The Social Reckoning

It’s Sorkin, so everybody talks fast and throws around techno jargon and lingo that flies way over my head. Thank Zeus for the humans in the story (Bill Burr and Jeremy Allen White), who keep it grounded for us common folk. The patter goes like this: A data genius blabs about algorithms and statistics, and then one of the normies asks, “But what does all that mean??” and the genius explains it in layman’s terms. Rinse and repeat. It’s a watchable history that confirms something we already knew: You-know-who used Facebook to organize the January 6 insurrection attempt. And as robotic as Zuckerberg is in this, he’s nevertheless forced to kick the head insurrectionist off the platform. The movie never says his name. Cowards. Mikey Madison rises to the tough challenge of spewing all that data dialogue while remaining credible and heroic. You believe her when she often repeats, “I love Facebook.” This sequel/follow-up doesn’t really light the world on fire the way The Social Network did -- it’s hard to make a movie about a harmful algorithm. It’s still compelling as a history of social media and Zuckerbergian shittiness.