THE SOCIAL RECKONING : Tuesday 13th October 2026.

I saw the M Rated 'THE SOCIAL RECKONING' earlier this week, and this American legal thriller film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Aaron Sorkin, whose prior feature film making credits are 'Molly's Game' in 2017, 'The Trial of the Chicago 7' in 2020 and 'Being the Ricardo's' in 2022. He is also credited as the Writer for such films as 'A Few Good Men', 'The American President', 'The Social Network', 'Moneyball' and 'Steve Jobs'. This film is the sequel to 2010's biographical drama film 'The Social Network' Directed by David Fincher and portrays the founding of the social networking website Facebook, and stars Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. That film cost US$40M to produce and went on to gross worldwide US$225M. This film saw its World Premiere screening in London on 29th September and was released Stateside and here in Australia last week having so far grossed US$10M at the Box Office against a production budget of around US$40M, and has garnered mixed or average critical reviews.

The film opens with a lone woman standing beside her parked car on a busy freeway, seemingly talking into her mobile phone and seemingly oblivious to the speeding vehicles passing her by. Two Police Officers pull up in their patrol vehicle and start to question the woman, who immediately becomes aggressive while streaming the whole episode live to her Facebook feed, claiming she is being victimised, harassed. and punished for minding her own business. Eventually the Officers bundle the woman into their patrol car kicking and screaming, after she threatens to kill them. 

We then meet Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) who has recently joined the Civic Integrity Team as a data engineer at Facebook. Despite her steadfast belief in Facebook's core mission of connecting people, Frances discovers that leadership at the company is prioritising engagement and advertising sales over user safety. Facebook Media Relations Executive Teddy Marks (Billy Magnussen) holds a briefing session to the Civic Integrity Team on efforts by journalists to gain company information from Facebook employees. Frances plans to bring her concerns to Teddy publicly, but the forum ends before she can ask her question and is dismissed by other members within her team.

The Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) joins the paper's San Francisco Bureau and is assigned to cover Facebook. Jeff, a political reporter by trade, is wary of Facebook's role in American life rather than as a social media platform. Jeff contacts every member of the Civic Integrity Team via LinkedIn, eventually hearing from just one, Frances, who plans to meet with him despite her fear of violating her non-disclosure agreement. When Jeff and Frances meet for the first time, Frances shares the concerns she attempted to bring to Teddy and her colleagues. Frances explains her childhood friend, Kayleigh (Portia Doubleday), was a political progressive who became radicalised after spending 9+ hours a day on Facebook, which led to her being arrested, by the two Police Officers at the top of this story. While Jeff is interested in Frances's claims, he doesn't have enough to publish a story, and needs factual documented evidence. Frances dismisses this notion and tells Jeff that he'll need to do his own research.

Frances accompanies a small handful of her colleagues to deliver a presentation to Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong). Members of the team explain to Mark that Facebook’s algorithms are amplifying hate speech and divisive content. Unconvinced by suggestions to make changes to the platform, Mark cuts the presentation short and dismisses them. 

Fearing that Civic Integrity will be dissolved, Frances becomes more willing to sharing documents with Jeff. She begins meeting with him at his hotel. Civic Integrity is officially dispensed with following the 2020 US Presidential election. At a farewell party, Frances attempts to convince her colleague, Morgan (Anna Lambe), to sign an open letter she has written intending to send it directly to Zuckerberg, but Morgan tells her to delete it. Morgan later visits Frances at her apartment, delivering her a flash drive containing an internal study on Instagram's (which Facebook now owns) impacts on teen mental health and suicides.

Frances, it is revealed suffers with coeliac disease, and decides to temporarily relocate herself to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to take advantage of the warmer climate which will ease her coeliac condition, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jeff travels to San Juan to continue working with her. Armed with enough information from the documents, Jeff begins publishing stories in the Facebook Files series. Frances is called back to the San Francisco offices after Facebook's human resources department determines that she cannot work remotely from another US territory. She becomes concerned that Facebook will find out she is the leak and halts all contact with Jeff.

