Product: Startup.Com (2001)
Rating: 4.0
Engaging but flawed
This movie is basically about one thing: a young, wildly arrogant and immature businessman named Kaleil Izaza Tuzman, and how foolish everyone was for believing in him for even a split second. He is such an amateur, such a pompous fool, that the whole documentary takes on the feel of a practical joke as we watch bankers, co-workers, and at least one woman get sucked into this clown's semi-fabulous dot.com world. There is a certain satisfaction as we watch the movie and watch what was truly a house of cards come tumbling down on this poor ass.To a somewhat lesser extent, the movie also follows his partner Tom, who is a bit more subtle and reflective than Kaleil, but equally ignorant about what they are actually doing. But in telling Tom's story, the film makes some serious mistakes and omissions. He kind of jumps on the scene and it is hard to understand where he is from both literally and in a broader sense.Overall the one thing to take away from this movie is just how amazingly stupid people were in the late 1990s. Kaleil and Tom ran one of the most worthless businesses I have ever heard of (although hindsight is perfect after all) and managed to get 50 million dollars and hire 250 people. It's really mind-blowing. It is also surprising and disturbing that Kaleil was hired by Goldman Sachs. The fact that anyone hired this doofus at all, let alone the investment banking department of Goldman Sachs, is disgraceful. I mean, this is a guy who's invited to be on CNN and he shows up wearing gold chains. It is really amazing that nowhere in his journey did anyone just pull him aside and tell him, "Kaleil, you have got to ditch the french cuffs and for God's sake, slow down when you talk to people, and get a decent haircut and decent clothes. You look like you got pulled off the beach at Atlantic city." I mean, you want to scream at him throughout the movie. I know this is a superficial criticism, but it is quite apt I think, as his dubious style and demeanor proves to be an accurate reflection of his abilities as a businessman: he's all flash and no substance. In fact, in the end, he seals his own fate as an absolute zero when he forgets to check the code the night before his site goes up! It doesnt take much to realize that the reality of the situation is that for all their audacity, both Kaleil and Tom are actually pretty sloppy, bad and immature communicators, and of questionable intelligence. Really. In fact, all they really have is ambition.I guess that is a statement of sorts in itself; arguably, the failure of the insipidly named "govworks" illustrates that just maybe substance does count for something after all. This documentary is far from perfect, but worthwhile simply for its portrayal of the spectacular period of fiasco and waste in the 1990s that will probably never happen again, which is probably a good thing.