The Social Reckoning

My View: The Social Reckoning  (2026) R  The Social Reckoning centers on Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a Facebook engineer who discovers that the company favored corporate profit over user safety and teen mental health. She teams up with reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) to expose what Facebook is doing, while Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) tries to find the source of the leak and stop it from getting out. The Social Reckoning is a sequel, of sorts, to the 2010 multi-Oscar-nominated (3 wins) film The Social Network, for which Aaron Sorkin won a well-deserved Academy Award for his screenplay. I say “of sorts” because The Social Reckoning feels very disjointed from the earlier film. The Social Reckoning seems like a film that is too little, too late. Unlike in 2010, when David Fincher directed one of the year's best films, Sorkin both wrote and directed this one. And that, my friends, is the problem with this film. In 2010, we were still learning what a weird, egomaniac Zuckerberg was, and The Social Network showed us who he was and how Facebook began. Sorkin has created a film where he blames Zuckerberg for both the insurrection of 2021 and the death of journalism. Both ideas keep hitting us over the head with rapid-fire dialogue and flashbacks that show us the violence committed that day and its aftermath. If this film had been made in 2021 or even 2022, maybe it would have had more of an impact. But in 2026, with Trump re-elected, it feels hollow and loses any impact Sorkin wanted. I did enjoy the back-and-forth dialogue (in true Sorkin fashion) between the two heroes. Frances, played by Mikey Madison, who proves her Oscar win wasn’t a ‘one and done’, is a woman who slowly realizes she can’t give Jeremy Allen White’s reporter, Jeff Horwitz, a few clues about what is happening at Facebook but must help tell the story. Things move along as the two characters bicker with each other while both conclude the world needs to know what Facebook is doing to make money at the expense of its members' safety (and, for that matter, the nation's). I can see why Jesse Eisenberg turned down returning to a role that got him an Academy Award nomination. Jeremy Strong’s Zuckerberg is so lifeless that they could have used one of those old robots in Disney World’s Hall of Presidents to play the part. I won’t give away the end, but it is so heavy-handed and low-impact that the final shot with Mikey Madison’s character is laughable. This isn’t a bad film; it’s just bland. With this cast and Sorkin as a writer, The Social Reckoning should have been great, but it has no impact on today’s audiences. I’ll sum up The Social Reckoning with a saying my father used to say: “A day late and a dollar short.” Okay, more than a day late. My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The Social Reckoning Website  Now playing in theaters

My View:  Other Mommy  (2026) R  In Other Mommy, Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) is living in a home where her parents (Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass) are barely getting along. One day, a supernatural doppelgänger that looks just like Bella’s mother emerges, which Bela calls “Other Mommy”. This Other Mommy is about to threaten the safety of the family by manipulating Bela against her actual parents. It’s an awful film when the best jump scare you have is wasted in the trailer. This tedious, un-scary “horror” film is boring, stupid, and lacks any imagination. The only hope for this film was if they had camped it up, but it takes itself so seriously that when the family gets together to divide up the kitchen utensils to take on the baddy demon, I had to laugh out loud. “You take the meat cleaver, I’ll take this potato masher and honey, what do you want?” I guess that Jessica Chastain signed up for this drag of film, because she was a fan of the book, Josh Malerman’s 2024 bestselling novel “Incidents Around the House”,which I hear is “keep all the lights on in the house when you read it” scary. This film, sadly, is not scary, shape, or form (mother or demon-wise), even close to being more than an "oh, look, the kid is now on the ceiling" boring. Skip this snooze-fest and go read the book. My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again   Other Mommy Website  Now playing in theaters 

My View: Animals  (2026)  R    Animals follows a mayoral candidate (Ben Affleck) and his wife (Kerry Washington) as they desperately try to pay their kidnapped son’s ransom and resort to extreme measures to get the money they need, uncovering dark secrets they never intended to confront. With an all-star cast that includes Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun, Ben Affleck stars and directs this thriller about a kidnapping that gets more complicated as the night goes on. Washington and Affleck are believable as a couple whose marriage isn’t as solid as it seems. I liked the scenes between them as the tension grows, and they’re forced to tell each other the truth about their marriage. Yeun is good as the campaign director focused on getting his candidate elected, and, as usual, Gillian Anderson is fun as a mysterious money person who can come up with the money and a plan to get the kid back. As a director, Affleck does an adequate job creating tension, and this is a darker film, without some of the lightness of his past thrillers; except for the always deadpan Anderson delivering some delicious lines, the film is nothing more than an I blame you, and you blame me story. There are some twists and turns, but unfortunately you can see some of them coming before they are played out. The ending feels too effortless to believe, and the film is an unsatisfying thriller that stays too grounded and can’t be saved by its two leads trying to carry the story.  My Rating: Cable  Animals Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform

