Elon Musk is a very acquainted number to Ars readers, offered his large impact (for far better and worse) on the innovation sector over the last 20 years. Oscar-winning supervisor Alex Gibney’s most current biographical docudrama– simply titled Musk — covers a great deal of popular ground and tests the thoroughly crafted public photo of Musk as a visionary tech titan.
Gibney’s documentary provides Musk as even more of a Gilded Age confidence man, rejiggered for the 21 st century: a capitalist cosplaying as a creator whose actual wizard is pumping stocks and dazzling investors and the general public alike with visions of a state-of-the-art optimistic future. The movie is bound to push all the best outrage buttons, whether one is a Musk follower or a detractor– that makes it very much an item of the peculiar social media-driven age in which we live.
Gibney has been making docudramas because the 1980 s, covering such diverse subjects as Jimi Hendrix, Hunter S. Thompson and gonzo journalism, WikiLeaks, Scientology, Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Holmes (the topic of one more upcoming documentary, You Can See Whatever , including comic Nathan Fielder), Boris Becker, The Sopranos designer David Chase , declared Russian disturbance in the US 2016 presidential political election, the opioid epidemic, and bicyclist Lance Armstrong. He snagged his initial Oscar nomination for 2005’s Enron: The Most Intelligent Guys in the Room , and won the Oscar for Ideal Documentary Attribute two years later on for Taxi to the Dark Side
Dealing with the topic of Elon Musk looks like an all-natural development from those earlier jobs. Gibney has never ever been one to shy away from debate, however also before Musk’s release, the film attracted the wrath of its subject and hazards of a vilification legal action. There were even ( yet unfounded rumors that Universal Pictures was getting cold feet regarding theatrically releasing the film in international markets.
There’s certainly no lack of material for Gibney to deal with and the movie covers one of the most popular aspects of Musk’s life: Tesla and the deaths linked to its driver-assistance systems, SpaceX, Starlink, his purchase of Twitter, his shift from warning regarding the risks of AI to completely accepting it with Grok, his embrace of Trump, the production of DOGE, his affirmed substance abuse, and his 14 (possibly more) youngsters. Those talked to consist of ex-wife Justine Musk, Kara Swisher, Martin Eberhard, Geoffrey Hinton, previous MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair (who birthed a kid by Musk), Cory Doctorow, Adam Becker, and Sam Harris. David Byrne co-wrote and did an original song for the soundtrack, “Allow Me Offer You a Dream,” including even more of Musk’s words.
