New Trailers! Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning, Disney's Moana, and Green Day's Nimrods
🎥 Aaron Sorkin revisits Facebook’s fallout, Disney returns to Moana’s ocean-sized adventure, and Green Day sends three teen rock dreamers chasing glory on a punk-rock road trip.
🎥 “The Social Reckoning” Teaser Trailer: Aaron Sorkin Returns to Facebook with Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg in This Social Network Companion Piece with Jeremy Allen White & Mikey Madison — Hitting Theaters October 9th
When it was first announced that director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin were making a Facebook movie, most people were not only surprised by such an unlikely pairing of subject and talent, but also rolled their eyes at the very idea of turning a social media website into a serious Hollywood drama. Count us among those who initially thought it was a joke, a desperate sign of Hollywood grasping at straws.
Lest we forget, this was around 2009 and 2010, 16 years ago, when Facebook was still considered a growing American tech phenomenon, mostly a college-born social media company, rather than the global digital empire it would eventually become.
Oh, how times have changed.
The Social Network is now widely regarded as one of the defining films of the last 25 years, capturing the rise of a new digital age and the young “disruptors” who reshaped American capitalism in their own image before most of us fully understood where any of it was heading.
The only major blind spot in Fincher’s film, at least in hindsight, is that it could never fully grasp Mark Zuckerberg as the figure he would eventually become. The film certainly depicted him as a callous, almost robotic human being whose ambitions swallowed whatever basic decency he had left. Yet that characterization seemed to stem from a lack of emotional maturity rather than something far more troubling: a powerfully manipulative tech whiz kid who would end up reshaping public life, turning political discourse into a rotting sewer, and warping the entire landscape of modern communication while appearing almost indifferent to the consequences.
So, in the immortal words of James Taylor in Judd Apatow’s Funny People: “Fuck Facebook!”
Now, fast forward to 2026, and esteemed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who earned an Oscar for The Social Network, has taken the helm for a “companion” quasi-sequel aimed at rectifying his one major blind spot: finally depicting Zuckerberg as the powerfully influential figure we’ve all watched emerge over these past 16 years. Not the socially awkward college dork, but the obscenely rich tech tycoon whose platform helped reshape and poison the culture, whether we were ready for it or not.
The only thing missing? Jesse Eisenberg. But with Emmy winner Jeremy Strong of Succession fame taking over the role of Mark Zuckerberg, perhaps that marks the clearest signal that this version is less interested in the awkward young founder and more focused on the insulated, power-drunk mogul who came after.
Both written and directed by Sorkin, The Social Reckoning is based on the events behind The Wall Street Journal’s exposé “The Facebook Files,” following Frances Haugen, played by Mikey Madison in her first post-Oscar win for Anora, a young Facebook engineer who decides to expose the company’s closely guarded internal secrets. To do that, she enlists the help of Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, played by The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White, setting off a whistleblowing effort that pulls them into a modern David-and-Goliath fight over truth and corporate accountability.
From there, the story appears to dig into the social and political consequences of a platform that grew far beyond its college-campus origins. Misinformation, youth mental health, platform design, public harm, and institutional responsibility all seem to be sitting at the center of this new chapter, giving Sorkin plenty of room to return to the kind of morally charged institutional drama he knows well.
Jeremy Strong, donning an uncanny speech and voice pattern, takes over as an older and more ruthless Mark Zuckerberg who, at this point, hasn’t just built a tech corporation but an empire that feels empowered to do whatever it wants in this new “post-government” era.
The cast also includes Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin, Billy Magnussen, Bill Burr, and Gbenga Akinnagbe, while Jeff Cronenweth, the cinematographer behind The Social Network, returns behind the camera, providing a similar look, even though this has clearly shifted from a tech-world origin story into a tense whistleblower thriller that seems to hark back to the conspiracy-driven newsman thrillers of the 1970s.
The Social Reckoning opens in theaters October 9th.
🎥 “Moana” Final Trailer: Disney’s Live-Action Remake Sends Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Lagaʻaia Back Across the Ocean — Hitting Theaters July 10th
Okay, let’s be real: Disney’s live-action remake of Moana looks exactly like what you’d expect: uninspired, derivative, and a little too polished for its own good. And Dwayne Johnson, who is usually quite charming when he wants to be, doesn’t quite seem to live up to his animated alter ego, making this Maui feel more like a cosplay version than a fully realized character.
