O Homem que Quer Viver para Sempre

I started this documentary fully expecting it to be a straightforward exposé of a wellness influencer/biohacker or perhaps another commentary piece on the prevalence of snake oil in today's health and wellness industry.

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find a well-executed, evenhanded, authentic documentary about a uniquely disciplined, emotionally nuanced human-being relentless in his pursuit of immortality yet open about his struggles with loneliness and depression.

The doc goes far beyond the oft cringe content and polished veneer he shares on social media, providing the viewer with an intimate window into Bryan's origin story, his monastic yet luxurious existence, and perhaps most compelling, his endearing relationship with his son and his parents. I came away with a new respect and understanding for him as a person. Well worth the watch.

This is an 8 for me because rarely has a documentary been more revealing through what it does not elucidate, namely the deep insecurities of Bryan Johnson and all the things he hides from the world, including himself - his shadow self. "I'm a disaster of an intelligent being..." and "I don't fear death..." were his words in this documentary, whose title reads, "The man who wants to live forever". This is a person full of contradictions and unaware of his blind spots. He might succeed in being the first man to live beyond 120 years of age, but die eventually he will.

The origin of Johnson's death anxiety began in his burnout in his mid- to late-thirties, which brought him face-to-face with his shadow self and led him to question his existence and relationship with the LDS church. Perhaps he realised there has to be more to life than being stressed out 24/7 as a tech entrepreneur, and he found no pleasure in his roles as a husband, a father, a son and a Mormon. At the peak of his existential crisis, he experienced severe depression and suicidal ideation. It was a complete obliteration of the self that he had known.

But who was Bryan Johnson if he wasn't a Mormon, a husband, a father, a son and a tech entrepreneur? His identity was built on those very foundations, but they were also the building blocks to his despair. He felt he had no other choice but to leave the church and his community, and he probably feared the punishment of hell that is promised to the unfaithful like him. That could be the beginning of his obsession with extending his life as best he could, so that he can delay purgatory.

All this is merely my hypothesis, of course. For a documentary so fixated with longevity, it was telling that the focus was purely on physical health, with absolutely no exploration of mental well-being, other than a brief acknowledgement of the importance of social connection and community by Johnson himself. It seemed like a deliberate effort on his part not to discuss his burnout, depression, exit from Mormonism and its repercussions because he desired to avoid painful emotions and memories.

The Don't Die enterprise is fuelled by Johnson's need to carve out a new identity and fulfill his fantasy of cheating death at all cost, while avoiding the difficult topics of self-fidelity, self-compassion and self-acceptance (all three of which Johnson is no closer to achieving). Living a healthy lifestyle through minimising stress, eating nutritious food, exercising regularly and having adequate sleep is no news to anyone in the 21st century. Unlike Johnson and his acolytes, many in the world simply don't have such luxury because they are busy working in terrible conditions in poor countries, making goods for those like him and his followers, who never seem content no matter how much they already have. As guaranteed as his mortality is, Johnson can never outrun his shadow.

How foolish of me, in retrospect, to have expected I might learn something interesting from this documentary. For its 90 minute run time, the actual salient facts of Bryan Johnson's longevity project come few and fast. He exercises an hour a day with three intensity sets a week. He's vegan. He takes a hundred or more "pills." Beyond this, the story focuses on his relationship with his son, a little about his past, and makes passing attempts to frame the controversy surrounding him (there isn't much) and to enter the conversation on public health.

I'd hoped to learn a bit more about what he's actually doing, what vitamins or pills he might be taking, but with only a couple of exceptions, this and many other facets of Johnson's project remained unknown. I realized that this is likely because those aspects are proprietary. This is Johnson's personal quest, but also his enterprise. So the "debate" over whether he is altruistic or some grifter seems answered by the nature of the documentary about him itself; to really know about the man who wants to live forever, just plug in your credit card number.

My key measurement of a documentary's quality is whether or not it is trying to sell something. I believe the film makers did a good job of not promoting Bryan's quest. Instead, it was more informative about a very unique, if not odd lifestyle. This got it to a five, but ultimately it was just too creepy for me to give it any more.

Bryan has quite a few hang ups, and this seemed to be the focus of the second half of the film. I'm glad he has found a way to cope with his depression, loneliness, and lack of interpersonal skills - especially since he only has a few hundred million in the bank.

Ultimately, I found him creepy, narcissistic, and (ironically) very unhealthy looking! He kinda reminds me of the movie character "Powder".

Notice how often he appears shirtless.

Total sideshow attraction.

I found this documentary interesting enough and valuable in that it fleshed out the life and times of a public figure that I had only known through derisive online content about his plasma transfusions with his son.

The production quality was good and I felt as though there was an earnest attempt to approach the subject matter in an even-handed fashion, as a good documentary should.

The problem for me is that it actually fails in that attempt and ends up feeling like an advertisement for the delusions of a deeply wounded and narcissistic person. This documentary fell short in critically examining who Bryan is and why he is doing what he does.