Indiefest:  Who is Martin Mull?  (2026)  Who Is Martin Mull? is a documentary that follows his life from his early days in smoky comedy clubs and opening for rock acts to prime-time television like Roseanne and films like Mr. Mom, all while he pursued his true passion: painting. His paintings were hung in major institutions like the Whitney and the Museum of Modern Art. I have been a fan of Martin Mull since I saw his PBS special, 60 Minutes to Kill, in the early 80s, and it was a comedic gem. I love that this documentary gives us so much footage from his early years as a comic. I was going to say stand-up comic, but he spent most of his comedy tours in a worn-out armchair. He mixed incredibly funny songs with an almost asshole demeanor, with stories and jokes that always had a twist and, most of the time, tricked or even insulted the audience to their delight. What the film brings to light is that comedy wasn’t his first love. It was painting, and he used the money he made so that he could paint. His painting didn’t become popular or expensive until his 60s, but he was always painting. It’s funny, but a lot of comics have rough childhoods. Martin declines to talk about it, but his siblings tell us what a horrible dad he had, and it’s amazing how Martin became a nice, sweet man who cared about people, especially his second wife and his daughter. So pull up an easy chair, grab a drink, and sit down to enjoy a man whose comedic talent was vast, but whose passion for painting kept him going. Bob Saget directed most of this film before his untimely death, and Neil Berkeley completed it. Martin, who died in 2024, comments on how many of his friends are dying around him. It’s shocking that so many of the people interviewed in this film also died before this film was completed.  My Rating: Full Price    Who Is Martin Mull? Website     Now playing on the Netflix platform

My View: Matchbox: The Movie  (2026)  PG-13 In Matchbox: The Movie, Sean Walker (John Cena) returns home and reunites with his childhood friends. What his friends don’t know is that Sean works for the CIA and has been kidnapped by a group looking for a nuclear warhead. The CIA accuses his friends of stealing the warhead, and so the group decides to save Sean on their own and re-steal the warhead. I loved Matchbox cars as a kid. My favorite was a white Chaparral 2 car with a cool rear wing. So you would think there would be a whole lot of really cool cars in this film (maybe even one with a tall rear wing). Nope, there aren’t even that many car chases. Instead, we get a lot of Cena beating up bad guys, an incredibly stupid plot, and Jessica Biel being wasted in her first film role in almost 10 years. I have no idea who this film was aimed at; I guess Matchbox kids that have grown up. Too bad we get this unfunny, very generic action film without a lot of cool cars to play with. My Rating: Cable  Matchbox: The Movie Info  Now playing on Apple TV

Forgotten Film:  The Masque of the Red Death  (1964)  A European prince (Vincent Price), who worships the devil, terrorizes the local peasants during the fatal plague known as the “Red Death”, going as far as burning their villages and stealing women he covets. While the peasants are dying, the prince holds a lavish masquerade ball for the wealthy nobility. The prince soon meets a person in a red cloak and mask who will change his life. This is not the usual schlock film that had made Roger Corman the king of cheap horror films. Instead, the film is lush in its costumes, and the cinematography is incredibly striking (by a soon-to-be director named Nicolas Roeg). Most people today know Vincent Price only for his narration of Michael Jackson’s "Thriller," but Price is incredibly sinister in this film, making his character drip with evil oozing from every pore. This is a fun ride of a Poe short story and worth watching as a taste of the coming Halloween season. My Rating: Full Price  The Masque of Red Death Info Available on most streaming services

Weird Credits: From the credits of Animals: Color Scientist 

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: You Can See Everything  (2026)  R  You Can See Everything is a documentary where a documentary crew is invited to follow Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes every move, just thirty-four days before she is sent to prison. What starts as a portrait of an embattled executive becomes a three-year journey into manipulation, truth, and reality.  You Can See Everything Website  In theaters on Friday, October 16, 2026\

Until Next Time!