In 2021, Mark, aided by crisis management consultant Raya (Wunmi Mosaku), former Facebook investor Charlie Garrigan (Bill Burr), and a group of assistants, prepares to testify before the US Senate. Raya attempts to prepare Mark for difficult questions on content moderation and Facebook’s role in American elections. Charlie challenges Facebook’s policies on free speech and the fact-checking of political advertisements, but Mark states in no uncertain terms that the platform serves as a 'public square'. 

Preparation for Mark's Senate testimony is interrupted by reports of the January 6th US Capitol siege. Urged to ban President Donald Trump from Facebook after he fails to call off the protesters, Mark temporarily seems at a loss with what course of action to take. Under pressure from Raya and Charlie, Mark makes the decision to block Trump from posting on Facebook's platforms. 

After meeting with Jeff and his colleagues - Kris (Betty Gilpin) the bureau chief and Jeff's boss, and Andy (Gbenga Akinnagbe) Jeff's Editor, Frances commits to gaining whistleblower protection and testifying before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security. News of Jeff’s reporting reaches Mark and his team. Jeff meets with Teddy to interview him on background before publishing another entry in the Facebook Files. Teddy says that he knows that Frances is the whistleblower, and she's done in this town and will be lucky to get a job in a cafe when they're through. Jeff responds with three questions, and gives Teddy 72 hours with which to respond. Upon leaving Teddy asks Jeff what Frances is hoping to achieve, as Facebook is bigger than the US Senate, to which Jeff simply replies 'she disrupting!'

Frances and Jeff meet in Washington, D.C., prior to the start of her testimony. After making her opening statement and upon leaving the senate the two share a moment of recognition, as Frances punches the air in a sign of gratitude and joy that she had done the right thing. The film ends with pre-credit title cards, highlighting that Facebook changed its name to Meta immediately following the Senate's ruling against it, that it eliminated its fact-checking programme, and that 43% of Americans receive their news from Facebook. 

'The Social Reckoning' is a passable entry in this two film franchise, and as an investigative journalistic movie it works well enough, but gets bogged down by Sorkin's wordsmithery and at times humorous techno babble script. The principle cast all nail their characters well enough and their performances are on point. Ultimately though, this history lesson into the recent past of Facebook's misdeeds, seems to have served little purpose other than a cursory slap on the wrist of this social media giant, and now five years after the fact what has really changed - other than the name above the door? This film is all style with very little substance, and perhaps if David Fincher had returned to the Director's chair, this would have been a very different film, and more akin to 2010's 'The Social Network'. 

'The Social Reckoning' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

HEART OF THE BEAST : Tuesday 29th September 2026

I saw the M Rated 'HEART OF THE BEAST' earlier this week, and this American survival thriller film is Co-Produced and Directed by David Ayer who made his feature film Directorial debut with 'Harsh Times' in 2005, and which he would follow up with the likes of 'Street Kings' in 2008, 'End of Watch' in 2012, 'Fury' in 2014, 'Suicide Squad' in 2016, 'Bright' in 2017, 'The Beekeeper' in 2024 and 'A Working Man' in 2025. This film was released in Australia and the US last week, having been shown out of competition at the recent San Sebastian International Film Festival on 22nd September, has garnered generally positive critical reviews and has so far grossed US$56M from its US$82M production budget. 

The film opens up with what appears to be a stray German Shepherd dog stood in the middle of a deserted road somewhere in Alaska on a bright sunny day. A young woman (Anna Lambe) pulls up close by in her Ford pick-up truck, gets out of the car and walks gingerly toward the still motionless canine, looking on at the approaching woman. We then back track one week to a light sea plane flying high above the Alaskan mountain tops and glaciers, piloted by former Special Forces Officer James Belmont (Brad Pitt, who also Co-Produces here) and his retired combat dog Odin (Uber). Eventually, Belmont lands their plane on a remote lake, and sets up camp for the night. Both retired veterans suffer from PTSD and vivid nightmares from their time spent in combat missions in the world's more volatile hot spots. 

The next day, while out exploring the surrounding forest, Belmont cautiously encounters Watkins (J.K. Simmons), an outgoing stranger. They strike up, at first, an uneasy conversation, and Watkins sets up camp next to Belmont and they talk into the night around a camp fire and knocking back a few Belgian beers, about how they all came to be in this remote part of the world, and what they did in their past lives. The next morning, Watkins departs at day break in his kayak, and leaves Belmont a book in exchange for a beer he had taken from the camp overnight, highlighting a particular passage. 

