AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Leaked documents, a whistle blower, explosive revelations and a secretive Facebook founding billionaire named Mark Zuckerberg.
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JEREMY STRONG: (As Mark Zuckerberg) People around here understand that when I say no, that's the end of the debate.
CHANG: Filmmaker Aaron Sorkin's journalism drama "The Social Reckoning" is being billed not as a sequel, but as a companion piece to "The Social Network," which won Sorkin a screenwriting Oscar 15 years ago. Critic Bob Mondello says it's different by design.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Early on, we see Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz depicted as a boogie man at a Facebook employee forum.
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BILLY MAGNUSSEN: (As Teddy) This is the Journal's new Facebook detective. He's not looking for trouble. He's hunting for it.
MONDELLO: Employees are warned not to talk to this guy, though, as played by "The Bear's" Jeremy Allen White, he seems less than tech savvy. He's late for his job interview because he doesn't know how to use his rental car's GPS. And when quizzed...
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Do you have an interest in social media?
JEREMY ALLEN WHITE: (As Jeff Horwitz) Not even a little bit. Look, I'm an investigative reporter.
MONDELLO: ...One who does the legwork and puts out feelers. And one of them reaches Facebook engineer Frances Haugen, who's not been able to get anyone at Facebook to listen to her, and turns to him...
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MIKEY MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) I want to make something clear.
MONDELLO: ...In frustration.
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WHITE: (As Jeff Horwitz) OK.
MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) I am here to help Facebook, not hurt it.
WHITE: (As Jeff Horwitz) You sent me a message. What would you like to talk about?
MONDELLO: Frances shows him a viral Facebook post from an acquaintance who was once progressive, but...
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MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) Something changed.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Cops are being [expletive] because I'm white.
MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) I wanted to find out who radicalized my friend.
WHITE: (As Jeff Horwitz) And?
MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) We did.
MONDELLO: She starts explaining how she knows that.
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MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) I ran classifiers on political groups where 30% of content has multiple risk factors.
WHITE: (As Jeff Horwitz) Hang on. I don't understand what you're saying.
MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) Aren't you a tech reporter?
WHITE: (As Jeff Horwitz) Ish.
MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) Ish?
MONDELLO: Played impatiently by Oscar-winner Mikey Madison, Haugen lays out what she's learned about Facebook's internal studies and management decisions that emphasize profits over people.
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MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) Facebook wants you to stay on the site for as long as possible. And two years ago, the algorithm was changed.
WUNMI MOSAKU: (As Raya) We're trying to address hate speech, and you're going to amplify and turbocharge it.
MONDELLO: Which, of course, has real world consequences.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: Anxiety, depression of teenage girls got worse as a result of time spent on the platform.
MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) Senior leadership knows and is doing nothing.
MONDELLO: Damning stuff, but it turns out Haugen's as clueless about journalism as Horwitz is about tech.
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MADISON: (As Frances Haugen) Why haven't you printed it?
WHITE: (As Jeff Horwitz) Because you didn't give me a story. You told me a story. I want the internal documents. I want proof.
MONDELLO: Filmmaker Aaron Sorkin could probably bring urgency to a cooking show, so this stuff is decently engaging, but he's clearly more invested when he's depicting Jeremy Strong's Mark Zuckerberg as a fatuous control freak so socially inept, he needs training sessions just to appear human.
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BILL BURR: (As Charlie) These guys are counting on the next round of congressional testimony to make you likable, Mark. I'm happy to lend a hand, but I think you're doomed.
MONDELLO: From what we see in the sessions, he's right.
"The Social Reckoning" fits right in with other fall films that portray tech billionaires as jerks or worse. Sorkin is all about doing that with language. He pokes fun at a memo in which Facebook employees pledge to be conscious when they meant conscientious, and his characters are forever splitting linguistic hairs.
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STRONG: (As Mark Zuckerberg) I'm a free speech absolutist, so except where there's imminent harm...
BURR: (As Charlie) You can't say absolutist and except in the same...
STRONG: (As Mark Zuckerberg) ...Where there...
BURR: (As Charlie) With the new optimization, the fire hose of bad information you are injecting into the air supply is becoming jet powered. Harm, I promise you, is imminent.
MONDELLO: Sorkin's verbal pyrotechnics enliven some pretty flat filmmaking choices. "Social Reckoning" looks like high-end television and is clearly designed as much to decry corporate irresponsibility as to entertain.
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BURR: (As Charlie) You're like a crossing guard standing in front of a school, but you're not doing anything with your arms so the cars are just plowing down the children.
MONDELLO: At one point, the film claims that 43% of adults get their news from Facebook. If you're listening to this review, you're presumably getting your news elsewhere, at least some of the time. Are you in the habit of getting it from movies?
I'm Bob Mondello.
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