{"id":8778,"date":"2026-10-15T22:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T22:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8778"},"modified":"2026-10-15T22:00:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T22:00:32","slug":"hollywood-tech-backlash-you-can-see-everything-musk-the-social-reckoning-artificial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=8778","title":{"rendered":"The tech backlash is now in theaters"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Though movies about disruptive tech founders are nothing new, 2026 has been unusually stacked with features that take a much more critical look at how Silicon Valley is reshaping our reality. Aaron Sorkin\u2019s The Social Reckoning<\/em><\/a>frames Mark Zuckerberg as a robotic villain<\/a> whose ambitions are destabilizing society<\/a>. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim\u2019s You Can See Everything<\/em> paints a damning picture of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes<\/a> as she prepares for her ongoing stint in prison<\/a>. After years of being widely celebrated<\/a> as a visionary, you can see how the larger narrative around Elon Musk has shifted in projects like Alex Gibney\u2019s Musk<\/em> documentary<\/a>. And while Luca Guadagnino\u2019s Artificial<\/em><\/a>is a dark comedy, it is also a character study that makes Sam Altman look like a manipulative sociopath<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Even though some of these movies are fictionalized dramas, each of them draws from the wealth of critical reporting that has revealed their subjects to be less-than-savory characters. You get the sense that these filmmakers are trying to tell stories that are meant to resonate with audiences whose views of Big Tech have long since begun to dim. But it also feels like some of Hollywood\u2019s biggest studios are finally embracing the idea that the tech backlash isn\u2019t letting up anytime soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Especially when you compare them to classics like The Social Network<\/em><\/a>, the latest wave of cinematic dramas based on Silicon Valley power struggles has been far less sympathetic to their central figures. David Fincher\u2019s 2010 film starring Jesse Eisenberg presented Zuckerberg as a complicated and misunderstood savant, but The Social Reckoning<\/em> builds its story around the idea that the Facebook \/ Meta head is a man whose obsession with growth poses an existential threat to democracy. By focusing on the allegations leveled by whistleblower Frances Haugen<\/a>, the movie is able to highlight Zuckerberg\u2019s public transformation into a powerful executive who wields autocratic control<\/a> over a multibillion-dollar social media empire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What The Social Reckoning<\/em> lacks in timeliness (The Wall Street Journal<\/em> began reporting Haugen\u2019s warnings in 2021) and stylistic flair, it makes up for in the way it connects Facebook \/ Meta\u2019s past internal decisions to events that are still playing out in real time. The movie\u2019s scenes that dig into Instagram\u2019s negative impacts on teens\u2019 mental health<\/a> and the relationship between Facebook\u2019s algorithm and the spread of misinformation<\/a> feel as if they\u2019re speaking directly to present-day concerns about how much influence Meta has over people\u2019s lives. Similarly, Gibney\u2019s Musk<\/em> documentary acts as both a chronicle of the xAI \/ SpaceX head\u2019s past and an inquiry into why the public was ever willing to let Musk accrue so much power within governments across the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Musk\u2019s response to Gibney\u2019s film has been telling. X has blocked the feature from being advertised<\/a> on the platform, and Musk \u2014 a self-proclaimed \u201cfree speech absolutist\u201d \u2014 has threatened to take legal action against Gibney<\/a> for producing a \u201chit piece.\u201d It wasn\u2019t entirely surprising to see Musk personally badmouthing a project that casts him in a negative light, but it was curious to see the Musk<\/em> ads initially missing from other social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Though the Meta subsidiaries and YouTube ultimately reversed their decisions, TikTok has stuck to its guns \u2014 which feels notable given the company\u2019s indirect connections to the Trump administration by way of Skydance Corporation CEO David Ellison. David\u2019s father \u2014 Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison \u2014 is a longtime Donald Trump supporter<\/a> and one of the American billionaires who led the consortium of investors that purchased TikTok\u2019s US business late last year<\/a>. Ellison has reportedly promised Gibney<\/a> that Musk<\/em> will air on HBO (now a part of Skydance) sometime next January. The film is currently screening in select theaters, but it is hard to argue that it hasn\u2019t had to deal with an unusual amount of outside interference in the weeks leading up to its release.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Guadagnino\u2019s Artificial<\/em> \u2014 which was originally going to be released by Amazon \u2014 also faced unexpected marketing challenges this year. The streaming giant backed out of its deal to distribute the film this past June<\/a>, just months after announcing that it was investing $50 billion in OpenAI. All of that made it seem very much like Amazon and other studios financially involved with AI companies<\/a> might be cooling on the idea of releasing projects critical of the technology\u2019s creators. Now that Artificial<\/em> has begun screening and people have a sense of how it takes Altman to task, it\u2019s easy to see why Amazon didn\u2019t want to have its name attached<\/a>. More than anything else, that<\/em> decision may be what convinces people to see Artificial<\/em> in theaters when it releases widely on December 25th, and OpenAI\u2019s impending IPO<\/a> could make the movie\u2019s messages about Altman feel that much more relevant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What sets Fielder\u2019s You Can See Everything<\/em> apart from each of these other recent tech films is how direct a view it gives you into the actual life of its subject. The documentary\u2019s production began well after Holmes had already been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison<\/a>, and Fielder uses his access to grill her about why she doesn\u2019t believe that she defrauded Theranos investors<\/a>. Invited to live with Holmes and her partner William Evans in a rental home during the month before she was set to begin her sentence, Fielder allows himself to become a character who can\u2019t entirely tell whether his hosts\u2019 supposed wish for radical transparency is genuine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That central tension turns You Can See Everything<\/em> into a surprisingly fascinating watch that challenges you to consider who\u2019s actually in control of the documentary. Throughout the movie, Fielder repeatedly wonders if Holmes is using him as part of her recent PR campaign<\/a>, and he leaves the audience to draw their own conclusions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It often feels like Fielder is asking viewers to really listen to how Holmes presents herself on camera and then reconcile that person with what you might have read about Holmes in the news or seen in Hulu\u2019s The Dropout<\/em><\/a>. Whether or not Holmes is really just a committed performer who\u2019s trying to manipulate the public shapes every beat of the film, and it makes You Can See Everything<\/em> feel like a truly in-depth and honest examination of one of Silicon Valley\u2019s most infamous figures \u2014 one who\u2019s already captured so much of the public\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Even though some of these films have been box office flops<\/a>, their existence reflects a larger cultural shift in how people are thinking about modern technology and the powers behind it. Hollywood has spent years poking fun at<\/a> and mythologizing founders<\/a>, and portions of the industry are finally beginning to take a more critical view<\/a>. As we continue to deal with the fallout of things like Elon Musk\u2019s tenure at DOGE<\/a> and OpenAI\u2019s quest to bake generative AI into every aspect of our lives<\/a>, audiences\u2019 appetites for movies like these could grow. And with all of these founders racing to monopolize the next tech frontier<\/a>, the entertainment industry will probably have plenty of source material to draw from.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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