Sound Speed Action: Movie & TV Reviews

On this episode of Sound Speed Action, we review The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s new drama starring Mikey Madison as Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, Jeremy Allen White as Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, and Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg. The Social Reckoning comes out swinging and makes the case on issues that are hard to dispute. That is exactly why it didn’t work for me.
It also stumbled hard at the box office opening weekend, and I think I know why. But this is not a hit piece. Sorkin is one of the writers I love most, and I’d rather be straight with you about him than grade him on a curve. I’ll tell you where I think this one slipped, and then I’ll make the case for why I’ll still be there opening night for whatever he does next.
What We Cover:
Sold As The Wrong Movie: Sony marketed this as a companion to The Social Network. Why that promise set the movie up to disappoint before anyone bought a ticket.
Hoping For The Insider: A journalist, a whistleblower, one promise. I walked in hoping for my favorite film, and it took me a while to recalibrate.
What Works: Mikey Madison carries the movie in her first major role since Anora, Jeremy Allen White gets the classic Sorkin rhythms, and Bill Burr gives the performance I can’t stop thinking about.
The Zuckerberg Question: Jeremy Strong’s take has divided people. If you’re expecting Jesse Eisenberg, you’ll be disappointed, and I think that’s the right call.
Two Things That Fell Flat: Two honest gripes about a movie with a great team behind the camera.
Two Words: Sorkin taught a whole generation of writers the two words that turn a message into a story. What happens when his own movie forgets them.
Jinxed From The Start: The people who didn’t come back, and why this one may have been in trouble before a single frame was shot.
Sorkin Will Be Back: The body of work that keeps me buying tickets, a Molly’s Game monologue every acting student should be handed, and why people on the left and the right both love his shows.
Fellow Sorkin fans, how are you doing after this one? Tell me your favorite Sorkin movie and your favorite Sorkin series.
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The Insider review: the 1999 Michael Mann drama starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, and Christopher Plummer, based on the true story of tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and the 60 Minutes story CBS almost didn't air. If you love Heat and never got around to The Insider, this is the case for watching it tonight.

Ask people to name Michael Mann's best film and you'll hear Heat, Collateral, or The Last of the Mohicans. For me it has always been The Insider. It has been my favorite film since the first time I saw it in 1999, and for twenty seven years I couldn't explain why.

This is a special episode. It's an origin story. The Insider didn't just become my favorite movie, it built the lens I watch every other movie through, and it took me years to find the words for it. Here's the short version: the stories I love most are about two people and a relationship at the center of the film, and by the time the credits roll that relationship has either been forged into something unbreakable or completely decimated. The Social Network, Amadeus, Whiplash, The King's Speech, and it started here, with Al Pacino on a hotel phone in Louisville, Kentucky, telling a broken man to trust him.

There is also something most people get wrong about The Insider. I got it wrong for years. It's about which relationship the movie is actually built on, and I'll make the case in the middle of the episode.

This week on Sound Speed Action: why The Insider is Michael Mann's best film, how one movie can teach you what kind of stories you're drawn to, the Aaron Sorkin style engine of intention and obstacle running underneath it, how Mann and cinematographer Dante Spinotti shot a movie about phone calls and depositions like a thriller, the Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke score that other movies keep borrowing, Russell Crowe in his mid thirties playing a man in his fifties right before Gladiator, a hotel phone call, a deposition room, and a golf course driving range that still makes me look over my shoulder, and one honest gripe about a great film.

Also covered: the source material, from the 60 Minutes segment to Marie Brenner's Vanity Fair piece, the Eric Roth and Michael Mann screenplay, Bruce McGill's one scene, who should watch it tonight and who should skip it, and the question I want to leave you with: what was your origin film?

No spoilers. Everything about the plot is what you'd get from the trailer or the back of the box.

Also mentioned in this episode: Heat, Collateral, The Last of the Mohicans, The Social Network, Amadeus, Whiplash, The King's Speech, Good Will Hunting, Gladiator, Ferrari, Tony, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and 60 Minutes.

The Insider is available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon, and YouTube.

What was your origin film? Tell me the title and the year. Find me at https://www.ssapod.com.

Sound Speed Action is a movie review podcast. New episodes out now everywhere you get your podcasts. If you have a minute, a review on Apple Podcasts really does help the program.

