"Cute blonde girl." I state those words here because, astoundingly, amazingly, no one ever speaks them during the full length of this movie--even though that phrase most perfectly summarizes the clearest answer to the question, how did all this happen? The Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes story is an archetypal example of the power of appearances, and (probably not incidentally) how much effort people make to avoid acknowledging that reality. The fact permeates every minute of screen time here, not least because documentarian Alex Gibney uses a tremendous amount of footage of Holmes herself in this presentation. One wonders how he got it--if he was using footage from his own interactions or else the by-product of an intended puff piece that blew up when everything went so far out of the purported genius' control. However it was acquired, the testimony provided by Holmes's presence here is quite effective in making the case against her, in tandem with the more direct accusations supplied by other interested parties. Apparently, a lot went wrong with what was supposed to be so right with Theranos: bad ideas from the start, mistaken mentality all along, as well as the problematic aegis provided by the usual-suspect rich sleazebags (this country's ruling class never seems to meet a grift it doesn't like). But this viewer simply kept returning to the obvious visual quality "the inventor" presented to the world, and how far she could go based largely on that and just a little bit more. If that's all it takes to destroy the careers and credibility of any number of people in this world--and there's plenty of reason, here and beyond, to believe so--then God or something help us all.
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