Opening in theaters this week, Aaron Sorkin’s biographical drama The Social Reckoning features Jeremy Strong as a growth-obsessed Facebook co-founder and examines the platform’s role in spreading misinformation. The film arrives sixteen years after Sorkin wrote The Social Network, shifting its focus from corporate origins to recent whistleblowing and algorithmic rage bait.
The Bottom Line
- The Social Reckoning hits theaters this week, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin.
- Jeremy Strong stars as a fictionalized Mark Zuckerberg.
- The script draws on whistleblower Frances Haugen’s disclosures and investigative reporting by Jeff Horwitz.
Sorkin Returns to Facebook
There’s supposed to be some kind of tension between growth and safety.
Haugen also took the unusual step of going public around the same time. In the wake of the ensuing outcry, Facebook’s parent company rebranded itself as Meta.
From Internal Leaks to Cinematic Drama
Sorkin’s film was inspired in part by Horwitz’s book recounting the ordeal, Broken Code. Haugen, played by Mikey Madison, evolves from passionate Facebook employee to audacious whistleblower as she interacts with Horwitz, played by Jeremy Allen White. He’s been able to immediately isolate himself from consequences for 20 years.
So my Facebook page wasn’t dangerous at all.
It was pictures of cute dogs,
he said.
| Film Project | Director / Writer | Lead Actor Portraying Zuckerberg |
|---|---|---|
| The Social Network | Aaron Sorkin (Writer) | Jesse Eisenberg |
| The Social Reckoning | Aaron Sorkin (Dir. & Write) | Jeremy Strong |
Casting Choices and Broadway Parallels
Sorkin naturally reached out to him first for The Social Reckoning, which Sorkin both writes and directs. But Eisenberg refused the role. It turns out Jesse Eisenberg no longer wants to be conflated with Mark Zuckerberg.
He doesn’t like the guy,
Sorkin said.
Aaron Sorkin calls Jeremy Strong the best American actor under 50 years old.
Discussing the thematic overlap with his debut script, Sorkin noted to CBS News regarding his new film: I think the theme is you’re not getting the truth in ‘The Social Reckoning.’ I think that we can handle the truth, but … you know what?
I’m going to take that back.
