Film · The screening room
General Magic
Sarah Kerruish & Matt Maude (dirs.) · 2018
The story of a company that invented much of the modern smartphone a decade too early, and failed completely — the best film about timing ever made about technology.
Why it is here
General Magic spun out of Apple in 1990 to build a handheld personal communicator. Many of the ideas that now define the industry — touchscreens, e-commerce, social messaging, even emoji — trace back through it. The company failed.
For an angel this is the single most useful film on the list, because being early is functionally identical to being wrong and almost nobody has an intuition for the difference. The team was extraordinary, the technology worked, the vision was correct, and none of it mattered.
It also follows what happened to the people afterwards, several of whom went on to build the things the world was eventually ready for. That is the more optimistic reading, and it is earned.
Read it if
You want to understand why "why now?" is the most important question in a pitch.
Skip it if
Nobody. It is ninety minutes and it will change how you hear a pitch.