10 Best Netflix Original Movies Of 2020 - Ranked

6. The Social Dilemma

The Social Dilemma
Netflix

One of the most underrated weapons in Netflix's arsenal is its strong lineup of documentary movies. Last year, the company had the awesome Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, and this year, it's got The Social Dilemma, a must-watch look at the way that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can manipulate our behaviour and affect our mental health.

The movie brings in social media experts - former Google engineers, former Twitter executives, tech entrepreneurs - to explore the ways that these companies gather our data, and then use this data to get us to spend more time on their services. It's disturbing, interesting, and above all else, eye-opening - if you regularly use social media, the movie will definitely make you think twice about your online habits.

On the downside, The Social Dilemma also includes a series of scripted dramatic scenes that basically just reiterate the points that the experts make in their interviews. They're quite dull and heavy-handed, and they feel totally redundant considering that the movie is at its best when it's being a pure documentary.

These scenes drag the film down, but on the whole, The Social Dilemma is so relevant for most people in this day and age that it's pretty much essential viewing, even in spite of this one big weakness.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.