I’m in the middle of Keith Johnstone’s Impro, and his big idea is that every inflection and movement implies a status. Everyone is always raising or lowering themselves against everyone else. Which made this the most dangerous possible time to watch three hours of Elizabeth Holmes not blinking.
Nobody in that Del Mar house ever stops performing. Billy grabs the whisk out of her hand to do it “the correct way.” Nathan—maybe the greatest low-status player alive—runs his usual move (get smaller and more awkward until the other person fills the silence) and it bounces right off her. Wide eyes, total stillness, “I’ve never told a lie.” Then he shows her “Who’s on First?” and she can’t follow it, and I genuinely could not tell if I was watching the saddest thing I’ve ever seen or the most masterful.
She reports to prison around the 90-minute mark. I won’t say what happens after that, except that the title is a promise and the back half tests it (hard).
Life really is stranger than fiction. Fucking incredible. I’m obsessed.