Good morning, friends!
I saw the new Elizabeth Holmes documentary, You Can See Everything, last night, and I genuinely can’t type fast enough to express how mind-bending it was.
I’ve seen a lot of chatter online about whether Elizabeth Holmes is a liar, whether she deserves to be in prison for her failed startup Theranos, and whether the documentary is too sympathetic to her.
But that’s not even remotely close to what I took away from it. As we walked out, my husband asked me, “So what did you think?” And I just responded with, “Forget Elizabeth Holmes. That was a masterpiece in storytelling.”
I walked in expecting that the filmmakers were going to tell us a story about deception. What I did not expect is that they were deceiving us — the viewers — in real time.
An entire theater full of grown adults was falling for it. At one point, people were shouting so loudly at the screen that I couldn’t hear the dialogue. I heard a woman yell, “Criminal!” — and it wasn’t directed at Elizabeth Holmes. I’ve never experienced anything like that in a movie theater. It was emotion, and it was visceral.
What makes the documentary so brilliant is that it forces you to confront how much of what you believe about another person comes how their story has been told to you. And we are so so susceptible to this that it’s scary.
Think about Elizabeth Holmes. How much of your opinion of her comes from the facts of her criminal case & how much comes from the images and/or videos and/or TV dramas you’ve seen over the years? I remember one Halloween when the Theranos scandal was at its peak, it seemed like everyone was dressed in a black turtleneck carrying tiny vials of fake blood. Holmes was everywhere.
But the thing that often gets lost in the retelling of her story is that Holmes was actually acquitted of all four charges related to defrauding patients. She’s in prison because a jury found that she knowingly misled investors who poured more than $700 million into the startup. That’s a significant distinction, but as a society, we don’t love nuance.
Just tell us — is she good or is she bad? Is she a liar or is she not?
Over the course of the film, directors Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder managed to make a theater full of people with fully developed pre-frontal cortexes repeatedly reconsider what they believed about the people on screen. They did it through camera angles, close-ups, editing, and the order in which information was revealed.
The framing of Elizabeth and those around her changed little by little until it became obvious, and as soon as our brains detected a narrative shift, our feelings about it followed. It was like watching a magic show … or one continuous reality TV show in which someone gets the villain edit, the victim edit, the manipulator edit, and all of us just falling for it again and again.
We like to believe that we form our opinions by gathering evidence, weighing facts, and arriving at reasonable conclusions. Be for real. No we do not.
Here’s how it actually goes: We form an emotional impression first, then we build a belief around it, and then we go looking for facts that support it. This is my theory as to why we’re so divided in this country. Beliefs built on emotion are nearly impossible to reason with.
….. read the rest of my review here:
THE PROFILES.
— The creators behind Grand Theft Auto VI [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The actor who took a 9-to-5 job
— The crew tasked with dismantling Spirit Airlines
— The sisters-in-law who built a $400 million fashion brand
— The billionaire who wants Brooklyn to win
PEOPLE TO KNOW.
The creators behind Grand Theft Auto VI (gift link): After eight years of development, two delays, and a team that nearly doubled to 4,700 employees, Grand Theft Auto VI is poised to become one of the biggest entertainment releases in history, with analysts projecting more than $3 billion in revenue in its first four months (!) But building the most ambitious video game ever came at a cost. In this profile, Rockstar Games executives reveal the creative struggles, massive leaks, workplace controversies, and painstaking attention to detail behind the game. (Bloomberg)
The actor who took a 9-to-5 job: At 54, Ben Affleck has made an unexpected career move. He changed his unpredictable Hollywood schedule for a 9-to-5 office job so he can spend more time with his kids. After selling his AI startup to Netflix and losing both parents within two months, the actor is rethinking what success actually means. In this GQ interview, he opens up about his complicated relationship with fame, why he believes AI won’t replace filmmakers, and why he’s willing to turn down even the biggest movie roles. (GQ)
The crew tasked with dismantling Spirit Airlines (gift link): When Spirit Airlines abruptly shut down in May, nearly 17,000 workers lost their jobs and a fleet of bright yellow planes was left stranded across the country. But killing an airline turns out to be almost as complicated as running one. In this fascinating investigation, reporters follow the skeleton crew tasked with dismantling Spirit piece by piece, from repossessing planes and auctioning off landing slots to selling its headquarters and millions of internal records. It’s an interesting behind-the-scenes look at what happens when a multibillion-dollar company dies & everything it leaves behind goes up for sale (Bloomberg)
The sisters-in-law who built a $400 million fashion brand: Sisters-in-law Veronica Miele Beard and Veronica Swanson Beard turned a single blazer design into a $400 million fashion empire with 52 stores worldwide by focusing on an overlooked customer: the everyday woman who wants to look good without obsessing over fashion. Sixteen years later, their profitable, founder-controlled brand is expanding into accessories and international markets.
The billionaire who wants Brooklyn to win: At 60, billionaire Clara Wu Tsai is entering a new chapter. Following her split from Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai after 30 years of marriage, the co-owner of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty is setting her sights on transforming Brooklyn’s cultural landscape. In this profile, she discusses her $50 million fund to combat inequality, her investments in art and film, and her ambition to leave a lasting mark on the borough.
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