Silicon Valley’s tech moguls once starred as Hollywood’s heroes. Now they’re the bad guys.
New films flooding cinemas paint a darker picture of the people who built companies like Facebook, Tesla and OpenAI. Elizabeth Holmes, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman now feature as cautionary tales rather than success stories.
“These figures used to be more on the aspirational side,” Monica Castillo, film critic for pop culture website The A.V. Club, told AFP.
She said people once saw them as self-made billionaires who changed the world. But that view has shifted.
“Now there’s a level of disillusionment. The world is asking harder questions about what these tech heroes have actually done,” Castillo said.
From progressive icons to Trump allies
Silicon Valley built its reputation on progressive values and world-changing innovation. But many tech leaders have recently backed US President Donald Trump and his “America First” policies.
Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary “Musk” examines the world’s richest man. The film tracks the South Africa-born SpaceX and Tesla boss from tech genius to Trump ally.
Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning” returns to Facebook’s story, 16 years after his Oscar-winning 2010 film “The Social Network”. This time Sorkin focuses on whistleblower Frances Haugen, played by Oscar winner Mikey Madison, who exposed how Facebook’s algorithms pushed hate speech to keep users scrolling.
Both films show how Musk and Zuckerberg gained enough power to influence US government policy and affect people worldwide.
Holmes documentary creates Oscar buzz
Elizabeth Holmes draws the harshest scrutiny. The biotech founder promised her company Theranos could run multiple medical tests from a few drops of blood. It couldn’t. Holmes is now serving more than 11 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.
“You Can See Everything” follows Holmes during the 34 days before she entered a Texas prison. Co-directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim moved into her home to film the documentary, which mixes reality television with traditional documentary style. The film is generating serious Oscar talk.
AI chief gets the Hollywood treatment
Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial” stars Andrew Garfield as OpenAI boss Sam Altman, who launched ChatGPT and changed how millions of people work and create content.
Matt Neglia, editor in chief of weekly show Next Best Picture, called the film “as entertaining as it is terrifying”.
“It’s a brilliantly written human story about power, control, ambition and greed that might be the most urgently relevant film of our time,” Neglia said.
J.M. Tyree, a cinema professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and editor in chief of Film Quarterly, said movies always reflect current social fears.
“Right now, people worry about power concentrated in the hands of just a few individuals at the expense of most other citizens,” Tyree told AFP.
He said people have lost faith in “zillionaire tech moguls” and now see their flaws clearly.
“Their products don’t seem very good for society. Unlike past industry leaders who built art museums and libraries, this generation shows less interest in philanthropy,” Tyree said.
Castillo believes the films seek accountability for damage tech titans have caused.
“The only way filmmakers can punch back is through their movies,” she said.
