The film was doomed without Fincher or Eisenberg.
Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Reckoning" is DOA. Not only is this "The Social Network" spiritual sequel sitting at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it's also disappointing audiences with a "B-" CinemaScore, which has resulted in a $5M+ weekend. The budget was $40M–$42M.
Sony greenlit this film for the Oscars, not for the box office, but nominations won't be coming its way with those scores. Not that we should have expected too much. Sure, Sorkin’s “Trial of the Chicago 7” was a pandemic-era Oscar contender, but his track record as a filmmaker has been wobbly, at best.
The film's thesis, in a nutshell: Facebook, a company with zero moral compass, lit the match that became January 6th. Fine. But there's no audience for a movie like this. There's no bombshell or whistleblower reveal that makes you sit up in your seat; this film just never gets going. Nothing is exposed that you haven't already read online. What you get instead is talk. These characters never stop yapping, scene after scene of people explaining things to each other in rooms, and by the halfway mark, I was checking my watch.
Sorkin's direction is another problem. The staging is flat and airless. There's a strange, washed-out palette that makes the film feel more like polished TV. I won't even compare this to Fincher's 'Social Network,' because it's a totally different movie with a larger canvas, but on its own terms, it just doesn't work.
On the plus side, Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White are not to blame; they're all in with their characters, and Jeremy Strong's almost alien take on Zuckerberg is certainly interesting.
Let's start a "reader's thoughts" thread in the comments below. It's not limited to 'Social Reckoning.' There are many notable films playing. What did you see this weekend?
UPDATE: What is Madison actually saying here? She tells THR that Sorkin didn’t allow her to get deeper into her real-life character? That last line about hoping to "authentically and faithfully represent a real person" in the future suggests she doesn't think this role does that? It reads as polite disappointment.
I assumed that would be the vision. But after hearing Aaron very adamantly say that he did not want me to do that, it took me a while to wrap my head around it. Ultimately, I did fall in love with the character that he had written on the page. So that approach did allow me to have more creative freedom in a sense, which I’m grateful for. But in the future, I look forward to possibly having the opportunity to authentically and faithfully represent a real person.
At a Q&A this morning, Gray said "Two Lovers" was the first film he made with creative control. He was far less kind about the three before it, "Little Odessa," "The Yards" and "We Own the Night."