• Photo Courtesy Of Campfire And Forbes Entertainment
• CHARISMATIC D-BAG Adam Neumann, the co-founder of WeWork, managed to make and break his multi-billion-dollar start-up, as documented in WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn, on Hulu.

What's it rated? Not rated

When? 2021

Where's it showing? Hulu

Written and directed by Jed Rothstein, the documentary examines the six-week unraveling of a multi-billion-dollar overvalued company on the brink of an IPO that was supposed to save it. Wondery put out a podcast called WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork last year, and that was my introduction to this wild ride of a story and the menace/genius behind it: Adam Neumann.

Talk about thinking big—Neumann planned and executed a multi-billion-dollar business, and much like Icarus, flew too close to the sun and melted his own creation into the ground. What started as a concept of bringing the millennial generation into a group space that allowed for creatives to share, to vibe, to collaborate, and to co-habitate, turned into an incredible dumpster fire. It spread from the idea of shared workspaces to shared housing to an education system, with huge cultlike gatherings of WeWorkers required to go to camp for the weekend and hear endless speeches followed by drinking the night away.

Looking back on it, you can easily see how this overbearing dream could take such a turn toward failure, but at the time it was all hidden behind smoke and mirrors. Hulu's new doc gives a glimpse at the inside workings with interviews from past employees, investors, business execs, and more to tease away the shiny coating WeWork had at its heyday and show the ugly workings that were really at the heart of it. (104 min.) Δ