Lumsdal
Good , But It Is Overrated By Some
Contentar
Best movie of this year hands down!
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
dj_bassett
Documentary attempts to tell the internet boom/bust cycle in miniature, with the story of govworks.com, a startup that began with a lot of enthusiasm and high ideals, reached impressive heights, then crashed and burned with the market went south. The problem with it is that it doesn't really tell a story. There's a story here about these sort of companies, and why they fell -- but it's not here, I'm still not really sure why govworks couldn't make a go of it. Although there's a lot of scenes of the principals pitching to "vcs" (venture capitalists), there's no effort to try to explain to the viewer what they're doing and why it's important.The movie makers instead want to focus on the relationship between the two principles, but there's not much effort to make us care about these two -- we see their relationship tested but we're not given much of a context to make their trials seem important.There's a great movie waiting to be made about this era, but this ain't it.
arvy
If you are interested, this is what these boys are doing now.Not convinced they have ever actually achieved anything, but the film is nevertheless interesting for the first 2/3s of the show.It follows the team raising money, hiring people, firing some others and getting swept up in the bubble of 99-2000.It would have been better to see the new CEO takeover and the machinations involved here as the demise that is shown is a purely personal one, and I would be interested in see what they thought about it after the event. Clearly Tom and Khalil work together (see below)http://www.recognitiongroup.com/articles.php?post=74 http://www.recognitiongroup.com/about_us.php?sub=2
noralee
"Start-up.com" is a really involving documentary, a dot-com story brought to life with real lives and real people.It was particularly astonishing how interesting it is as I'd just finished watching the 10 episode fictional mini-series on BBCAmerica that covers the same ground, "Attachments" and the non-fiction version mostly holds up as entertainment as well. Where it doesn't is intrinsic in the D.A. Pennebaker-produced techniques -- how much of what we see can stand alone as fact and how much is interpretively selected by the filmmakers? And how much of what we see is influenced by whom was the most comfortable with the filmmakers' constant presence, or who was the most verbal when the cameras are around? Clearly, the central figure CEO gave the filmmakers (one of whom was an old college friend) the most access, so we get a lot on him, and even some glimpses at his personal life. Was govworks.com Achilles heel insufficient attention to the actual web site functioning or were geeks less interesting to the filmmakers than the deal making CEO's?The fictional version was very careful to contrast the types. A compromise technique is the one "Real World" takes where we see (somewhat phony, somewhat staged) action unfold and then have the participants face the camera to explain themselves. But the context here is missing for the geeks working on the project (which "Attachments" is sensitive to) as opposed to the brash, camera-charming entrepreneurs.(originally written 7/8/2001)
billfrancis2000
I myself worked in one of the ubiquitous .com's in the late 90's and this movie is frightening realistic, from the long hours and technical glitches right down to the embarrassingly lame cheers.I read on the web the filmmakers set out to document their friends impending wealth and business fortune with this documentary, but what they got was the complete opposite. I think that speaks volumes for expectations during this era.I feel like some of the other IMDb reviews are off the mark. Yes, the movie is sometimes hard to follow. But it was shot in the Cinéma-vérité genre and that is to be expected. It is an uncompromising real life look, and it is up to the viewer to decipher; sometimes this works sometimes not. Some previous reviews wondered how the company folded. Honestly its a movie about an internet company, why do you think it failed? Having said this, I think more could have been shown of why Tom got the axe and the love relationships of Kaliel could have been better developed.According to the DVD the producers cut some realistic (and boringly technical) scenes to focus more on the relationship between Tom and Kaleil. This is where they succeeded. They are trying to tell the story of the company downfall through the interplay of these two characters. It is fascinating because it is real. The most compelling part is the coorelation between their relationship eroding as does the company. Viewed from that point of view this movie is really not a documentary. Nevertheless it is entertaining and gripping. What amazed me was the unfettered greed and their enormous hubris which prevented them from acknowledge their role in this sinking ship.