That being said, the movie will likely make money this summer, as family moviegoing audiences don’t exactly need much convincing when it comes to Moana, Maui, or big live-action Disney spectacles in general. So with that mindset, maybe the real question isn’t whether this remake needs to exist, but whether, in the current state of the movie business, giving audiences what they already know is simply the safest bet.
And though we hate to admit it, remaking classic animated films into live-action versions, even when it’s only been ten years since the original, has become one of Disney’s most reliable business models. This Moana movie will likely continue that profitable, creatively exhausting trend when it hits theaters next month.
Dwayne Johnson has gotten a lot of flak online since it was revealed how he would look as the lovable demigod Maui in this live-action take. His curly hair was particularly hard to ignore. However, this final trailer seems to lean into it and own the exaggerated look, embracing Maui as a larger-than-life figure rather than trying to make him feel grounded or realistic.
Does it work? Maybe it’s just us, but it seems like the animators who originally brought Maui to life were better at capturing the character’s charm than Johnson is this time around. Then again, that’s a judgment based on only a two-minute trailer, so maybe it’s not quite a fair assessment.
Directed by Thomas Kail, best known for his stage work with Lin-Manuel Miranda on In the Heights and Hamilton, as well as directing the television projects Grease Live! and Fosse/Verdon, Disney’s live-action remake has newcomer Catherine Lagaʻaia stepping into the role of Moana, the young wayfinder of Motunui whose life changes when the sea pulls her beyond the safety of her island’s reef.
The story once again follows Moana as she leaves home for the first time on a mission tied to the future of her people. Her journey brings her face-to-face with Maui, the powerful, unruly demigod played once more by Dwayne Johnson, whose legend, abilities, and complicated past remain central to the quest.
This new version looks to lean into the sweeping ocean adventure, ancestral navigation traditions, and musical scale that made the animated film such a modern Disney favorite. The live-action approach also gives the story a chance to play with texture, landscape, and performance in a different register. And having The Rock in curls just might be worth the price of admission.
Also featuring John Tui as Chief Tui, Frankie Adams as Sina, and Rena Owen as Gramma Tala, with Jemaine Clement reprising the voice of Tamatoa, a giant, villainous coconut crab, Moana is set to sail into theaters July 10th.
🎥 “Nimrods” Trailer: Green Day Sends Three Teen Rock Dreamers on a Punk-Rock Road Trip in This Coming-of-Age Dramedy Starring Mason Thames and Mckenna Grace — In Theaters August 14th
We don’t pretend to be music experts or anything, but the word on the street is that rock music is coming back in a big way. Particularly that ’90s grunge-punk slacker sound, where everything feels a little messy, a little loud, and just detached enough to seem cool without trying too hard.
Now, we don’t know if that’s quite true, but damn, we hope it is. And as ’90s nostalgia keeps roaring back into the conversation, here comes Nimrods, a new coming-of-age road comedy that feels ripped straight out of that slacker era, except for one major detail: Green Day actually shows up.
Written and directed by Lee Kirk, who previously made the 2016 indie film Ordinary World with Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong in the lead role, Nimrods seems to be tapping into that familiar rock-star fantasy of teens heading out on the road with guitars, bad plans, and the reckless belief that music might somehow save them.
The film stars The Black Phone’s Mason Thames alongside Kylr Coffman and Ryan Foust as three high school friends whose fledgling band hits the road for Los Angeles after they mistakenly believe they’ve been booked to open for Green Day on New Year’s Eve. The catch? It’s all an elaborate prank by an older asshole brother. But when you’re young, loud, desperate, and convinced your life is about to change, common sense usually gets left behind somewhere on the road to stardom... or dare we say, on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, eh.
Mckenna Grace, of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, co-stars as a cool punk-rock chick they meet while trying to make their gig. Meanwhile, The Office’s Jenna Fischer plays the mother of Mason Thames’ character. The cast also includes Angela Kinsey, Fred Armisen, Bobby Lee, Sean Gunn, and more.
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool also appear as themselves, as the film is said to be loosely inspired by the band’s early years living in a tour van before Dookie changed the course of their career forever.
Nimrods is slated to open in theaters August 14th.
