Anti-Zuckerberg movie 'The Social Reckoning' takes critical heat on both sides of political aisle

"The Social Reckoning," the follow-up to the 2010 hit "The Social Network," is facing blistering critiques from both sides of the political spectrum alongside lukewarm reviews from critics, with some reviewers sharply criticizing the film's political messaging and its handling of Facebook's role in American politics.

"The Social Network" focused on the creation of Facebook and the legal battle over its ownership, earning three Oscars, including for screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, and a 96% positive rating on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

It's more political follow-up, "The Social Reckoning," written and directed by Sorkin, has received a more mixed response, with a 61% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes as of Thursday evening.

Earlier this year, a trailer debuted showing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jeremy Strong) being questioned by a character played by comedian Bill Burr.

In the scene, Zuckerberg defends online free speech and argues that users are responsible for their own behavior.

Burr’s character vigorously challenges him.

Sorkin published an open letter in 2019 criticizing Zuckerberg’s management of the platform.

Outkick writer Ian Miller was one of several conservative critics who mocked the trailer as tone-deaf, replying, "It is the most Hollywood thing ever to desperately try and convince everyone that the guy making complete sense is the bad guy and the one demanding authoritarian ideological enforcement is the good guy." DAVID MARCUS: WOKE 1.0 IS WHY ENTERTAINERS NEEDED OUR SECRET CONSERVATIVE CLUB Film critics were also sharply critical.

The Globe and Mail film critic Barry Hertz tweeted that the film was "one of the most insipid, ugly, flat films of the year — an insufferably sanctimonious fantasia of blue-state Boomers." In his actual review, he argued that the movie is so counterproductive in that it "will turn even the most hardcore Facebook hater into a true-blue Facebook believer — the film is just that magnificently, unbelievably, despicably bad." Variety said it badly missed the original's director David Fincher and "already feels behind the curve," while Wired magazine’s review described the new film as one that "already feels irrelevant." Wired noted that the movie opens with the DUI arrest of a woman who directs racist, right-wing insults at police officers and is arrested for threatening to kill one of them.

When the video goes viral, a Facebook whistleblower recognizes the woman as a former liberal acquaintance from her Pilates class.

The film's climax, as noted by Wired, is the Jan.