Pharma Bro

It's played as lighthearted and meant to be endearing, but Brent Hodge, a faux-journalist documentarian, did something that is an example of everything wrong with modern journalism.... he stalked his subject. Not only did he stalk his subject, he didn't even ask any meaningful questions or provide any meaningful insight. Brent Hodge isn't really a great documentarian, he makes long form YouTube videos. You would get more out of watching a ten minute InfoWars analysis on Martin than you would paying $7 on iTunes to watch this BARELY feature length "film"

Save your time and watch a different documentary about Martin S. I didn't know much about him to begin with, but this doc does not explain much about him or his legal troubles. It seems the documentarian wanted himself to be the subject of this film, and did a bad job telling any sort of story. I have it a 2 instead of 1 star, simply because I enjoyed the wu tang interviews. It has more hipster kids trying to make something deep without understanding actual life experience. This doc is one you should skip.

If you didn't follow the Shkreli story too closely this documentary will bring some interesting parts of it to light, e.g. He constantly livestreamed and took calls from random people. It is mostly about the public scandals surrounding him.

The main journalist who practically stalked Shkreli for a year has nothing meaninful to add. Whilst an interesting angle, nothing came of his efforts and didn't deserve a good chunk of the documentary. Instead he too just got caught up in the public drama and failed to do any meaningful journalism.

The documentary attempts psychoanalysis via the people that knew him personally, however this just ends showing people that keep empathising with him. What about the people that were hurt by his actions?

A question that I wanted answered was "how many people did he kill because people couldn't afford medication?"

Instead you have his friends and ex-girlfriends saying what a sweet misunderstood guy he is; if you ignore the psychopathy he is actually quirky and likeable. The interesting angle here is how various people have failed to apply any ethical standards to their personal relationships. Several women wanted to date him only after he became known as a menace and just ignored his other actions.

Because he was so reviled by everyone the new perspective the documentary is trying to bring is to paint him as "only human". The real discussion to be had is about the US healtcare system and how Shkreli has become a symbol of bad things can get. There's the briefest talk about that.

At the end it's still not clear what is driving Shkreli, other than a desire for quick money, or what makes him so callous.

I was interested in the story but the whole format of the film and the direction was just embarrassingly poor. How on earth did it end up on Prime? That being said, I did watch it 🙄

What is this and why did Blumhouse put their name on it? This film got some good interviews from participants but was pieced together with all the skill of an undergrad. I think the filmmaker waited too late to state his intention for this movie. It came across as some sort of weird and uncomfortable stalker film. A love letter to Martin Skrelli. I had to use the fast- forward through several awkward scenes.