Pharma Bro

An amateur 'documentary' by an idiot fanboy 'journalist' that essentially just glamorizes this pharma boy human garbage can, and tries to paint him as some sort of eccentric and misunderstood genius. Gross. Don't waste your time, there is nothing redeeming to this at all. Go to Neflix for some quality true crime documentaries.

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.

Not only doesn't the documentarian know what a bro is, every step he takes and every move he makes in this barely insightful film is classic stalker behaviour. I also hadn't learned anything new about Not A Bro by the end, that I didn't already glean from the opening few minutes. Because that's it. This feature length documentary is a 12 minute Youtube video blown way out. Save time and skim a Wiki page or news piece on Not A Bro. Then maybe move into the documentarian's building... monitor his every move, both physical and online... approach him on the street or drop round unannounced, insinuating yourself into his life... You know... like a stalker. Oh, and don't forget to cast some has been hippity hopper in your film, should you make one, who is some how dirty about the single biggest pay day his crew has seen since the 90s.

A documentary about Martin Shkreli? Sure, why not? The guy briefly became "the most hated guy in America". He drew attention to pharmaceutical price gouging with his own cack-handed attempt at the rort. He was convicted of securities fraud. And his weirdness alone should almost guarantee a watchable film. Unfortunately, Pharma Bro manages to take everything interesting about Shkreli and squander it in a muddle-headed exercise in something that veers wildly between trolling and hero-worship. Director Brent Hodge does himself no favours in putting himself front and centre in this half-arsed search for answers about Shkreli. In fact, he starts to seem like a mini-me Martin, as needy, as self-absorbed, as irrational and as amoral as Shkreli himself. For commentary on he relies heavily on the likes of Milo Yiannopoulos (someone as widely loathed as Shkreli), a rapper friend of Shkreli's who turns out not to be that much of a friend, an ex-girlfriend who wasn't even that much of a girlfriend and a WuTang Clan rapper so incoherent that he should have been subtitled. None of it is very revealing. Hodge actually seems to have a secret crush on Shkreli, which is the only way to interpret his efforts to paint Shkreli as a colourful cartoon super-villain - a kind of cross between Lex Luthor and The Joker. It's a cute conceit, but it does little to illuminate the seriously awful things Shkreli did, much less shed any light on Shkreli's motivations or personality flaws. Pharma Bro feels a bit like documentary-making for the TikTok generation. But even that makes it sound more interesting than it is. Don't waste your time.

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.

Says more about the disgusting United States laws than martin shkreli himself and they still haven't changed the laws to set medication prices. Shame on the usa.

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.

Look into the journalist Christie Smythe that is one of the talking heads throughout the entire piece. Interestingly, while she was working for Bloomberg News she reported on Shkreli's court case, then she developed a relationship with him. Shkreli petitioned the court for compassionate release directly to his girlfriend Christie's (also referred to as his fiancée's) home. She spoke up in court to say, among other things, that she deserved a shot at love with him. Smythe went public about the relationship in an interview with Elle Magazine. Other media outlets reported on the story. When Shkreli was asked for comment from prison and he said he wished her success in all her future endeavors. Burn. He reportedly hasn't returned her calls since 2020.

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 🙄

The patient does not matter. One man shows that profit is everything in the USA medical system. A broken system. Yet, Americans keep drinking the poison.