Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever

Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever goes a long way toward humanizing the Venmo multimillionaire best known for pumping his teenage son’s blood plasma into his own veins.

We may find ourselves agreeing with the skeptical podcasters and journalists who see Johnson as a kook or a crafty snake oil salesman who persuades gullible people that they have a problem and he has the answer.

Don’t Die offers an engrossing window into the mania of a unique individual, one with the outlandish resources to do something that no normal person would even be able to dream about attempting.

Includes enough critical voices and material to complicate Johnson’s view about his actions and ethos—in the process undercutting the material’s superficial optimism.

If Don’t Die had a bit more of the discipline its subject imposes on his own days, those feelings might linger longer.

If anything, “Don’t Die” may work better as a cautionary tale of what happens when you give your entire identity, thinking, and online persona to playing an avatar of fitness. It’s a shame that Smith seems to see such radical actions as mostly harmless.

This too-chummy documentary, promoted on Johnson’s website, offers the more familiar reverse sensation of having 90 minutes of your life taken from you. By the time it’s over, you will be older, a progression that if anything the movie feels like it hastens.

Aqui temos a clara indicação de que as aparências enganam: por trás do sorriso e do sentimento good vibes que o protagonista passa, especialmente considerando a defesa da liberdade e de sua autonomia em se submeter a rigorosos procedimentos visando rejuvenescimento, esconde-se por trás um cara manipulador, sentimentalmente estável, narcisista. Não me impressionou quando veio à tona seu processo judicial com a ex, já que ele opera pela lógica da monetização e da espetacularização das relações. Embora eu ache que tenha sim um sentimento genuíno de busca por relações saudáveis, há nele o tino para o empreendedorismo, para o marketing, de modo que casou muito bem com o espírito da época: a história de alguém cuja premissa parte de uma escolha individual, buscando o simulacro da juventude. Tudo casou aqui. E o lado bom é que o documentário permite tal reflexão, inclusive sobre coisas como o papel da ciência nessa era pós-moderna.

This is not a documentary about the best ways to live to achieve optimal longevity. If you are looking for that, you should look for Peter Attia's work. This movie is a documentary about a emotionally and socially damaged sociopath looking to fill the voids in his life by spending all of his time following health and wellness protocols no matter how well researched those protocols are.