🎬 Get the film on Prime Video: The Insider (1999)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004KR8XG2?tag=soundspeedact-20
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On this episode of Sound Speed Action, we review Mayday, the new 80s style action comedy on Apple TV starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, made in the vein of Midnight Run, 48 Hrs, and Red Heat. It's a lot of fun, it knows exactly what it is, and Branagh's Nikolai, a former KGB hermit who worships one bootleg VHS of Top Gun, turns out to be a genuine badass. I am not kidding. I did not see that coming.

But I keep telling myself the two guys who made it are cursed. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley made Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which everybody who saw it loved and Hollywood still called a disappointment. Then they made Mayday, finished it in the spring of 2024, and it sat on a shelf for two years before going straight to your phone. Cursed is not the right word, though. I found a better one, and I'll give it to you at the end of the episode, right after I tell you what they're making next.
What We Cover:
Nikolai Owns One Movie: A character set in 1987 who worships a film from 1986. Why the 80s homage in Mayday lives inside the character instead of being painted on top.
Thin Is The Point: Red Heat did not have a serious position on the Cold War. Neither does this. Why the reviews knocking the politics are grading the wrong thing.
The Villain Problem: One honest gripe about a good actor in a part nobody built.
Two Years On A Shelf: Apple's habit of holding content that gets close to live geopolitics, and why a comedy stops being the same movie once the room around it changes.
Same Week, Different Screens: A movie a studio decided was worthless opened in theaters. A movie built for theaters opened on your TV. Neither decision had anything to do with whether the movie was good.
Not Cursed: Goldstein and Daley keep making movies that Hollywood keeps burying. I owe them a better word than cursed, and I found one. Stay to the end.
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Anthony Bourdain at nineteen was arrogant, mean, and genuinely hard to be around, and the filmmakers made him worse on purpose. In this episode of the Sound Speed Action podcast, we break down why Tony invents so much of its own story, why that creative license is the point rather than the problem, and how a small independent film gets closer to the truth of a man than most authorized biopics ever manage.
What We Cover:
A Problem On Purpose: Why Matt Johnson and Dominic Sessa built a lead this unlikable, and the paradox of rooting for him anyway.
Two Kinds Of True: The difference between what happened and what it felt like, and why Tony trades one away to get the other exactly right.
The Kitchen Is The Point: The heat, the noise, the tickets, the rhythm of a real line during a rush. What the filmmakers treated as sacred while they invented everything else.
Matt Johnson Outside Canada: His first feature made away from home, why he brought his longtime creative partner along for the score, and what that says about protecting your voice.
The Supporting Bench: Antonio Banderas doing his best work in years, Leo Woodall's range across two very different films this year, and Emilia Jones after CODA.
Permission To Invent: Bourdain's estate signed off on a film that plays loose with the facts. Why that approval, in an independent film, produced something a studio system almost certainly wouldn't have allowed.
One Small Nitpick: A couple of shots where I could see the seams, and why it didn't dent the film for me.
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🎬 Get the film on Prime Video: Tony (2026)https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.cebdfaab-b554-48d2-8b26-8579bfabb29b?tag=soundspeedact-20This description contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.

Christopher Nolan risked everything on a $400M epic based on an ancient poem, and the result is a massive box office phenomenon. In this episode of Sound Speed Action, we break down why The Odyssey works so well on a regular screen, the insane sound design bleeding into adjacent theaters, and why its massive success is saving original cinema.
What We Cover:
• The $400M Risk: Why Universal greenlit an ancient epic with no franchise backing, captured entirely using IMAX large-format cameras.
• Star Power & Loyalty: How A-list talent took blind pay cuts and why Nolan’s recurring cast and crew keep coming back.
• A Scene-Stealing Moment: Why one specific performance had the entire theater dead silent and completely locked in.
• Sound Design & Score: Ludwig Göransson’s pulse-pounding music, volume mixes, and the physical limits of 70mm prints.
• Theatrical Window Strategy: Why you shouldn't wait for home streaming and how IMAX is extending runs.
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• Follow & Review: If you enjoyed this breakdown, please leave a review on your podcast app and follow the show for more cinema breakdowns.