The Social Reckoning (M) – 112 minutes

Inspired by fact, The Social Reckoning is one of my movies of the year.

Based on the 2021 Facebook Files leak by whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) and the reporting of Wall Street Journal investigative journalist Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), it is intoxicating.

In fact, it is mighty scary and thrilling at the same time.

It speaks to the adage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, a line attributed to Lord Acton in 1887.

While the core of the story is real, writer/director Aaron Sorkin adjusted the timeline and included fictionalised elements, composite characters and dramatised scenes.

The movie starts with a standoff between a female driver standing by her locked car on a busy road when she is approached by law enforcement officers.

The woman live streams the interaction.

Haugen who works at Facebook and knew the person concerned four years earlier, sees the vision and uses the footage as proof of Facebook radicalising users.

Even though Haugen approaches people within Facebook to point out her concerns, none are prepared to listen.

Horwitz, who recently joined the Wall Street Journal, had already been digging around Facebook.

He sent out hundreds of unsolicited emails to members of Facebook’s Civic Integrity Team, among them Haugen.

Having not found satisfaction internally, Haugen responds to Horwitz, stating that anything she tells him will be anonymous and off the record.

Over the ensuing two years (between 2019 and 2021), the situation escalates to the point where she becomes the ultimate whistleblower.

Concurrently, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong), unaware of what Horwitz is about to publish, is being subjected to hostile preparation in a crisis management grilling.

What is repeatedly stated as fact is that 64 per cent of those who join extremist groups on Facebook are sent there by Facebook’s own algorithms.

So it is that The Social Reckoning is a powder keg of a movie, a companion piece to The Social Network (2010), which Sorkin co-wrote and won an Oscar for.

The heat is continually ratcheted up as the narrative develops.

Everything about its execution is top shelf, starting with Sorkin’s compelling writing and astute direction.

The performances are superb, led from the front by Mikey Madison’s intelligent, righteous and driven turn as Frances Haugen. She is spine tinglingly good.

So too Jeremy Allen White as the conscientious and persistent investigative reporter without a strong understanding of IT to begin with. Again, such a measured performance.

And then there is the steely eyed, controlled showing of Jeremy Strong as the head of Facebook, which shouts “no nonsense”.

The supporting cast is also suitably strong.

I also liked the settings and the cinematography thereof by Jeff Cronenweth.

So it is that I was fascinated, intrigued and horrified by what Sorkin et al presented.

To state the bleeding obvious, Social media has a lot to answer for.

Rated M, The Social Reckoning scores a 9 out of 10.