Later that same morning, and with a storm closing in Belmont and Odin pack up and depart by plane, and flying above the clouds to get out of the storm front. Mid-flight however, Belmont suffers a heart attack and collapses unconscious at the controls, and losing altitude the plane descends rapidly into a heavily wooded forest and crashes into a lake coming to rest upside down in about five metres of water. Odin is ejected from the Cessna Skywagon plane during the crash. Belmont swims free to the nearby lake shore and goes in search of Odin, finding him nearby, weak but still alive. He returns to the wreckage and dives down to salvage his gear. After a day or so Odin's condition improves, and so the pair set out on foot to hike back to the nearest road and hence civilisation, which is about 58 miles away, according to Belmont's calculations.

During their journey, they are confronted by a huge grizzly bear, which Odin faces down until it retreats. They later reach a precarious moss covered wooden bridge like structure made up of two long fallen trees that spans a valley with a fast flowing river below. Belmont slips and Odin has to be swung to safety, but in doing so Belmont falls into the rapids below, and being carried downstream he sustains various knocks to his head and gets his arm wedged between rocks and breaking it. Odin chases Belmont as he is carried downstream, and when he reaches calmer waters, Odin drags him to shore, then helps him reset the compound fracture to his lower arm. Using the First Aid kit that Odin carries with him in a vest, Belmont bandages himself up and places his injured arm in a sling. 

Continuing their hike back to the road, they come to a clearing in the forest and in the near distance, they spot a pack of grey wolves attacking a moose calf, so they decide to retreat, and take the long way round to avoid alerting the wolves of their presence. However, the pair are subsequently stalked and then ambushed by the pack of wolves. Belmont attempts to fend off the attack using a spear and a hunting knife, while Odin attacks the wolves, although Belmont is pulled in all directions by three attacking wolves and is severely bitten in the stomach, but in the process he kills the alpha male. Belmont then patches up his stomach wound again using the First Aid kit, and continues onward. They reach a swamp which they must wade through to get to the road that lies in the distance beyond. Suffering from two serious wounds, Belmont becomes trapped under a downed tree truck in the brown murky water, but emerges the other side gasping for air. 

Weakened and unable to continue, they come to rest on a rocky outcrop. Belmont writes a note recording his final wishes for Odin, along with an account of their ordeal, and clear instructions that Odin suffers PTSD, his eating habits, his favourite games, and the commands that he responds to, but warning never to say the word 'bite' unless in the event of an emergency or if you should be in danger, for Odin, it was revealed early on, has titanium teeth thanks to an insurgent hurling a brick at Odin during his active duty and which took his teeth out. Belmont shot that insurgent in the head. Belmont also leaves the rest of his money for whoever takes Odin in, and says not to come looking for his body as he has given himself up to the wilderness. Belmont bleeds out from his wounds overnight and dies and Odin stays with him until the morning. Odin leaves his side and reaches the nearby road, where he is found by the young woman in the Ford pick-up truck, who reads Belmont's note. She embraces him, and he jumps in the vehicle and the pair drive off together. 

In a pre-credits scroll, we are told that some three thousand combat dogs served in active duty in modern times and helped save thousands of soldiers lives. Upon retirement those dogs are rehomed with caring and loving families. 

In crafting 'Heart of the Beast' Director David Ayer has given us perhaps his most pared back movie yet. Beautifully and astutely filmed in and around Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand standing in for the Alaskan wilderness, this film has tense and exciting set pieces, paired with moments of real tenderness and emotion that shows the very real bond that exists between man and his canine best friend. Two battle hardened souls that have witnessed the worst man can do and the best that man can do too, and who just want to spend their lives together in peace, quiet and as far away from those war torn locations as possible. Brad Pitt delivers a compelling performance, but this film belongs to Uber, who deserves a Best Actor nomination at the 2027 Academy Awards or at least the Palm Dog Award at next years Cannes Film Festival. Bring a pack of Kleenex tissues, because the ending is a real tear jerker, and for dog owners everywhere, you'll understand why. 

'Heart of the Beast' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-