Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning currently has a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while Kalshi traders currently expect it to remain just above the site's 60% threshold.
Traders predicted on Monday that the new film would finish with a "Fresh" score of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes. The forecast then fell more than 20 percentage points from Monday's 69% prediction to a low of 48.2% before the review embargo lifted, then rebounded into Fresh territory as positive reviews were published.
The Social Reckoning's Rotten Tomatoes market now forecasts the Facebook drama will receive a 60.1% Tomatometer rating. The film is currently sitting at 61% among critics on Rotten Tomatoes as of Thursday afternoon.
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The positive reviews
Some critics praised The Social Reckoning for making its complicated subject matter accessible and entertaining, even as they found it inferior to The Social Network.
Consequence's Liz Shannon Miller praised Sorkin for clearly explaining the complicated role Facebook's algorithms play in the film's story and their broader societal impact.
“Reckoning, meanwhile, is all about the algorithms and their impact – explained with remarkable coherence by the script,” Miller wrote. “Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, for what it’s worth, isn’t quite as effective in dramatizing its own technology-focused story – Sorkin does have a real knack for making complex topics like this palatable on screen. And in this case, these topics are incredibly important.”
The Film Verdict's Alonso Duralde praised the film as engaging and entertaining despite finding it less rich and ambitious than The Social Network.
“If this sounds more like a made-for-TV procedural than the rich tapestry of character, ambition, betrayal, paranoia, and hubris that made up The Social Network, it absolutely is,” Duralde wrote. “But The Social Reckoning is, at least, a fully engaging and even entertaining yarn about very unpleasant recent history, brimming as it is with uglier and uglier facts, and Sorkin knows how to spin it.”
The Arizona Republic's Bill Goodykoontz called The Social Reckoning a good film that falls short of its Oscar-winning predecessor, which he described as "one of the three best movies of the 21st century."
“The Social Reckoning tells another compelling story, about how whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) worked with Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) to blow the whistle on Facebook’s and Zuckerberg’s practices. But the magic’s just not there.”
The negative reviews
Other critics were considerably less enthusiastic about Sorkin's follow-up.
TheWrap's William Bibbiani wrote that although the film conveys the information necessary to tell its story, its dramatic elements fail to give that information sufficient context or impact.
“The film technically conveys the information Sorkin needs to tell his story, but his story is an exercise in dry data analysis and heavy-handed banter, leading up to a historical tragedy Sorkin isn’t brave enough to dramatize with any meaningful context,” Bibbiani wrote.
The Film Maven's Kristen Lopez criticized the movie for focusing heavily on its message about Facebook at the expense of its characters. She argued that Sorkin's dual role as writer and director leaves the film "heavy on the preaching and light on the characterization."
“The 2010 film was a David Fincher movie that had a Sorkin script,” Lopez wrote. “A strong directorial voice can smooth Sorkin’s penchant for big political pontificating with an engaging story. With Sorkin pulling double duty as director and screenwriter, The Social Reckoning becomes heavy on the preaching and light on the characterization.”
Slant Magazine's Jake Cole criticized Sorkin's screenplay for relying heavily on one-liners rather than generating suspense from the film's central story.
“In place of suspense, Sorkin falls back on screwball-esque dialogue, unleashing a string of zingers about Jeff [Horwitz]’s Luddite cluelessness in the face of Frances’s technical jargon, Frances’s millennial obliviousness to basic pop-culture reference points, and Zuckerberg’s inability to relate to people,” Cole wrote.
Despite the divided critical response, the Kalshi forecast has recovered from its pre-embargo low of 48.2%. Traders currently forecast a final Tomatometer score of 60.1%, keeping The Social Reckoning just above the 60% threshold for a Fresh rating.
The takeaway:
Kalshi markets now predict
The Social Reckoning's Rotten Tomatoes rating: 60.1%
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