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The biggest news to come out of two film festivals this week stemmed from documentaries about tech moguls gone bad.

When Alex Gibney’s film production “Musk” premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday, it received a five-minute standing ovation, shouts of “thank you” from the audience and endless play across social media. The nearly four-hour production chronicles the rise of the world’s first trillionaire out of the dot-com boom, and lays bare the dangers that the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive now presents as a plutocrat with questionable judgment and unchecked power.

Closer to home, at the Telluride Film Festival, it was comedian Nathan Fielder (“The Rehearsal”) and Lance Oppenheim’s “You Can See Everything” that made breaking news. Their film features unfettered access to former Theranos Chief Executive Elizabeth Holmes in the weeks before she reported to federal prison to serve a sentence of 10 years and three months. She rode the early 2000s wave of venture-capitalism consumer-tech hype, defrauding investors and the public with a bogus new way to test blood. By 2014, she was the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire.

A couple of decades ago, films about Musk and Holmes probably would have framed the pair as forward-thinking entrepreneurs and architects of a new era. Today, the pitchforks are out, and who else better represents the hubris and greed of late-stage capitalism?

There’s plenty of buzz around both films ahead of their October releases, yet the richest man in the world is helping promote the “Musk” doc by incessantly posting about Gibney and his “hit” piece.

Musk’s X posts have referred to the filmmaker as a “horrible human” and a “bitter old man” and declared, “Dogs— is worth more respect.” Always looking for a conspiracy to explain away the perfectly explainable, he wrote that the film was a “psy op.” He included in the post an image of Gibney as a puppet of the Democratic Party and George Soros. Musk also offered Trumpian prose: “Gutless Gibney’s fatal flaw of fabricating a false film.”

“Musk” is due for a theatrical release in the U.S. on Oct. 16 followed by a streaming launch on HBO Max.

Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro is threatening a lawsuit. He sent a letter to the Gibney-led Jigsaw Productions accusing the filmmaker of misrepresenting facts about the mogul. Spiro says the filmmaker suggested that Musk used his Starlink satellites to bend the 2024 election in favor of his friend and ally Donald Trump.

“You are … on notice, before release, that the insinuation is false, that the material refuting it is public, and that you chose not to be told the rest,” Spiro wrote. Spiro claimed he contacted the production “multiple times” and “requested an opportunity to present the facts in the normal fact-checking process that is the hallmark of ethical journalism. You have refused to engage.”

Gibney says Musk declined to be interviewed for the film. In his absence, the documentarian created a digital avatar of the Tesla CEO and used statements pulled from decades worth of the entrepreneur’s interviews and public appearances. The film chronicles his childhood in South Africa and his time in Silicon Valley, and suggests that Musk’s genius is not as an inventor but as an investor. His talent, the film contends, is stock-pumping.

“Musk” also reportedly explores how the trillionaire had access to sensitive techno-surveillance data when he ran the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Trump in 2025. Geoffrey Hinton , often referred to as the Godfather of AI, is interviewed in the film and explains why Musk’s potential access to the data is such a problem: “It’s fairly clear to me that Trump is hell-bent on corrupting the midterm elections,” Hinton says. “If you wanted to corrupt those midterm elections and you wanted to use AI, all you needed to do was get detailed information on U.S. citizens. And what DOGE did looked like just what you would do.”

Gibney in interviews about the film has warned that Musk’s widespread, unchecked power is “extremely dangerous to world democracy.”

“What I discovered was that the story of Musk was not [a] new tech story,” Gibney said in a news conference at the Venice Film Fest. “[It’s] really the story of an old wine in a new bottle. His story turns out to be the story of the confidence man, the stock pumper, his wealth and power comes from inflated stock, and so I had told that story before with Enron and with Elizabeth Holmes, and so it was a story that was oddly familiar to me.”

Gibney is renowned for taking on big money, corruption and anything else that reeks of injustice. He’s tackled Wall Street, big pharma, Scientology, Guantanamo, and even Theranos founder Holmes.

