We saw it yesterday, at a First Monday of the Month Special. The theater was sold out, full of seniors.
My summation: I didn’t think it was very good. As for Holmes, she’s twisted. And, so is he (Billy Evans; not Nathan Fielder, although Nathan is worth a brief side discussion. This is the first time I’ve seen either of them). They deserve each other.
I haven’t read this thread. I want to jot down my thoughts unfiltered by the Dopers here. Afterwards I’ll review the thread. I’m guessing that much if not all of what I’ll say has already been discussed upthread. Apologies for that.
Immediately after the movie we walked next door to a quiet bar and sat down with a glass of wine to discuss. My wife and her parents were with me. She (EH, I won’t call her Liz and I’m too lazy to type out her name) has a twisted sense of reality and morality.
It’s unfortunate for the rest of us that they’ve already procreated. Their truly twisted DNA (yeah, a pun) will continue to propagate through this world at least for another generation.
About her twisted sense of reality, it is truly bizarre how some people communicate, and how they can receive and process the same information that you do, but when they analyze or discuss it, their assessment is so far from reality that you just have ask yourself, Did they hear the same thing that I did? I’ve worked with a few people like that in my career, and when it happens you just want to shake your head. It’s baffling and truly bizarre. EH is in that category. Some Twilight Zone stuff.
EH is clearly one who defers to her partner, whether it’s Sunny or Billy. The shows and podcasts I’ve seen didn’t really expose her dynamics with Sunny, but from this documentary some of her relationship with Billy is revealed and I draw some parallels to her relationship with Sunny. EH defers so often. It’s somewhat surprising. And it’s also disappointing. I was hopeful that she’d be another strong leader-type of person, but really, she’s weak. Additionally, she is still very much like a child. Sure, a child who once was worth $9B, but a child nonetheless. Quite immature too. Surprisingly so, for one who once led a (briefly) major company and rubbed elbows with some major leaders.
About her twisted sense of morality, EH emphasizes that she’s never told a lie in her life, and yet when Billy posts to social media on her behalf, as being ‘her’, she does not consider at least some of his posts even remotely a lie. She does not mention Theranos’s wrong test results for syphilis (IIRC that’s the specific test), when it returned a negative result for a person who really was positive, as being a problem. And that false lab result is also not just a problem but it’s also a lie, a very vicious lie.
Billy is a narcissist asshole. His unveiled threats towards Nathan and Amanda, about how if he doesn’t like anyone’s work then he’ll seek vengeance, and he’s good at it, he knows people with special skills and abilities, was clearly a shot across the bow towards them. And there was absolutely no value in the nudity scene towards the overall theme of the documentary, other than the audience draws the conclusion that Billy insisted it stays in the final cut because he wants people to see his cock. That was a waste of 10 seconds, except that it does emphasize his narcissism. So maybe that’s why it was in the film.
Going in I knew it was nearly 3 hours long. While viewing it I must’ve looked at my watch 3-4x. The pacing of the documentary was a little slow for me.
As for Nathan, I don’t know him much but I think he was really taken in by EH. Almost attracted to her, even. To me he lost his objectivity early on. By the time he was saying goodbye to EH when she was headed off to jail (okay, ‘Prison Camp’), in that scene where the two of them just stood there looking at each other for an awkwardly long time, it seemed to me like he almost wanted to kiss her goodbye. On the lips. A deep, passionate French kiss. Awkward.
As for the technology, okay the chemical assay attempts by Theranos we know are impossible to achieve (who is that female Stanford chemist/biologist who advised EH early on in her Theranos venture and told her that what she’s trying to do is not possible with such a small quantity of blood?), but I’m cautiously hopeful that the Theranos approach and even the approach of Haemanthus might one day be possible (I don’t think that company name was mentioned in the film).
Overall I felt like they were trying to manipulate me. At many times by EH, and also by Billy, and then at times also by Nathan. They want sympathy for EH. She’s getting none from me. This was intended to be a documentary but it was a manipulation piece.
So, yeah, EH is twisted. And so is Billy. They deserve each other.
You do what every other parent should do: for the first 12 years of your child’s life you do your best to raise them well, and then from 12 to 18 you start backing off, you pick your battles and gradually let them learn from their own decisions. After 18 you advise infrequently. They already are who they’ll be. But I do feel sad for them.
Okay. This might be why it was in there.
Make sense, though, doesn’t it? I mean, you have some experience in an area, so why not leverage off of that?
Hmmm, I don’t think he’s all that attractive. I guess he’s not my type. Robert Redford is more my type.
Before watching the film I (a) did not read this thread and (b) did read the film’s synopsis on wiki. I’m glad I did because the reenactments were quickly self evident. If I hadn’t read the synopsis I likely would’ve been a little lost at first. It would’ve taken me a little time to catch up.
Which reminds me. Amanda Seyfried’s part in the film was at times quite annoying. I mean, you’re an actor for criminy sakes! What gives you any documentary value to weigh in on this topic? Other than you’re just another person with an opinion. It’s not like you’re an expert in industry ethics or in startups (or, wait, is she? I don’t think she is). Okay, you may have studied EH some in order to portray her, but still that’s to portray her and not to assess her psyche or business acumen. Yeah, that bothered me some.
That might contribute to why I didn’t think it was very good.