Film Review: The Social Reckoning chases the algorithm in the age of AI

How do people get radicalised on social media? How does the algorithm accentuate fear and negativity? How does an echo chamber become toxic enough to power actual violence? Democracies all over the world have been grappling with transnational corporations that are exercising mind control without any supervision.

A movie about it should be far more energetic and frenetic than The Social Reckoning, especially given it is written by Aaron Sorkin who gave us The Social Network 16 years ago about the rise of a boy named Mark Zuckerberg (then played by Jesse Eisenberg). Well he is a man here, and a very powerful one, hiding behind a bulletproof computer screen and bulletproof couch. We meet Zuckerberg at the point where he is beginning to lose profits as Facebook users get older. We see him preparing for the Congressional testimony with a mixture of arrogance and insecurity.

Meanwhile Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), the Facebook engineer-turned-whistleblower, and Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), a reported from the Wall Street Journal, are busy putting together a series of stories that will expose how Facebook prioritises revenue over user safety. Their scenes together have a good energy as the tech savvy Frances gives Jeff valuable leads. Their exchanges are fun, including her interpreting Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as metrosexuals—they worked as metro reporters. But the film is largely devoid of wit. Or bite.