The new film about Holmes, “You Can See Everything,” offers a quirkier, up-close take on Holmes. Produced by A24 and set for an Oct. 16 theater release, it follows the disgraced CEO post-conviction, and she appears more than comfortable in front of the filmmakers and their cameras. Audiences at Telluride were surprised by the access she gave to the filmmakers, and that Holmes spoke openly about her plans to launch a biotech comeback and revive Theranos from her cell in a Texas prison camp.

Forget the celebrity glitz of high-profile film festivals. In these eat-the-rich times, it’s the dark side of wealth, fame and alleged genius that satiate audience appetites. Enter two new documentaries that feed the beast.

TELLURIDE, Colo. — The Telluride Film Festival has always enjoyed keeping a secret. Tucked away in the Colorado mountains with nary a red carpet or paparazzo in sight, the low-key film festival doesn’t announce its lineup until the day before opening and surprise additions have long been a fixture of the event.

But even by Telluride standards, organizers went to unusual lengths this year to keep their biggest surprise under wraps. They had carved out a prime Sunday evening slot for a world premiere that, fingers crossed, would remain unknown until the audience was seated inside the theater. Festival director Julie Huntsinger offered only a few clues beforehand. The film involved some “very known names,” she told The Times. “Do not miss it. Your jaw will be on the ground for the entire length of the film.”

For three days, trying to crack the mystery became Telluride’s unofficial parlor game. Was it Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning”? Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three”? Alex Gibney’s Elon Musk documentary “Musk”? By Sunday, the mounting speculation had become fodder for jokes: Introducing his new movie “Club Kid” earlier in the day, writer-director-star Jordan Firstman announced that the evening’s TBA would be a newly restored print of Jerry Seinfeld’s 2007 animated film “Bee Movie.” “Just kidding,” he added. “I love Jerry.”

The festival kept the suspense going right up to showtime. Before entering the Werner Herzog Theatre on Sunday evening, hundreds of moviegoers were required to lock their phones in pouches to prevent spreading the word. Inside, they were warned that security guards equipped with night-vision goggles would be watching for anyone who managed to keep a phone accessible.

Taking the stage, Huntsinger made one last plea for secrecy. “What happens in Telluride stays in Telluride,” she told the crowd, before bringing out Nathan Fielder, the deadpan comic mind behind the reality-bending television shows “Nathan for You,” “The Rehearsal” and “The Curse.”

What Telluride had been guarding so carefully was “You Can See Everything,” a nearly three-hour documentary about convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, co-directed by Fielder and documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim. The film, which A24 will release theatrically in October, had been made largely in secret over three years.

“For those of you who don’t know who we are and are disappointed, I apologize,” Fielder, joined onstage by Oppenheim, told the crowd to laughs. “But hopefully by the end of the film, you’ll be slightly less disappointed.”

The movie begins 34 days before Holmes is due to report to federal prison, with Fielder, Oppenheim and a small crew given extraordinary access to her life with her partner, Billy Evans, and their young children. Holmes and Evans embrace what they call “radical transparency,” opening their home to the cameras in hopes of convincing the filmmakers — and eventually the world — that the public has fundamentally misunderstood her.

But as anyone familiar with Fielder’s reenactment-heavy work can imagine, “You Can See Everything” quickly becomes something far stranger than a conventional documentary. Fielder finds himself drawn from behind the camera into the story, struggling to determine whether Holmes and Evans are being candid with him or manipulating him. From there, the movie takes a series of increasingly surreal turns, including elaborate reenactments involving a Hollywood actress (her arrival is too good to spoil) that further scramble the line between reality and performance.

During a post-screening Q&A moderated by Emma Stone, who co-starred with Fielder in the darkly comic A24 series “The Curse,” Fielder said that his own inability to get a firm grip on what he was witnessing became one of the forces driving the project.

