Liars and Saints

Maybe my favorite from Chloe Fineman's gallery of lunatics is Elizabeth Holmes. Ms. Holmes invented the "nanotainer," the thing meant to revolutionize medical care, then drove her own business into the ground and set herself up for (maybe) years and years in prison. Meet Ms. Holmes: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvPtEAoHigS/?hl=en She's wearing her Steve Jobs uniform (so much easier than having to make sartorial choices in the morning! Who has time, who among the busy geniuses?) Ms. Holmes is speaking in her creepy baritone, and her non-blinking eyes are on display. "Anytime you create something new," Holmes says, "there should be questions. What higher purpose is there than changing the world?" She allows silence to grow, so we can dwell in this place of profundity. Next, Holmes shows us a DayQuil capsule. "This is my nanotainer," she explains. "I invented it when I was fourteen years old, working with the Bunsen burner in m...

The best piece I've read about "The Inventor" is from "The New Yorker." Its author is Rachel Syme. Her main point is that neither "Bad Blood" nor "Inventor" gets "in Holmes's head." In other words, because Holmes has been so guarded, deceptive, and stingy with interviewers, we don't really know her. Some journalists have been happy to fill the void. Someone on Slate wrote in a shallow way about how empty-headed Holmes must be, and about how it's shocking that Holmes is now appearing in sunny Instagram photos, and is actually engaged to be married. (Who gets engaged to a woman who may spend twenty years behind bars? May wonders never cease!) Styme, in "The New Yorker," smartly resists the temptation to fill in blanks that can't be filled in. We don't know Holmes. It's possible there isn't a "neat psychological explanation" for her behavior--and Styme is right to worry that the upcom...

It's fun to watch this documentary while also reading "The Journalist and the Murderer" on the side. Janet Malcolm reminds us, in "Journalist and Murderer," that there are generally multiple sides to any one story. So, though it's easy to think of Elizabeth Holmes as Satan, it's also possible that Holmes has a version of the story that differs from the filmmaker's version. That said, Holmes hasn't offered her version of the story. The director of "The Inventor" went to her, and she led him on for five hours, and then she turned him down. He says he thinks she mainly wanted to tease out the tone, or possible tone, of the documentary--and that she never had any intention of helping. He also says that she continues to blame her own downfall on "sexism." (In other words, she seems unwilling to examine herself and her behavior. At least for now.) Malcolm also reminds the reader that real people are different from great fictiona...

I have a bit left in "The Inventor," but I'm ready to say I love this movie. Highlights so far: -A story is different from data. A good narrative has an emotional component. When you appeal to people's emotions, you can be very seductive. You don't need to point to numbers. Elizabeth Holmes was an extraordinary storyteller. She would trot out the tale of her uncle, dead too soon from cancer, and people would want to open their wallets for her. -People find it easy to lie if they believe they're supporting a good cause. A thing I enjoyed was this: A certain economist had people roll dice. If you rolled, you would have to commit to choosing the top or bottom of your roll. ("It landed on a 2, but I'm committed to the top of the roll, a 5....so I get 5 dollars." "It landed on a 3, and I'm committed to the bottom of the roll, so I get 3 dollars.") People would freely lie if the difference was between 6 and 1, and then they would tell...

People say that evil isn't very interesting; it's the human response to evil that can hold our attention. I think that's true in "Bad Blood." Elizabeth Holmes--the monster at the center of the story--doesn't seem to have much depth. She doesn't really show signs of genuine contrition, and it's never clear in the story that she is wrestling with the scary implications of what she is doing. For that reason, she can be a bit tiresome--as a character. To me, the real stars of "Bad Blood" are the people who struggle against Holmes: a young man whose nonagenarian grandfather tells him to just fall in line with EH, a guy who ends up committing suicide because the pressures of working with EH are too great, and an outspoken lab expert who takes photos of various problems in EH's facilities (among many other characters). It worries me that Adam McKay is involved with the Holmes story, because McKay tends to have contempt for his characters, and ...