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

WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn is a 2021 Hulu original documentary directed by Jed Rothstein. The documentary examines one of the most intriguing and meteoric rises and falls in the corporate world, narrating the tumultuous journey of coworking start-up WeWork and its highly enigmatic co-founder, Adam Neumann.

The tantalizing tale of WeWork begins in New York City in 2009, when Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey co-created the company with a vision to revolutionize the real estate and tech industries. Operating under the umbrella of 'The We Company,' WeWork initially presented as a hopeful, disruptive force in the landscape of office leasing. Neumann, a charismatic leader, positioned the company as not just a realty brand but a global community and lifestyle. WeWork stoked the fantasy of a hip and interconnected professional ecosystem, with global citizens cohabitating in shared spaces, generating ideas, and changing the world whilst working, partying and networking together.

Ashton Kutcher, an American actor and successful tech investor, and Gwyneth Paltrow, a renowned actress and successful businesswoman, feature in the documentary. Their presence adds another layer to the storytelling, providing insider perspectives on WeWork’s rise and offering commentary on the high-energy, high-risk world of start-ups. The film also features interviews with Rebekah Paltrow Neumann, the co-founder’s wife and former WeWork executive, who played a pivotal role in shaping the company's unique culture and philosophy.

Director Jed Rothstein, predominantly known for his engaging financial documentaries, gives the audience an in-depth look into the dizzying journey of WeWork. Through interviews, investigative journalism and reconstructed accounts, Rothstein swaps between a fly-on-the-wall narrative and expert commentary, allowing the viewer to gain a multi-dimensional understanding of the circumstances that cycloned around WeWork from its inception in 2009 to its near implosion in 2019.

WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn serves not just as a post-mortem of one company's chaotic vault to the apex of business culture and its subsequent fall, but also operates as a commentary on the 21st-century wave of start-up culture. Powered by tech-based innovations, dynamic economies and optimistic globalism, this rush to break the next big idea encapsulates a spectrum from utopian dream-chasing to remorseless, often reckless, ambition.

WeWork's tale is richly laden with ironies – the biggest of which is how a concept to disrupt the conventional landlord-renter relationship evolved into a landlord itself, and how an organizational vision to bring about a communitarian working culture collapsed under the vagaries of unmitigated individual ambition and unbridled capitalism.

The film's title cleverly encapsulates the narrative arc – the notion of a 'Unicorn,' a term in business parlance to stand for privately held start-ups valued at over $1 billion, symbolizes the mythical nature of WeWork's valuation, quick ascendance and equally swift downfall. The doc amps up in Grimm-style storytelling, morphing into a cautionary tale about unchecked ambition, the pitfalls of 'overnight success', and the perils of personality-driven corporate culture.

Rothstein's filmography, which includes works such as the Oscar-nominated 'The China Hustle,' is replete with his knack for unfolding complex economic narratives in an engaging and relatable manner. He doesn’t shy away from presenting the personas and corporate decisions that contributed to the spectacular rise and fall of WeWork, detailing the characteristics of both its charismatic co-founder and its innovative business model.

To sum up, WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn is a fascinating documentary filled with boardroom drama, corporate intrigue and a 'from riches to rags' saga that is almost too fantastical to be real. It offers viewers a very human and humbling tale of ambition, aspirational excesses, and the degree to which unchecked hubris fueling the modern-day start-up culture can be a potent recipe for disaster. For those interested in technology, innovation, and the complexities of corporate culture, this doc provides an insightful, cautionary tale of our times.