“We’re all smart and we’re really working at the top of our intelligence,” he recalled thinking as he and the crew tried to make sense of their time with Holmes and Evans. “Why can’t we make sense of what’s happening in this house?”

The project began, appropriately enough, with a magic trick.

Oppenheim said he and Fielder were at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles several years ago when a magician asked the audience to name a celebrity. Someone called out Elizabeth Holmes. Afterward, Oppenheim told Fielder he had heard through a friend of a friend that Holmes was looking for someone to document her life.

Fielder had read John Carreyrou’s “Bad Blood,” the bestselling 2018 account of Theranos’ rise and collapse and initially saw little reason to make another documentary about Holmes.

“I thought the story was really fully told,” he told the Telluride crowd. Holmes, however, had largely disappeared from public view, and Fielder was curious about what she might have to say for herself.

Meeting her only deepened that curiosity. Sitting across from Holmes, Fielder said, he found her “sort of honest and charming,” even as his brain was warning him, “No, don’t trust.” That disconnect — between what he knew about Holmes and what he felt in her presence — became central to the movie.

A24 gave Fielder and Oppenheim unusual freedom to pursue the project without any deadline or obligation to turn what they captured into a finished film. If nothing came of it, Fielder recalled being told, “you can just throw everything away.”

Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 and became one of Silicon Valley’s most celebrated young entrepreneurs by claiming the company could perform a wide range of medical tests using only a few drops of blood. The company collapsed after investigations exposed serious problems with its technology and business practices. In 2022, Holmes was convicted on four counts related to defrauding investors and later sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison.

As shown in “You Can See Everything,” once Holmes reports to federal prison, the filmmakers’ access to her changes dramatically, with Evans — who takes over Holmes’ Twitter feed and assumes power of attorney over her decisions — becoming their main conduit. Fielder said the relationship grew strained as Evans tried to exert greater control over the project. Neither Holmes nor Evans has seen the finished movie.

Fielder is hoping to keep the film’s biggest surprises under wraps. During the Q&A, he told the Telluride audience he hoped future viewers could experience the film without knowing where it was headed. Stone seconded the request.

“You won’t be upsetting me,” Fielder joked. “You’ll be upsetting Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone.”

Fielder said that even after three years immersed in her world, he still doesn’t know quite what to make of Holmes — or how much of what she says can be believed.

“I really am struggling to this day to understand exactly what I experienced in this,” he said. “I don’t quite know what I went through.”

As the crowd filed out of the Herzog, one reaction seemed to recur more than any other: “That was wild.”

Many true crime fans said it was a ‘wild’ watch as they tune in for the first time

An “insane” true crime documentary available to stream online is guaranteed to have your jaw on the floor.

There is an abundance of documentaries and films to watch on Netflix, but there is one particular watch that viewers say did not get “enough recognition” when it was first released.

Premiering in 2019, Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator examines the dramatic rise and fall of the controversial founder of hot yoga, Bikram Choudhury.

Directed by Academy Award winner Eva Orner (Taxi to the Dark Side), the film details how the controversial founder built a global fitness empire before it collapsed following numerous sexual abuse allegations.

An official synopsis on Netflix reads: “Arriving in Beverly Hills from Calcutta, India in the early 1970s, Choudhury quickly cultivated a celebrity following and built a global fitness empire that furnished him with extreme wealth.

“But by the 2010s, as numerous sexual abuse allegations emerged and stories of his aggressive, cult-like training environment surfaced, the lawsuits started to mount and Choudhury’s unorthodox teaching style became front-page news.”

It later adds: “BIKRAM: YOGI, GURU, PREDATOR, a Netflix original documentary, shines a light on the stories of the women who took him down and explores the contradiction of how this healing discipline could simultaneously help and hurt so many.”

Recently, one true crime reviewer took to social media having recently watched the documentary film, as they branded it an “insane” watch.

