Is ‘The Social Reckoning’ really as bad as it looks?
“I have a hunch you’re not a fan of Facebook”
I’ve learned, over the years, not to judge a movie by its trailer. Great trailers have promoted bad movies, and bad trailers can come before great ones.
I will continue to apply that principle. But The Social Reckoning, writer-director Aaron Sorkin’s sort-of sequel to 2010’s The Social Network, last week debuted one of the worst-received movie trailers in recent memory.
The film, which hits theaters this October, centers on the story of Frances Haugen, a Facebook employee and whistleblower who testified before Congress in 2021 about various wrongdoing by the company.
The Social Network, of course, focused on Facebook’s origin, so I always thought it would make sense for a follow-up, covering some of the controversial things that have happened with the company in the years since. After all, there have been numerous major news stories about Facebook (now known as Meta) in the 16 years since the first movie, some of which have been the subject of bestselling books.
However, the sequel is missing a few things. David Fincher has not returned as director, so Sorkin — who won an Oscar for writing The Social Network — is directing as well. Jesse Eisenberg is not returning as Mark Zuckerberg, with Jeremy Strong stepping into the part; nor are any actors from the first film set to return. Not even Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross — also Oscar winners for their famed Social Network score — are back, with Alexandre Desplat writing the music, even though the new trailer uses a snippet of the old movie’s score.
So there was quite a bit of skepticism about The Social Reckoning, even before the trailer arrived last week. But then it did, and quite a few new critiques emerged. Starting with, “what the hell is Mikey Madison saying?”
