‘The Social Reckoning’ Is the Kind of Film That the Oscars Have Moved Past Recognizing

Judged on its own merits, there is nothing particularly embarrassing about “The Social Reckoning.” It would be hyperbolic to call the film a disaster when it is competently made, starring an ensemble of impressive actors, with a script that includes many of the little details that feel signature to writer/director Aaron Sorkin.

But the film is simply not “The Social Network.” The film’s marketing may pay homage to David Fincher’s previous film about the inner workings of Facebook that ended up earning Sorkin an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2011, but the way in which he helms this new story strikes a vastly different tone than what his predecessor made.

Sorkin’s film does use a similar framework to the first, as “The Social Reckoning” goes back and forth in time. There’s the meat of the story, as Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (Oscar winner Mikey Madison) and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) begin work on the Facebook Files, cut with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) preparing for a congressional hearing a couple years later.

But if “The Social Network” functioned as a biopic, “The Social Reckoning” is a process film. The Sorkin film it actually is most comparable to is not Fincher’s, it is “A Few Good Men.” White and Madison are sort of like Tom Cruise and Demi Moore, building a mountain of evidence against the company, while Strong is playing an ornery witness a la Jack Nicholson.

But it is not a spoiler to say that the film does not build to a “You can’t handle the truth”-level showdown between its main characters. As was alluded to in IndieWire’s recent interview with Madison, the ending is more akin to “The Breakfast Club,” with someone triumphantly pumping their fist up in the air.

That’s all a long way of saying “The Social Reckoning” is very dated.

Casting Oscar winner Madison, Oscar nominee Strong, and Golden Globe nominee White may feel inspired in one sense of platforming fresh talent the way “The Social Network” was a breakout moment for stars like Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Rooney Mara. In practice, casting three stars that were introduced to the world via television in a film directed by someone with more of a television pedigree just leads to a movie that feels like it would have been a resident on a TNT programming block 20 years ago.

‘The Social Reckoning’ director Aaron Sorkin with on set with star Mikey MadisonLeah Gallo/Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

And that programming block probably included plenty of Oscar-winning films! But there have been big changes in what films voters have a taste for, and what films are even made these days.

Take a look at the Best Adapted Screenplay race, and the scale is either epic in scope, like “The Odyssey,” “Project Hail Mary,” or even “La Bola Negra,” or it is much cheaper and riskier like “The Invite” or “All of a Sudden.” The mid-budget movies that once filled the majority of Oscar nomination slots are now a rarity. Even something similarly conventional like “Being Heumann,” with a blank check from Apple Studios, is still going to get more credit for confronting the challenges of depicting underrepresented communities like people with disabilities.

With all due credit to Sorkin, every film he’s directed so far has been Oscar-nominated, but two of those films came in the thick of the pandemic, watched by the majority of viewers on a streaming platform. The well of theatrical releases has now replenished, and there are now more writers and directors around that are pushing the medium forward.

“The Social Reckoning” is a throwback, meaning there is still a wide audience that will appreciate it, but it is just not something Oscar voters are in the market to recognize anymore.