Some might find this movie unwatchable, and for good reason. As I said, it didn’t work for me, and it was hard to sit through. Nevertheless, it’s unwatchable for the same reason the news has become unwatchable; neither presents a reality that is untrue nor exaggerated, and neither is believable for relatively normal, sane people because both present a reality that has nothing to do with their lives as they experience it.
So that’s the problem with satire these days; it’s impossible to exaggerate to make a point because reality beats the satirist to it. If one, the movie’s satire, is over the top, so is the other, reality. If you dismiss the movie as indulging in cheap caricature, I would argue to the contrary that the humans it caricatures have in reality become hollowed-out, cheap caricatures of themselves.
It’s impossible, for instance, to do a cheap caricature of Trump or Musk because each has become utterly the embodiment of their own cheap caricatures. If anything human is left in either, it’s a sad little boy whimpering locked unheard in a prison deep within their psyches.
As I wrote the other day, if the movie has any value, it will be if it gives pause to young people who want a career in tech.
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