A documentary definitely not for everyone, but very much in my wheelhouse, Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever profiles Bryan Johnson, the multimillionaire publicly doing a one-on-one experiment on himself with the aim of living forever. If I tell you he finishes eating for the day at 11 AM, eschews alcohol, eschews most social life, eats precisely weighed and planned meals, volunteers for offshore gene therapy, and consumes a hundred pills a day (that number varies every time I read about him) … well, you’d be entitled to dismiss him as a nut. Yet this documentary portrays him (over sympathetically, I must admit) as a likeable, almost vulnerable soul of great obsessiveness. He is, in a word, interesting, and that alone makes Don’t Die quite an intriguing watch. Plot overlays are his love for one of his children (the others are estranged) and his online exhibitionism and business hawking, both of which deepen our appreciation for someone hard to comprehend. Well paced, simply shot, Don’t Die is worth a look, especially if longevity appeals as a topic.
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