When David Fincher’s The Social Network came out all the way back in 2010, its impact was immediate. The feature’s Oscar-winning screenplay from Aaron Sorkin was as tight a script as the widely celebrated writer had ever conceived, while Fincher brought it to life with arguably the most confident and deliberate directing of his career, delivering a picture that not only captured the zeitgeist of time, but it also proved to be a prescient piece of art, akin to Radiohead’s 1997 opus OK, Computer, which eerily captured a 21st century that made a film like The Social Network an inevitability.
Its sequel, The Social Reckoning, which is both written and directed by Sorkin, is finally on the way with a release of October 9th, while the first trailer dropped just last week.
There had been speculation on a sequel for quite some time, and in 2019 Sorkin finally acknowledged that there was enough material for a sequel, telling AP Entertainment in 2018, “I know a lot more about Facebook in 2005 than I do in 2018, but I know enough to know that there should be a sequel…. A lot of very interesting, dramatic stuff has happened since [The Social Network] ends”. Yet, what is fascinating here is that Sorkin was most likely referencing the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which also occurred in 2018, while The Social Reckoning centers on the leaking of tens of thousands of Meta’s damning internal documents by whistleblower Frances Haugen in 2021, so Sorkin still had no idea what was to come at the time he have that interview.
Recent Oscar-winner Mikey Madison headlines the film as Haugen, while Jeremy Allen White plays the journalist who broke the story, Jeff Howritz, and Mark Zuckerberg will be portrayed by none other than Succession actor and Emmy winner Jeremy Strong. Yet, despite such immense talent on both sides of the camera, the first trailer for The Social Reckoning has received somewhat of a mixed response from audiences.
The first point of criticism and mockery is the unintentionally ironic opening line from Madsen’s Haugen, where she says to Allen White’s Horwitz, “Listen before I go on, I wanna make something clear,” before unclearly blurting out “I have a hunch you’re not a fan of Facebook.” I honestly thought I was the problem at first when I had to turn the subtitles on for this part, but the masses were quick to put my mind at ease as many pointed to the same issue, leaving many baffled why such a take would be in the trailer, never mind the film itself, which could certainly change after this response. Then, there is the cringe-inducing moment at the very end of the trailer where Allen White’s journalist tells a tech bro (played by Billy Magnussen) that Madsen’s Haugen is “disrupting,” referencing Silicon Valley’s own tired buzzword.
However, what plays out between these two instances is admittedly intriguing and engaging, giving hope to a feature that, frankly, audiences are judging too soon. The undisputed standout of the trailer, though, is Jeremy Strong’s uncannily accurate performance as Zuckerberg, particularly in his mimicry of Zuckerberg’s voice and cadence of speech. But it would be foolish to assume that this is merely an impersonation from an actor of Strong’s caliber, because from what I have seen in this first trailer, his performance is more of an embodiment.
This is abundantly clear when we see Strong’s Zuckerberg presumably undergoing training for his address to congress, and when asked his occupation, he responds with, “I’m a professional defendant,” which is just the type of dumb fucking joke the real-life Zuckerberg would make and a testament to Sorkin’s writing, but right after making said joke, Strong perfectly delivers a shit-eating smirk that you would often see from the terminally uncharismatic Zuckerberg when he says something that nobody but him finds amusing.
As you can probably tell by now, I am by no means a fan of Mark Zuckerberg, but unsurprisingly neither is Jessie Eisenberg, who played the tech CEO in 2010’s The Social Network and even landed an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his performance.
The Social Reckoning is being billed as a “companion piece” by the studio rather than a fully-fledged sequel. However, Sorkin has recently acknowledged that Eisenberg was initially offered the role, explaining “He simply did not want to be conflated with Mark Zuckerberg anymore, that he has his problems with the guy,” before further elaborating that “He doesn’t like kids coming up to him in airports with business cards that say ‘I’m CEO, bitch’ for him to sign,” which is certainly understandable on Eisenberg’s part.
While there is no returning cast, there is still a plethora of talent rounding out the cast who appear in the trailer, including the aforementioned Magnussen, Bill Burr, Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin, Gbenga Akinnagbe, and Canadian Inuk actress from Nunavut Anna Lambe, who is having a career year given that will also see her in a major role in the Brad Pitt-led survival thriller Heart of the Beast.