, Roy Cohn; no?
The Apprentice wasn't allowed to release in India. I'm glad The Social Reckoning, as a story, even exists. Given America, for all its other issues, continues to value rigorous, independent journalism, and such strong protection to whistleblowers. Imagine if Facebook was Chinese, inevitably the other superpower.
Which, of course, doesn't absolve the role of American tech giants in collectively warping brains through aggregating hate, conspiracy theories, fake news, history, geography, medicine⦠âWhatsApp University' has been more the recognisable concern in India. It's also owned by Facebook.
At the heart of The Social Reckoning is the question of absolutism in free-speech, and if you must ever draw a line - what about exhortation to violence, maybe?
Sorkin's clear where he stands on that with the film: "Democracy is the best form of government. It's not the best form of everything!"
