Review: Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

The story of Elizabeth Holmes, a Steve Jobs-wannabe who at just 19 was CEO and founder of Theranos, a blood-testing company. Unfortunately, it all went to hell for her and partner Sunny Balwani (then-company COO and president) when it was revealed that Theranos’ blood-testing technology failed to deliver the goods. The technology (aimed at preventing people from having to go to a clinic for blood tests) didn’t work, was apparently never going to work, and Holmes and Balwani were (and still are) in some very deep shit with investors and lady law. It seems as though everyone wanted to believe in Holmes, especially since her proposed invention would’ve helped save lives…had it worked. It would’ve made a helluva difference. It would’ve made Holmes’ legacy among the greats like Edison, Jobs, Gates, etc. But it didn’t, because Holmes and Theranos were full of shit. All show and no go. How in the hell did this happen? Surely it can’t just be that investors were intoxicated with and enchanted by the young-ish, doe-eyed blonde in Steve Jobs cosplay who was taking the ethos ‘Fake it ‘til you make it’ to potentially scary degrees.

Although not as riveting as previous documentaries by Alex Gibney like “Going Clear” and “Mea Maxima Culpa”, this 2019 documentary does have some interesting elements. It does, however share something in common with one of Gibney’s rare misfires, “We Steal Secrets”, which is that the subject matter is somewhat dry and uninteresting, at least to me. Where this film succeeds and that film failed, is that at least in this case, the central personality exposed in the film is at least fascinating: Elizabeth Holmes. Oh my god, this chick right here is something. Truly, truly something. The woman was a fraud, obviously. However, was she a fraud with good intentions at the outset? Was she a flaky, image-obsessed Steve Jobs wannabe who simply didn’t check to see if the product did what it was supposed to? Did she believe if she just kept everyone distracted for a bit, they’d eventually iron out the kinks? And what in the hell is up with that bizarre, baritone Valley Girl voice of hers? The latter doesn’t get discussed in the documentary, but there’s plenty of theories about the authenticity (or likely lack thereof) of it online. To me she sure sounds like she’s about to announce to the world that she was the person who invented Post-It notes. Irrelevant 90s movie-referencing tangents aside (especially since I’m not the first person to point out the Mira Sorvino voice), the creepily unblinking, big-eyed Holmes is a fascinatingly vacuous figure and the film gets quite a bit of mileage out of interviews with Holmes herself (interviews from promotional footage shot by Errol Morris, of all people) staring directly, dead-eyed into the camera.

It’s very clear to me that Holmes has modelled herself on deceased Apple icon Steve Jobs (Errol Morris having worked for Apple at some point for their ads), but seemingly without any of the substance. She’s got the black clothing, she does those pretentious product launch lecture things that always seem bizarre to me. But it appears to be just surface-level…she appears to be just surface-level. The film shows pics of her attending all kinds of galas and celebrity dos, and argues she was seemingly more interested in status and celebrity than science. To me it’s clear that whatever desires Holmes may have initially had in genuinely helping people (her product supposedly came to mind due to her own personal family experiences), she lost sight of that at some point and it all went to hell. By not focussing more on the product and making sure it actually worked, she was never able to be like her idol Jobs beyond the black skivvies and pretentious lecture nonsense. And perhaps that’s because whatever she might’ve wanted to do or whatever she saw herself as, Holmes was frankly miscast as a CEO and founder of the now defunct Theranos. It was the wrong role for her and it brought her and the company where it is today. Early Theranos investor Tim Draper, who has defended Holmes repeatedly, has said he’d back her again, but as Chief Science Officer of a company, not as CEO. And he’s both right and wrong. He’s right because she was a terrible CEO- basically the Kardashian/Barbie version of a CEO – A CEO for the vacuous Millennial generation. However, he’s wrong because a good Chief Science Officer (and Holmes was no scientist, by the way) wouldn’t have allowed this shit to have happened, and if you’re suggesting that Holmes was CEO at the time and therefore not responsible for the problem…that would just be complete and utter bullshit. Rather than realise the jig was up at some point, she just kept on rolling and rolling before the train completely and totally derailed. Based solely on this film, I’d suggest the aspects of Steve Jobs she actually shares in common relate to his not terribly pleasant personality. My best guess is that the woman’s a narcissist who may have started out wanting to do good work but very quickly found her ego taking over and spent more time on promoting herself than making sure her product did what it says on the tin. And given we’re talking about blood testing technology – a very, very important and life-saving technology – the woman is frankly bloody dangerous. Very fiercely driven and destined to be played in a biopic by Jessica Chastain (Mary Elizabeth Winstead would be perfect, but wouldn’t sell the picture as well), Holmes kept me hooked here even when the science stuff bored/confused me. This is a woman who, when Theranos is exposed as creating faulty technology, is at an honorary awards shindig in her own honour. For fuck’s sake. That’s Elizabeth Holmes in a nutshell right there. When she does finally front the media, she gets caught bullshitting. She makes you want to scream, she’s the violinist on the Titanic.

Although the science talk creates a few dead spots, Holmes is such a fascinating figure that you find yourself unable to look away, staring into her unblinking, blue-eyed, vacuous gaze. Perhaps that was Holmes’ problem: She was too busy in a trance looking at herself in the mirror to go and check on how things were going in the lab. As bad as this got, things could’ve gotten so much worse here. Life or death kind of worse. Dry, but solid stuff from Gibney, this story is still playing out, and I wouldn’t rule out a comeback for Holmes. Now that’s scary. Absolutely not for the squeamish. Even I winced at a few moments.

Rating: B-