Not long after news first emerged three years ago that Alex Gibney had begun work on an in-depth study of Elon Musk, the uber-tech bro went on the defensive on his social media platform, Twitter. Sorry, I mean X. “It’s a hit piece,” he cried, before switching to the totally mature “Gibney is a douche.” It must have been no surprise to the filmmaker that his subject would decline to make himself available for Musk, a whopping documentary think piece running close to four hours, which traces in dense detail the dizzying ascent to stratospheric wealth and influence of the man who dreams of colonizing Mars.
Gibney’s solution to that key absence turns out to be a stroke of creative genius. After having his team pull together a data base with every statement Musk had ever made and every interview he had ever given, the director’s digital effects crew set about developing a CG avatar to address the camera as if in a sit-down chat from a gaming chair, sticking strictly to the billionaire business mogul’s own words.
Musk
The Bottom Line
A provocative combo of indignation and alarm.
