"Vice grew from a punk magazine into a digital media empire by telling the world what was cool (more specifically by telling millennials, then in their cool-seeking prime). By 2017, it was valued at nearly $6bn; in 2023, Vice filed for bankruptcy. A man who saw it from the inside is TV chef Eddie Huang, the director and frontman of this film. He had a long-running show on the Viceland TV channel and says he's still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties."
"One contributor remembers smoking a dip, a cigarette dipped in formaldehyde, outside the Vice offices. He saw an older man in the reception: I recognise that guy, it's Robert Murdoch! The hubris was epic. Huang says that Vice co-founder Shane Smith once boasted to him that he was planning to buy the BBC with Elon Musk. Huang, who is very, very funny, replied: Don't you have to buy England first?"
Vice transformed from a punk magazine in the late 2000s into a digital media empire by defining and selling cool to millennials. The company reached a near $6bn valuation by 2017 but filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Eddie Huang directed and fronted the film, having hosted a long-running Viceland show and claiming he is still owed substantial royalties. Early Brooklyn stories and founding-staff interviews show raw, on-the-ground reporting that attracted young audiences, with stunts like taking Dennis Rodman to meet Kim Jong-un. Corporate ambitions, mainstream media involvement, and internal hubris contributed to Vice's decline and loss of authenticity.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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