‘Musk’ Review: Alex Gibney’s Definitive Documentary Puts the Pieces of Elon Musk Together — It’s a Lacerating Portrait of Technocratic Brilliance, Power Lust and Crackpot Delusion

Sep 8, 2026 5:05am PT ‘Musk’ Review: Alex Gibney’s Definitive Documentary Puts the Pieces of Elon Musk Together — It’s a Lacerating Portrait of Technocratic Brilliance, Power Lust and Crackpot Delusion

Once you start lining up Musk’s scandals and cut corners, you see that he’s a creator of mirages who promises more than he delivers.

By Owen Gleiberman

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Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

@OwenGleiberman

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Courtesy of Venice Film Festival

When a subject has been as exhaustively covered — and as infamous — as Elon Musk, the electric-car-entrepreneur-turned-rocket-man-turned-richest-billionaire-in-the-universe-turned-Twitter-disruptor-turned-DOGE-destroyer-turned-God-only-knows-what-he’ll-do-next, reviews of a documentary about him tend to lead by plucking out the film’s incendiary bits of investigative reportage, the ones that feel worthy of a news headline. “Musk,” Alex Gibney’s 3-hour-and-45-minute documentary about the tech bro who would be king, has a handful of those.

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