Elon Musk · Tesla · SpaceX · Ars Technica
Review: 4-hour Musk documentary feels like two different films
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Elon Musk is a familiar figure to Ars readers, given his massive influence (for better and worse) on the technology sector over the last 20 years.
Key facts
- He snagged his first Oscar nomination for 2005’s Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature two years later for Taxi to the Dark Side
- Elon Musk is a familiar figure to Ars readers, given his massive influence (for better and worse) on the technology sector over the last 20 years
- David Byrne co-wrote and performed an original song for the soundtrack, “Let Me Sell You a Dream,” incorporating more of Musk’s words
- It’s also how the documentary ballooned to a nearly four-hour run time (with a 10-minute intermission)
Summary
Gibney’s documentary presents Musk as more of a Gilded Age confidence man, rejiggered for the 21st century: an investor cosplaying as an inventor whose real genius is pumping stocks and dazzling investors and the public alike with visions of a high-tech utopian future. Gibney has been making documentaries since the 1980s, covering such varied subjects as Jimi Hendrix, Hunter S. Tackling the subject of Elon Musk seems like a natural progression from those earlier works.