Elon Musk unloads on four-hour documentary: ‘Hit piece’ built around people with an axe to grind

BS BULLETIN:

Elon Musk is ripping Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney and his nearly four-hour documentary “Musk” following its Venice Film Festival premiere.
Musk says the film relies on people who either have an “axe to grind” against him or barely know him.
The documentary includes Musk’s estranged father Errol, ex-wife Justine Musk and Ashley St. Clair, who shares a child with Musk and claims she rejected a $40 million offer not to speak.

Elon Musk isn’t exactly waiting for the Rotten Tomatoes score.

The billionaire has unloaded on filmmaker Alex Gibney and his sprawling new documentary “Musk,” calling the movie a “hit piece” and attacking the director’s integrity after the film premiered this week at the Venice Film Festival.

Gibney, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind documentaries about Scientology, Enron and Steve Jobs, spent years examining Musk’s businesses, political influence, personal relationships and alliance with President Donald Trump.

Musk declined to participate in the project. Gibney instead interviewed an assortment of relatives, former associates, critics and others from Musk’s orbit — a lineup Musk says tells you plenty about the finished product.

Responding Wednesday on X, Musk accused Gibney of assembling a “hit list” of people who either hold a grudge against him or don’t know him well enough to offer a meaningful assessment.

“He has ZERO integrity. Horrible human,” Musk wrote.

And that was one of his nicer reviews.

Responding to video of Gibney discussing the film, Musk declared that “dogshit is worth more respect” than the director.

He later dismissed the documentary itself as a “hit piece that misses,” adding that it commits the “fatal sin” of being boring for four hours.

Among those interviewed is Musk’s estranged father, Errol Musk, along with his first wife, Justine Musk, Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton.

But perhaps the most attention-grabbing participant is Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children.

St. Clair appeared alongside Gibney in Venice and claimed Musk offered her $40 million in connection with a nondisclosure agreement that would have prevented her from speaking publicly. “I was offered the opportunity not to speak for $40 million,” St. Clair said.

Musk flatly disputes that account. “She was never offered that and has a history of making false claims,” Musk wrote in response to reporting about St. Clair’s allegation.

Gibney, meanwhile, says he initially sought Musk’s participation and that Musk declined. The filmmaker also said he encountered extraordinary reluctance from people who knew Musk to speak on camera, describing a “tremendous sense of fear” surrounding the project.

With Musk refusing an interview, the filmmakers made an unusual substitution: an AI-generated Musk avatar constructed around things the real Musk has previously said publicly.

The 225-minute documentary is scheduled for a U.S. theatrical release Oct. 16.

MY QUICK TAKE

Imagine somebody makes a three-hour-and-45-minute movie about you, fills it with your estranged dad, ex-wife, former colleagues and a baby mama you’re publicly feuding with — and then acts surprised when you don’t call it a tribute.

Musk’s review is considerably shorter than the movie.

“Hit piece.”

“Boring.”

“Dogshit.”

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