Sharing a video explaining the synopsis of the documentary, they wrote: “This true crime documentary will have your jaw on the ground.”

In the clip, they added: “This insane true crime documentary didn’t get enough recognition when it first came out.” One person replied: “Ohhh I loved this one crazzzyyyy”, as another commented: “Yes this was WILD!!!!”

A third added: “There’s a podcast about this too. Very strange, weird story.” A fourth wrote: “Oh yea this was a good one lol.”A fifth said: “That was a b***** crazy doc!! Too cray cray!!” Another stated: “I saw this already and I screamed at that ***!!! Absolutely insane!!”

Over on IMDb, one reviewer previously said: “The documentary was impeccably put together and a must watch for any yogi.”

Another wrote: “‘Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator’ is an exceptionally well made and well constructed documentary. It’s also one that, by the end, will probably also make you very angry for a variety of reasons.”

Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator can be streamed on Netflix

Raygun became a global phenomenon back in 2024, now she is speaking out in her own documentary

Netflix subscribers have said the same thing following the release of a documentary on a viral breakdancer.

Raygun, whose real name is Rachael Gunn, became a global phenomenon at the 2024 Olympics in Paris when her unconventional breakdancing routine went viral – for all the wrong reasons. Her unusual routine featured non-traditional movements including floor rolls and the now famous kangaroo hops, and she later found herself an internet meme.

After scoring zero points, the routine sparked controversy across the world, resulting in heightened mockery and online hate as she became one of the most talked about athletes of 2024.

Now, she has returned to cameras for her very own Netflix documentary titled ‘Untold: Raygun Breaking Badly’ which has today (September 1) landed on the streaming platform.

An official synopsis reads: “Nobody, least of all Rachael Gunn, expected to be an Olympian. But as Raygun’s performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics went viral overnight, so did an avalanche of memes, misinformation, and conspiracy theories questioning how she ever got there.”

Taking to Instagram, Netflix UK shared a teaser clip from the documentary as they captioned their post: “From Australian academic to global meme… Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly is now playing on Netflix!”

After landing on the streaming platform today, viewers are already having their say as opinions are divided. As some questioned “why” the documentary was released, one person penned: “There’s a Raygun documentary. That I have to watch!!! Surely there’s an interesting story behind those dances.”

Another said: “Just finished the Raygun documentary on Netflix and it is definitely a must-watch.” A third wrote: “Watching this Raygun documentary on Netflix and I’m in real tears lol Netflix the GOAT of documentaries btw but S/O to her for doing this too tho cuz [sic] she didn’t have to!”

On Instagram, one person said: “Fair play to her.” Another penned: “Just watched it. Jaw dropped to the floor all the way through. This screams Will Ferrell movie in all its aspects.”

Breakdancing, officially called breaking, made its Olympics debut in 2024. Away from the sporting event, Raygun was an academic as she has now opened up about the event that made history.

In the clip shared to social media today, Rachael can be heard saying: “Right before the Olympics, I went to my therapist, panicked. She was like ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’

“The whole world could laugh at me. She’s like ‘do you think that’s reasonable?'” She later adds: “There was this frenzy. It was this growing monster.”

Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly can be streamed on Netflix

This chilling true crime doc investigates a high school principal who hypnotised three students before their deaths.

ITV’s next true crime doc delves into the deaths of three students who were hypnotised by a teacher.

Look Into My Eyes was first released in the US three years ago and now it’s finally made its way to the UK, landing on ITVX today, Tuesday, August 18.

The True Crime Story doc explores the story of former North Port High School principal Dr George Kenney in Sarasota, Florida who was hypnotising his students.

He reportedly “put them under” to help teens with their athletic performances and anxiety ahead of taking exams and is believed to have hypnotised around 70 students in a five-year span.

But in 2011, Kenney was under investigation as he admitted to hypnotising three students who all tragically died within months of each other.

Star quarterback Marcus Freeman, 16, died in a car accident, and the following two months, fellow teens Brittany Palumbo and Wesley McKinley also died by suicide.

