The Elon Musk Documentary Just Premiered. It’s Brutal.

Alex Gibney (0:00)

His story turns out to be the story of the Confidence Man, the stock pumper. His wealth and power comes from inflated stock.

SPEAKER_2 (0:08)

He's chaotic, random, capricious, manifestly cruel and selfish.

Alex Gibney (0:13)

I had told that story before, with Enron and with Elizabeth Holmes. So it was a story that was oddly familiar to me.

SPEAKER_3 (0:21)

In a science fiction novel, he would not be the hero.

John Johnston (0:25)

Hi everyone, JJ here. Welcome back to The Lounge. Well, the new Elon Musk documentary has just premiered at the Venice Film Festival and it got a four minute standing ovation and rave reviews. So I'm really looking forward to seeing it. I've already made one video about this and I'll link to that, but let's take a look at this and we'll look at the teaser trailer as well.

Musk, an incisive four hour documentary. Well, it's detailed, probing the world's richest man, received a four minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. The film examines the myths surrounding Tesla's autopilot feature, linked to more than 60 deaths and subsequent lawsuits, as well as the fallacies behind Musk's Occupy Mars Initiative. Well, we say fantasy rather than initiative. An exclusive interview with Justine Musk, Elon's first wife and the mother of five of his children, highlights his obsession with procreation, while an interview with his father sheds light on Musk's unstable and violent childhood. And of course, it goes into his companies as well, SpaceX and Tesla. That's why it's longer. They added to it because things were happening in real time as they were making it. That's why it's longer. It was six hours. They cut it down to four, apparently. Okay, let's have a look at the trailer.

SPEAKER_5 (1:49)

Three, two, one.

SPEAKER_2 (1:52)

He's possibly the greatest living inventor. He is the real life Iron Man.

SPEAKER_3 (1:57)

He's one of the greatest builders of all time.

Alex Gibney (2:00)

The greatest capitalist in history.

SPEAKER_2 (2:05)

He's chaotic, random, capricious. Manifestly cruel and selfish.

SPEAKER_3 (2:12)

In a science fiction novel, he would not be the hero. He is a man who has lost his mind.

SPEAKER_2 (2:21)

He's a fascist.

Ashley Sinclair (2:24)

Elon is a nuke.

John Johnston (2:33)

Okay, there it is. And it's made by the same filmmaker who made a film about Enron, the smartest guys in the room, about Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, that whole saga, you might have seen that. And also the one about Scientology. So this promises to be a good one. He's saying himself that this is his biggest project or most significant in terms of Of... maybe the impact that it might have. We're going to hear from him. He's had an interview at the festival, but let's have a look at some headlines. This is Variety Musk Review. Alex Gibney's definitive documentary puts the pieces of Elon Musk together. It's a lacerating portrait of technocratic brilliance, power lust and crackpot delusion. Once you start lining up Musk scandals and cut corners, you see that he's a creator of mirages and promises more than he delivers. Well, we know that. If you've been a regular on my podcast, you'll know that. I've been talking about it for years at this point, so it's good to see this. This is The Hollywood Reporter, Musk Review. Alex Gibney's mammoth Elon Musk dog is a poleaxing portrait of the tech titan as a con man, given way too much power to be stopped. Well, that remains to be seen. As the director said himself, the story's not over. The Oscar-winning doc maker gets around the hiccup of Musk's refusal to participate by creating a CG avatar of the world's richest man. It sounds like a good thing that they did that. He discusses that in the interview as well, that Elon's into video games. He talks about living in a simulation, so it definitely fits.

This from Deadline, Deadline's Matthew Carney, reviews Alex Gibney's Elon Musk documentary, Musk. The film depicts the world's richest man as petty, narcissistic, megalomaniacal, cruel, detached from humans at a personal level, including various ex-partners and many of his children, while purporting to want to save humanity by colonizing Mars. A real prince, Musk, in my view, gives Elon the takedown he richly deserves. And this from the New York Post, Ashley Sinclair, one of his baby mamas, claims Elon Musk told her he wanted a legion of children before the Civil War and bombshell Doc. I mean, was he joking or not even joking when he said that? And this from Variety as well. Elon Musk ex Ashley Sinclair on rejecting a $40 million NDA, that's non-disclosure agreement, and participating in Musk Doc. I hope the risk in trying to fight back helps a little bit, she says. And this is from the interview, the post-premier interview at the Venice Film Festival. This is director Alex Gibney speaks on Elon Musk documentary.