Film

WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn

A forensic examination of WeWork's spectacular collapse and the charismatic hustler at its center. Director Jed Rothstein traces how a coworking startup became a $47 billion unicorn through bluster, venture capital excess, and a CEO selling transformation he didn't believe in. Compulsively watchable for anyone fascinated by startup mythology, fraud, and the machinery of delusion.

TMDb rating3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy business documentaries that treat a charismatic founder like a case study in ego, and you like sharp, mocking takes on Silicon Valley hype.

Skip it if you need fresh revelations or a slow, forensic unpicking of the numbers, because this moves briskly and skims its financial detail.

What it asks of you: Under two hours, brisk and busy, with a sardonic edge that keeps the pace up; you'll need to track a lot of money and a lot of swagger.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Dropout2022

Amanda Seyfried gives a career-defining performance as Elizabeth Holmes in this Hulu limited series. It's tighter and more dramatically satisfying than the documentaries, with superior production values and intimate character work.

But Dramatization changes details and softens some edges for narrative momentum, so it's less forensically complete than straight documentary.

The Dropout poster

Fyre2019

Netflix's blistering doc about another Instagram-era con that promised transformation and delivered catastrophe. Billy McFarland weaponized influencer culture and FOMO to defraud thousands, and the film captures the audacity and absurdity perfectly.

But Tonally lighter than WeWork, focused more on the spectacle than the systemic failure, so morally weightier viewers may find it glib.

Fyre poster

The Platform2019

Spanish sci-fi allegory about a hierarchical system where people are stacked vertically and resources flow downward. It's a darkly clever metaphor for startup inequality and the illusion of meritocracy that structures WeWork's world.

But Heavily metaphorical and deliberately bleak rather than narratively propulsive, which may frustrate viewers wanting clearer storytelling.

The Platform poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Men Who Made Us Fat2012

Both examine how persuasive individuals exploit psychological and economic systems to manufacture desire and dependence, then walk away while subordinates absorb the fallout.

BBC documentary by Jacques Peretti on how food corporations use behavioral psychology and design to engineer consumption and addiction. It's the same machinery as WeWork—charismatic figures selling a vision while exploiting systemic vulnerabilities in how humans make decisions.

But Focuses on food and public health rather than startup culture, so the connection requires intellectual work to appreciate.

The Men Who Made Us Fat poster
More like this (5)

The Boy Behind the Door2020

A visceral thriller about two boys escaping captivity, directed by David Charbonier. It captures the paranoia and desperation of realizing you're trapped in a system designed to exploit you—thematically close to the employee experience at WeWork.

But A genre thriller rather than a documentary, so it may feel tonally jarring if you're looking for another analysis of corporate malfeasance.

The Boy Behind the Door poster

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley2019

Alex Gibney again, on Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. If you want more of the same thematic material—hustle culture, fraud, charisma as weapon—this is the most direct parallel to WeWork's rise and fall.

But Redundant if you've already watched The Dropout or Theranos documentaries. Gibney's perspective, while expert, doesn't add much new to the narrative.

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley poster

Squid Game2021

South Korean thriller about desperate people trapped in games designed to extract their resources and labor. It's a savage portrait of a system that promises reward and delivers only exploitation—the dark mirror of WeWork's utopian pitch.

But Intensely bleak and brutal, with graphic violence that serves the thematic point but may be punishing to watch over multiple episodes.

Squid Game poster

Homegrown

Both track how intelligent people surrender autonomy to a visionary who provides identity and belonging in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.

A low-budget indie thriller about a suburban survivalist militia. It's a meticulous character study of how charismatic ideology replaces critical thinking, how community becomes cult, how belief overwhelms evidence—the WeWork logic, but in a bunker instead of SoHo.

But Obscure indie film with no stars and a deliberately sluggish pace that prioritizes psychological texture over plot momentum.

Homegrown poster

King in the Wilderness2018

Both films study how charismatic individuals bend institutions and perception to their will, though one built movements toward justice and the other built nothing at all.

HBO's four-hour examination of MLK's final years and the mechanics of charismatic leadership. Watching it after WeWork reveals the inverse: King's moral authority against Neumann's pure hustle, both wielding rhetoric and presence to move masses, both ultimately human.

But Documentary length and meditative pacing may exhaust viewers expecting fast-cut entertainment, and the subject matter is morally heavy in a different register.

King in the Wilderness poster

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