Alex Gibney has spent his career profiling some of the biggest hustlers in American business, from Enron to Elizabeth Holmes. Now he’s set his sights on Elon Musk. The new documentary, simply titled“Musk,”premiered at the Venice Film Festival and runs a hefty 3 hours and 45 minutes. It opens in theaters October 16, and it features interviews with Musk’s exes, his father Errol, and several former business associates.
Gibney’s thesis is blunt: he argues Musk is a confidence man whose wealth and influence come from inflated stock and self-mythology. The film examines Musk’s cost-cutting role at DOGE and its effect on USAID, Tesla’s self-driving safety record, and alleged texts about“lasers in space.”Since Musk declined to be interviewed, Gibney used an AI-generated Musk avatar instead. Musk’s lawyer has threatened legal action, calling the film defamatory.
Whether you see Musk as a visionary or a salesman, this one is going to spark some dinner-table debate. The film blends straight reporting with some unusual stylistic choices, and it raises real questions about how we judge the people shaping our technology and our politics. So what do you think: is Elon Musk a genius, a con man, or something in between? Sound off in the comments.
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Ava Hart
Ava Hart is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
