New Elon Musk Movie Is Getting Incredible Reviews, Here's Why Critics Love It

A new Elon Musk movie is winning over critics. The documentary portrait of the controversial tech billionaire and SpaceX CEO is helmed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney. Gibney's upcoming documentary, Musk, has already impressed many reviewers ahead of its official theatrical debut. Following its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Musk has been generating a lot of buzz. Its official description reads, 'The Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney delivers his most ambitious and epic work in exploring the history of the world's richest man, Elon Musk.' What to know about Alex Gibney's Musk documentary Most of the critics are impressed with how Alex Gibney depicts the most talked-about and serious aspects and an overall journey of Elon Musk from being the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X to emerging as a polarizing global figure. Owen Gleiberman of Variety said Musk is 'a lacerating and important watch, grounded in Alex Gibney's supremely insightful but user-friendly mastery of the documentary form' and 'how the Musk dream wasn't always so grandiose.' 'The Tesla boss's power over us has been revealed like never before in Alex Gibney's four-hour attack', wrote Robbie Collin of The Telegraph. Matthew Carey of Deadline wrote that the movie shows Musk as 'petty, narcissistic, megalomaniacal, cruel, detached from humans at a personal level (including various ex-partners and many of his children) while purporting to want to save humanity by colonizing Mars. A real prince. Musk, in my view, gives Elon the takedown he richly deserves.' He also noted that despite its stretchy runtime of 225 minutes, the documentary is 'engrossing from the start and a necessary length to confront Musk's immense impact on contemporary life and politics, sprawling businesses, and complex personal life.' Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote, 'Gibney wittily compares him to the hero of the 1936 film version of HG Wells's The Man Who Could Work Miracles about godlike space aliens who capriciously confer supernatural powers on a banal, ordinary earthling.' David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised the movie for how it 'collates a ton of information in a very persuasive package that will leave many audiences chilled to the bone.' Alex Gibney's Musk hits theaters on October 16, 2026.