'WeWork: Or, The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn' Review | Hot Docs 2021

The 2021 Hot Docs Festival will be available for audiences across Canada to stream April 29 to May 9. Hot Docs is the largest documentary focused film festival in North America and the line-up this year is absolutely incredible.

Check out my full coverage of Hot Docs 2021!

WeWork: Or, The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (2021)

Director: Jed Rothstein
Producers: Ross Dinerstein

Synopsis: Take a behind the scenes look at the community-centric ideal that sent the little co-working venture sky-rocketing and then investigates what was really going on behind the scenes.

Review:

My history with WeWork dates back a few years ago when my brother was working at a small start-up and they had set up shop at the only WeWork location in downtown Toronto. I went and visited my brother after work a few times and was pretty impressed with the workspace. Glass walls, worn-wooden floors, industrial-looking ceilings, games in common areas, and yes, free drinks and snacks -- it's easy to see how this would be attractive to people who have decided to shun the typical corporate life.

I became a Millennial cliche back in 2019 and made the move to self-employment. I have a pretty corporate background and the touchy-feely entrepreneurial culture has never been something I was drawn to, so I didn't feel the need to join in on the WeWork community. I thought I was aware of it, but according to Jed Rothstein's documentary, I didn't know the half of it.

There's a great line in the documentary describing one of WeWork's company outings: "Fyre Festival gone right". I feel like that can describe WeWork as a whole...until it went wrong, of course. The concept of WeWork is really smart! It's capitalizing on a growing part of the labour force and actually providing a useful service to them. And it really was/is successful. I can tell you first-hand how many start ups and entrepreneurs love working in the WeWork space. A place where you can meet like-minded people without the pressures of a formal networking atmosphere is bound to build a sense of community. And with the help of WeWork's CEO Adam Neumann, it would quickly become a cult -- ending as all cults should, with the leader stepping down.

The WeWork documentary does a great job at explaining the rise and attraction to the workspace sharing concept but also WeWork as a company in conjunction with the new corporate trends in America. Arguably they go a bit easy on Neumann and his wife, Rebekah, who was very influential in WeWork's financial demise and could have painted them in a much more villainous light which many will think is deserved.

Overall, WeWork is a fascinating look not only at the company's rise and fall, but of the greater changes and trends in the modern-day working culture. I would have liked a deeper exploration of the broader context with WeWork being a leading player, but Rothstein delivers a great piece of filmmaking that generations from now can watch to understand just how off our faces this generation was with self-importance.

WeWork: Or, The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn is available to stream on Hulu.

Thanks to Hulu for the screener!