‘The Social Whatever’: Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook Sequel Has Little Bite

I was almost enthused by the lousy advance critical reception given to Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning.” These days if you catch a new film that’s been widely slammed, chances are you’ll wind up pleasantly surprised by this or that aspect, or several even. Not this time. Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to 2010’s “The Social Network” is as subdued and unsurprising and dutifully flatline-ish as the negative reviews promised, or threatened. It has none of that David Fincher snap-crackle-pop — the edgy fizz that so enlivened “Social Network” 16 years ago. I respected “Reckoning” as far as it went, and couldn’t bring myself to hate it. But how excited will the average cinemagoing crowd be about catching a tolerable slumber flick like this? “The Social Reckoning,” a movie title that is all but impossible to remember — I finally gave up and started calling it “The Social Whatever” — passes along the saga of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (played by “Anora” Oscar-winner Mikey Madison), and particularly her sharing private alarm with Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) over Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to play ruthless or careless algorithmic games in order to boost Facebook’s readership and income: Toying with far right nutters, running unchecked political ads, that sort of thing.This sounds like an underwhelming premise and it’s what this under-lighted-by-Jeff Cronenweth, tired-blood film is basically about — Mark Zuckerberg (played by a zombie-like, red-haired Jeremy Strong) having decided to play footsie with anti-government right-wing hostility and online rage-bait dynamics (it was discovered in 2016 that 64% of extremist group joins were driven by Facebook’s algorithmic recommendation tools.)Mr. Sorkin’s brand new film was made because Ms. Haugen’s private alarm gradually morphed into public Congressional testimony in 2021, which led to Mr. Zuckerberg taking a reputational hit, and Facebook later becoming Meta. But this is old news, right? Five years ago we all pondered the ramifications of Ms. Haugen’s revelations and several Wall Street Journal articles that dug into the particulars. But where’s the beef in movie terms? It isn’t there, bruh.The best performance bar none is given by comedian Bill Burr, who was excellent as a mouthy fireman in Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island” (’20) and is nearly as good as Charlie Garrigan, a former Facebook investor and member of Mr. Zuckerberg’s legal counsel, who is a composite of associates of the tech billionaire. What’s so great about Bill Burr? For one thing he gets into Mr. Zuckerberg’s face and doesn’t back off. You can also understand every word he says, which is more than you can say for Ms. Madison and Mr. White. Mikey Madison was feisty and pugnacious in “Anora”, but here she’s a conflicted, internally-plagued Facebook Product Manager who “acts” out her anxiety and whatnot. Her coarse Brooklyn accent has been shorn, as you might expect, and she’s now a tiny bit fuller of frame. I’m sorry but those “Anora” vibes — that sexy, pistol-hot anger stew — is out the window now. Mr. Sorkin has turned down Ms. Madison’s flame. She was at the top of her game when she wrestled with Yura Borisov two years ago, but now that’s vapor. Here’s hoping she gets lucky again.As for Jeremy Allen White, things simply aren’t happening for the guy on the big screen. He didn’t ignite in 2023’s “The Iron Claw.” Ditto his Bruce Springsteen performance in “Deliver Me From Nowhere.” He’s not bad as Jeff Horwitz but he doesn’t exactly volcano-ize matters either. His next two performances are in “Enemies” opposite Austin Butler, followed by Jeremiah Zagar’s “The Painted Bride.” Mr. Strong’s performance as manager Jon Landau also underwhelmed in “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” but his Mark Zuckerberg in Mr. Sorkin’s film is, however accurate in real-life Zuckerberg terms, oddly robotic — almost a novocaine thing. He was wonderful as the ruthless Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice”, playing the mentor of Sebastian Stan’s Donald Trump and also genuine and grounded as a conflicted Queens dad in James Gray’s “Armageddon Time.” He’s one of our greatest actors and I feel truly sorry about his decision to play the Facebook founder as a display-window mannequin.I was so settled down and under-energized by “The Social Reckoning” that it took an odd night view in Puerto Rico to wake me up. Ms. Haugen flies there during the pandemic to get away from all the pressure, and rents a room at a modest hotel. But there’s a nocturnal shot of her walking on the beach, and in the background is a large cluster of tall office buildings. I was wondering why any stressed-out American would fly to balmy Puerto Rico only to crash in the immediate vicinity of an anonymous glass-and-steel corporate village. If I visit Puerto Rico I want palm trees, lush foliage, ocean breezes, mom-and-pop cafes.L.A. Times film editor Joshua Rothkopf recently wrote that the New York Film Festival-ed “Artificial” and director Luca Guadagnino “just ate Sorkin’s lunch [as] the spiritual sequel to ‘The Social Network.'” He was absolutely right. Mr. Sorkin hasn’t made a bad film with “The Social Reckoning” but he certainly hasn’t blown the bloody doors off, as Michael Caine might put it. It’s an intelligent ho-hummer.There’s a curious moment when Ms. Haugen tells Mr. Horwitz that she never wanted to be a Frank Capra character, a presumed reference to Jimmy Stewart’s idealistic Senator in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. There’s no believing that Ms. Haugen, a Millennial born in ’83 or thereabouts, would be even vaguely familiar with Capra’s work. Secondly, Mr. Horwitz suggests that she might want to familiarize herself with Capra’s “Lost Horizon”. No mention of “It Happened One Night,” “You Can’t Take it With You,” or “Arsenic and Old Lace”? It’s an odd detour, to say the least, in an oddly flat film.

‘The Social Whatever’: Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook Sequel Has Little Bite

‘The Social Whatever’: Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook Sequel Has Little Bite

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