Review: Tepid ‘Social Reckoning’ adds little to the Facebook story

Despite a terrific “prologue” that promises screenwriter-turned-director Aaron Sorkin has an intriguing story to tell in his return to Facebook’s shady business practices — 16 years after The Social Network — “The Social Reckoning” ultimately has zero to add to the deserved finger-pointing at social media’s culpability in fostering outrage, bullying and even — as Sorkin claims — igniting the 2021 storming of the Capitol. Sorkin’s follow-up to the much better Network is a well-intentioned story about a journalist and a whistleblower teaming up to expose how Facebook encourages extremist behavior. But it lacks energy and fails to create any strong sense of drama. “The Social Reckoning” often struggles like a startup, with creators believing they have something revolutionary and novel on their hands when, in fact, they’re simply rehashing what’s come before. And they did a poor job of working out the kinks before the launch date. Sorkin’s film lacks elegance. It’s clunky and disjointe