The key facts

  • Films have been released or are heading to theaters: Alex Gibney's 'Musk', Aaron Sorkin's 'The Social Reckoning', Luca Guadagnino's 'Artificial' and a documentary project about Elizabeth Holmes
  • Critics speak of disillusionment with Silicon Valley figures and fears of concentrated power
  • A number of industry leaders have shifted their political allegiances in favor of Donald Trump

Tech moguls are Hollywood's new villains

Hollywood has found a new favorite villain: the recent heroes of Silicon Valley. On screens are the stories of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman and the fraud-convicted founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes. The A.V. Club film critic Monica Castillo told AFP that these figures used to be seen as inspiring heroes 'changing the world,' but now disillusionment has set in, and the world is asking them 'tougher questions.'

Films about Musk and Zuckerberg

Alex Gibney's four-hour documentary 'Musk' about the world's richest man has been released — from the start of the South African tech prodigy to his alliance with Trump and the Republican Party. Also screening is Aaron Sorkin's 'The Social Reckoning,' a sequel to the Oscar-winning 'The Social Network' of 2007: this time the focus is not Zuckerberg's rise but the story of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (played by Oscar winner Mikey Madison), who revealed how the company's algorithms amplified hateful language, keeping users on the platform for as long as possible. According to AFP, the films show how Musk and Zuckerberg accumulated influence over US government policy and how this reverberated around the world.

The Holmes story and 'Artificial'

Holmes's downfall is the subject of the documentary project 'You Can See Everything': co-founders Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim spent 34 days with her before her departure to a Texas prison — she was sentenced to more than 11 years for fraud and conspiracy after the collapse of Theranos, which had promised to run a multitude of medical tests from a few drops of blood. According to AFP, the blend of documentary and reality show has chances of winning an 'Oscar.' In fiction, the Italian Luca Guadagnino directed 'Artificial,' in which Andrew Garfield plays OpenAI chief Sam Altman, who changed the world with the generative AI ChatGPT. Next Best Picture editor Matt Neglia called the film 'as entertaining as it is frightening' and 'perhaps the most relevant film of our time' — a story about power, control, ambition and greed.

Why this is happening now

J. M. Tyree, a professor of cinematography at Virginia Commonwealth University and editor-in-chief of Film Quarterly, told AFP that popular cinema has always reflected public anxieties: today people are worried about the concentration of power in the hands of a few at the expense of the majority of citizens. According to him, audiences have become disillusioned with 'billionaire tech moguls' and see their flaws, and the common theme of these films is that their products 'do not seem beneficial to society.' He also noted that, unlike past 'captains of industry' who built museums and libraries, this generation is less interested in philanthropy. Castillo added that the filmmakers seem to be seeking 'a kind of retribution for all the damage done': 'The only way to fight back is their films.'