Genius, madman, salesman: Elon Musk is the subject of a nearly four-hour documentary at Venice that seeks to unmask the billionaire provocateur with outsized global influence in business, politics and even outer space.
Musk, premiering on Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival, seeks to reframe the story of the world’s richest man whose stated ambitions include colonising Mars, transitioning the planet to sustainable energy and protecting free speech, laying bare the “unreality of his narrative,” Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney said.
“I wanted to understand what game he is playing,” says director Gibney at the start of the film about the man long considered a rule-breaking genius whose erratic behaviour and shift to right-wing politics has alienated — and confused — many.
Gibney said Musk’s story was “oddly familiar” to him, having treated other larger-than-life characters in past films, from the executives behind the Enron scandal to former Theranos boss Elizabeth Holmes.
“His story is the story of an old wine and a new bottle. His story turns out to be the story of the confidence man, the stock pumper,” said Gibney, adding that much of what Musk says “has an air of unreality around it”.
