Startup.com

I saved this documentary on the DVR I have available to me at the time a little while ago, and just today got in the mood to check it out. It was made right as the dot com boom was beginning and goes through the two years or so until they all started dropping like flies. We focus on two childhood friends who start a company and try and stay afloat.

The two men we follow are Kaleil Tuzman and Tom Herman. Their company is pretty simple, they are a middleman between you and the government in paying parking tickets. Right away we see their characters, Kaleil is a corporate bully, pushing anyone who might not agree with him, and Tom is more the people person who seems to be a fish out of water because hes just not cut throat enough. Most of the documentary is their trials and set backs as they try and get the company up and running, and to me it only really started getting interesting when Tom is fired for not agreeing with Kaleil. They built this company together and he gets thrown out like yesterdays trash. If only the rest of the documentary focused on this messed up situation. Tom certainly comes out looking like a martyr and Kaleil sort of looks okay by the end of it, but for a while looks like a total dick.

I don't get this world(business), to much focus on money and greed and not enough on real human relationships and connections. Kaleil ignores both girl friends we see him have in the course of the movie, and his in your face, follow me or get out of the way mentality falls down and shows how ignorant, or at least misinformed he might be. Such as he tells his employees not to during the taping of an interview use their fists in the air when yelling the chant they do because its a show of being part of the Nazi party. No its not, who told him that?

Overall its an okay movie, nothing really eye catching though, the most interesting parts of it wasn't the corporate espionage but the real life human relationships between the two men we follow in the documentary. 6/10 stars.

Directors: Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim