Subscribed to HBO Now (since Dish Network is somehow still fighting with HBO) for Game of Throne purposes, so gave their most recent in-the-news documentary The Inventor (Out for Blood in Silicon Valley) a watch. This is the story of the tech upstart company Theranos that wanted to be a disruptor in the medical blood testing business. Lead by the charismatic (I guess) owner Elizabeth Holmes, it covers how she and her company made many promises, covered up their inability to deliver, and ultimately got caught and prosecuted just a year or two ago.
In many ways, this reminds me of the Fyre Festival movie where a leader makes promises they can’t deliver and the community follows along without asking enough questions (or at least not getting enough answers). In that sense, placing the story in the anything-could-be-possible world of Silicon Valley, it offers a whole different level of humanities’ ability to believe a Cult of Personality.
But the documentary is really dry, weirdly unfocused, and it doesn’t tell a driving, compelling story. It seems to get distracted by small things and it doesn’t do a very good job of connecting the dots. It has a lot of actual footage from the company mixed with slick re-enactments and it’s not always easy to tell them apart. They also never really seem to get at what made Elizabeth Holmes so appealing to people since, at most, the movie tells us she comes off a little unsettling… not blinking, quoting Yoda as her spirit animal, and dressing like Steve Jobs while referencing Einstein.
The doc isn’t terrible but it left me distracted and unconvinced or unsure why this story got as far as it did. And also why any of it actually mattered to anyone who wasn’t an investor (or who didn’t work for Walgreens). I’m sure it’s a warning against other tech (and pseudo-scientific) companies. So next time I’m not investing my non-existent millions, I’ll think of this documentary and nod knowingly (I guess).
Score: 68