The four-part special takes a look at Kenney’s interventions and their role in the students’ lives. The official description further explains that it “investigates events leading up to these untimely deaths and the tragic aftermath as victims’ families, eyewitnesses, experts, and people involved attempt to unpack what really happened.

In the trailer for Look Into My Eyes, a parent of one of the deceased teens is heard tearily saying: “This man has ruined my life”, while another man stated: “This man just wanted to help.”

Kenney pleaded no contest to two misdemeanour counts of the unlawful practice of hypnosis without a license. He was sentenced to one year of probation, 50 hours of community service and resigned from his position as principal at North Port High School, according to the docu-series.

NBC reported that Freeman, McKinley and Palumbo’s parents sues Sarasota County school board for the wrongful deaths of the teens, stating that the school should have stopped Kenney from performing hypnosis.

In October 2015, each of the families reached a maximum sum of $200,000.

Look Into My Eyes is available to watch on ITVX.

The new release is rising through the ranks already, but viewers are warned they will need a “sick bucket”

One of the “sickest” documentaries viewers have ever seen is rising up the ranks as a strong fan warning has been issued.

An Amputation Obsession: The Monster and the Surgeon was released on Prime Video earlier this week (August 13) and already it is making waves amongst viewers.

The two-part series delves into the real life disturbing story of NHS vascular surgeon Neil Hopper, from Cornwall, who lost his own legs to amputation.

After claiming a mystery illness resulted in sepsis and injuries to his legs, Neil was seen as a ‘hero’ and a symbol of hope when he documented his journey and recovery, even going back to work.

But years later, police uncovered a dark reality and horrific secrets that Neil kept hidden from everyone. In 2019, he deliberately caused irreversible damage to his legs that resulted in an amputation of both limbs before he claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds in fraudulent insurance payouts.

When a whistle-blower set out to expose an underground network devoted to extreme body modifications, police discovered Neil’s truth.

Rising up the ranks already, an official synopsis reads: “Vascular surgeon Neil Hopper becomes a symbol of hope after losing both legs, until an investigation uncovers a hidden obsession and secret life.”

Some true crime fans have already binged the two part series, and have issued a strong warning. One person took to TikTok to recommend the “crazy” watch as they said in a video: “Honestly, the things what some people get off on never ceases to amaze me.”

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They added: “It’s absolutely crazy”, as one person replied: “Just watched this it’s so messed up.” Another dubbed it as “shocking” as a third penned: “The f*** This was insane.”

In another video, one person said: “Yous need to watch this immediately but get a sick bucket before you do because oh my god, it’s horrifying.”

They went on to say: “The biggest trigger warning that I have ever, ever put on a video needs to be put on this documentary. Let’s just say your jaw will be on the floor.”

Another commented: “Only managed the first episode. Felt way too sick to continue.” One person admitted: “I think it’s the sickest documentary I’ve ever seen.”

An Amputation Obsession: The Monster and the Surgeon can be streamed on Prime Video

Doc Rivers needed some time to write the speech that he’ll give when formally inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday.

The storytelling, that part was easy. He’s a natural at that.

But what Rivers wound up learning during the trial-and-error process of speechwriting was that the words he’ll say from a stage in Springfield, Mass., aren’t going to be about him. They’re going to be about everyone else who played a role in him getting to that moment.

“You go through this journey of writing it and you realize it has nothing to do with you in a very good way,” Rivers said. “People are happy for you, and I am happy for them because they got me there. You hear all your life, ‘You don’t do anything alone.’ When you get in the Hall of Fame, you really understand that you don’t do anything alone. It’s all the coaches in your life, your parents, the players. It’s a thankful journey and that’s what the Hall of Fame should be about.”

