The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

Movie Name: The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Year of Release: 2019
Director: Alex Gibney
Starring: Elizabeth Holmes, Errol Morris, Dan Ariely, Roger Parloff, John Carreyrou, Tyler Schultz, David Boies, Tim Draper, Douglas Matje
Genre: Documentary
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
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Synopsis and Review:

Celebrated and prolific documentary film maker Alex Gibney is back, following his latest feature which focused on Rolling Stone magazine, "Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge". His new documentary focuses on the company Theranos, its creator Elizabeth Holmes, the culture of entrepeneurs in the Silicon Valley area, the whole mechanics of this environment, and the eventual downfall that has since occurred (to Theranos and Holmes that is). It's a documentary that succinctly defines the scope of what is attempting to explain, namely, how Theranos came to exist. It does so by painting a picture of its leader, Elizabeth Holmes, with a summarized and brief view of her beginnings, to the crucial point where she decides to cut short on her college experience, in order to start Theranos.  While the film doesn't go into great lengths to understand a bit more about who this person is, and ultimately her motivations, besides some of the interviews that are captured and where her pitch is consistently repetitive, it does showcase the process by which an idea in Silicon Valley can immediately attract investors and large sums of money, all based on good pitches, and a charismatic personality. As the film probes deeper and deeper to the inner workings of the organization, it's shockingly surprising to realize that fiction, captured for instance by Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street", is not that distant from what Alex Gibney captures here through his clinical and unflinching look at Theranos. They're both stories focused on people who projected an image that ultimately didn't correspond to the reality, and both of whom had built an empire, based on hollow promises, that soon fell apart. It's an interesting look not only at how Silicon Valley works, from an investing and idea generation point of view, but also a sharp look at how quickly the media, investors, and even general audiences, embark on the creation of these mythical personalities, based on nothing, or on cleverly designed games of show and tell (that ultimately have little to show and nothing to tell). A very pertinent documentary for these days, worth watching!