Page 2 May 16, 2019
Entertainment
Check It Out
Film Review
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon
Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
Reviewed by Jeff Huttinger, Library
Assistant, El Segundo Public Library
Unless you’ve been vacationing under a rock
lately, you’re probably at least somewhat familiar
with the downfall of the biotech company
Theranos and its infamous CEO Elizabeth
Holmes. Well if not, you’re in luck. There are
multiple ways to acquaint yourself with this
high-profile scandal including the podcast The
Dropout, the recent HBO documentary The
Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley and
the book I’ve chosen for this month’s review,
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley
Startup by author John Carreyrou.
Wall Street Journal reporter Carreyrou
chronicles the rise and eventual collapse
of the startup Theranos from its inception
in 2003 by 19-year-old Stanford dropout
Elizabeth Holmes to the shutdown in 2018
and subsequent indictments of Holmes and
former company president Ramesh “Sunny”
Balwani. It is no wonder this tale has inspired
numerous media depictions. Holmes is such
a fascinating person! Describing Holmes by
her investors and staff as equal parts ambitious
genius and eccentric monster, Carreyrou paints
a picture of the young CEO as inspiring,
vindictive, brilliant and recklessly compulsive.
Holmes’ hostile managerial style included
pitting the different departments against each
other in a needless competition that brought
out the worst in its employees. Also, there
was a level of rampant paranoia throughout
Theranos due to the incredibly high turnover
and frequent terminations of those whi
displayed even the slightest hint of disloyalty
that kept staff constantly on edge.
Despite the inner office turmoil, Theranos
managed to fleece investors and venture
capitalists of more than $700 million resulting
in a peak valuation of $10 billion. The products
they were banking on were considered
revolutionary: compact blood-testing devices
coined the Edison and its more advanced
counterpart, the Minilab. Keep in mind that
these devices never successfully worked and
their results could not be duplicated. I was
shocked at the various ways Holmes and
her staff hid these disappointing facts from
regulatory agencies.
Add in Holmes’ obsession with Apple
co-founder Steve Jobs and her fabricated
deep voice and you have all the makings
of a compelling read. With both a limited
Hulu series and feature film starring Jennifer
Lawrence on the horizon, this story isn’t going
away anytime soon. To check out Bad Blood:
Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup,
also available in eBook, or browse any of
our other nonfiction titles, please visit the
library to apply for your free library card. •
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by
John Carreyrou
Jeff Huttinger.
Knock Down The House: Documenting
the Rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
By Kailee Andrews for Cinemacy
Low-budget and born of energy and insistence,
Knock Down the House has a great
deal in common with the underdog political
candidates it profiles. This brisk, 86-minute
documentary, available to stream on Netflix,
tracks the campaigns of four Democratic
women running for the United States Congress
in 2018. Of the four, only one wins her race.
I’m referring, of course, to Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez -- the now iconic Democratic Socialist
who unseated 10-term Democratic incumbent
Joe Crowley to become, at 29, the youngest
woman to ever serve in the U.S Congress.
These candidates are underdogs not only
because they are women or because they are
first-time candidates, but because they are not
independently wealthy and will not accept funds
from corporate PACS. They reject the premise
that to win political office, a candidate must
possess corporate ties that allow them to mount
multi-million dollar campaigns. If enough of
them are elected, they intend to enact earthshattering
reforms of corporate control in our
political system.
Each candidate was a political outsider,
offering a new mold for who can become an
elected official. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of
New York City was pulling shifts as a bartender
and waitress to support her family. Cori Bush
of Ferguson, Missouri was a nurse and pastor
drawn further into politics by the shooting of
Michael Brown and ensuing protests against
police brutality. Amy Vilela of Las Vegas, Nevada
was a working mother motivated to advocate
for affordable healthcare after her daughter died
of a preventable condition. Finally, Paula Jean
Swearengin of West Virginia was an activist
outraged by the human and environmental
abuse of the coal industry. In her community,
Swearengin has an encyclopedic knowledge
of which families have been affected by the
soaring rates of childhood and adult cancers
in the mining-heavy mountain towns.
You might think it’s unfortunate for the
documentary’s narrative that only one of
its profiled candidates made it to Congress.
However, director Rachel Lears’ subjects make
the cogent case that losses play as much a
role in the Democratic process as victories,
if not more. For every woman who makes it
through to Congress, hundreds try. And each
who tries her hand builds the infrastructure,
energy and sense of normalization that allows
women to govern in a system still defined by
unrepresentative, imbalanced male majorities.
In one of the film’s most energizing moments,
Cortez encapsulates this persistence in a
single sentence, as she offers her young niece
some advice. Cortez explains, “For every 10
rejections, you get one acceptance. And that’s
how you win everything.” •
Knock Down the House, Courtesy of Netflix
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