Numbers prove he’s among best

A winner of 1,194 regular-season games as an NBA coach — and that’ll be all, he insists, saying his retirement is a real one — Rivers ranks sixth in league history. The only others ahead of him: Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan and Pat Riley, all of whom are Hall of Famers, so it was obviously a lock that Rivers would be joining them.

He won a championship with Boston in 2008, won 114 playoff games as a coach, played 13 seasons, was an All-Star once, has been a broadcaster and — if he goes back to work, and his family currently has a pool that he will — he’ll be a broadcaster again.

But there’s more to life now. The Illinois native and Marquette legend has seven grandchildren, a house on the water and can’t play enough golf. He’ll still be involved in the game, somehow. It just won’t be as a coach. It’ll be as a Hall of Famer.

“Doc is a proven, extraordinary leader and communicator during his renowned NBA coaching career,” Milwaukee general manager Jon Horst said when the Bucks hired Rivers in 2024. “As a championship coach, he’s widely respected as an established innovator, and the right coach to lead our experienced and talented team.”

He was, until he wasn’t.

Injuries derailed every chance the Bucks had at being a winner last season, and when the season came to its dismal close Rivers was fairly certain it was the end for him as well — after 27 seasons on the sideline, and whole lot of missed moments along the way.

“The one thing that people have no idea about is the toll it takes on you and the family component,” Rivers said. “It is rough. You’re never home. You make sacrifices and your family has to make them as well.”

That won’t be an issue now.

A hit from the beginning

Rivers won coach of the year in his first season, taking a team he called “the 301s” in Orlando and leading it to a 41-41 record. On the surface, there’s nothing special about going .500. But the Magic were supposed to be bottom dwellers that season and Rivers used a preseason ranking of the league’s top 300 players as inspiration — since none of those top 300 were playing for the Magic.

“That season gave me great confidence,” Rivers said.

He has some regrets, of course. Critics have long pointed to the 10 losses that Rivers-coached teams had in Game 7s, by far the most of any coach in NBA history. And his fans will retort by pointing to his 114 playoff wins, fourth-most in NBA history. But the biggest do-over, if Rivers had such an option, would be changing his mind about leaving the Celtics for the Clippers in 2013.

Rivers got to the Clippers not long before the end of Donald Sterling’s ownership of the team; Sterling made racist comments and was banned by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

“I underestimated what a great situation I was in, and I took that for granted, like you can just go anywhere and create that,” Rivers said. “I messed that one up. But then when I go to the Clippers, the team is pretty damn good. The organization, it was the worst organization in sports with the ownership problem. Within a week there, I remember telling my assistant, ‘We’ve got a lot to do here.’ ”

The championship with the Celtics in 2008 — Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, the stars of that team, will be together again to present their former coach for his Hall enshrinement — was an obvious high point for Rivers’ career. There were other moments he’s particularly proud of as well, such as delivering on a promise that he made to someone who barely played for him.

Tyronn Lue succeeded Rivers as coach of the Clippers. Lue played 11 games for Rivers in Orlando during the 2003-04 season; that was all the time it took for Rivers to be convinced that Lue would one day be a coach. He told Lue to call him if he ever wanted a job and Lue took him up on it. Rivers wound up going to the Hall of Fame, and few within the game would be surprised if Lue joins him there one day.

“It’s the stories like that that you think about,” Rivers said. “Rajon Rondo played for me in Boston. We had a very tumultuous relationship when I coached him and now, I probably talk to Rondo more than probably than any player that I coached.”

It’s what the game does, Rivers said. The lucky ones get guided along the way. He played that role with players like Rondo — who coached with Rivers — and Lue, and in Rivers’ own case, it was Riley who gave him the push he needed.

Riley and Rivers clashed at times during their player-coach relationship, and their biggest fights came when Riley was telling Rivers that he belonged in coaching.

Riley was right.

“When I was doing TV, he kept writing and sending me these freaking messages about getting into the fray,” Rivers said. “He knew it. And here I am, going into the Hall of Fame.”

Reynolds writes for the Associated Press.