| 100 |
Entertainment Weekly
For sheer dramatic wallop outpowers virtually every fiction feature I've seen this year.
|
| 100 |
Mr. Showbiz
The film ends with a surprisingly upbeat coda. But Startup.com leaves us with a sense that our heroes' idealism will be forever lost.
|
| 90 |
Wall Street Journal
A thrillingly, thoroughly wonderful film.
|
| 88 |
Charlotte Observer
The coolest film in town offers industrial espionage, power struggles, thwarted romance, betrayal and suspense - and best of all, it's true.
|
| 88 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
This small story that tells the much bigger story of the New Economy's bubble and burst is less a documentary than it is breaking news.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
Combining the immediacy of the Internet and the wise perspective of history, Startup.com proves that investing in real-life drama can reap rich dividends.
|
| 83 |
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
With no easy heroes or villains, Startup.com can be a Rorschach test for viewers.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Robin Rauzi
Nimbly documents the rise and fall of a Web company through its charismatic leaders.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
Judith Lewis
Startup.com goes from being a mildly interesting true story to a ripping good train wreck in the making.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
It also has heart and soul, two commodities all too often in short supply in the field of garden-variety cinema verite.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
Moves slowly and grimly toward the moment that for the audience is the most engrossing though filled with dread: when things begin to unravel and the participants are no longer aware of the cameras. That is when your shoulders tense and you lean toward the screen.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
Astute and entertaining documentary.
|
| 80 |
Village Voice
Has all the hallmarks of a Pennebaker production. The editing is seamless, the drama builds throughout, and the arc of the central character is as shapely as in a Hollywood fiction.
|
| 80 |
Film.com
The result is a movie that turns the financial phenomenon of Web startups -- the crazy kids with ideas, and the crazier bankers with more money than sense -- into a moving human drama.
|
| 80 |
Time
This gripping documentary doesn't exactly say what went wrong, but the pain and puzzlement of its principals as things inexorably fall apart is palpable and saddening.
|
| 80 |
Variety
David Rooney
Topical film, which goes beyond its potentially dry diet of facts to incorporate the juicy human drama of Machiavellian manipulations, ambition, torn loyalties and crushing betrayal.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
Jeff Stark
A story about risk, about hubris, about youth, about the old way and the new way, and about what happens when you trade everything for something that really isn't there.
|
| 80 |
Rolling Stone
Delivers more suspense than a tombful of mummies.
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
Deep and textured drama.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
As an inside view of the bursting of the Internet bubble, Startup.com is definitive.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
If nothing else, Startup.com is a pointed reminder that mixing business and friendship never, ever works.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
An unforgettable portrait of a testosterone-driven era.
|
| 75 |
USA Today
A cautionary tale very well-told.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
An eye-opening documentary.
|
| 75 |
Baltimore Sun
The giddy excitement of Startup.com comes from feeling as if you're inside the bubble as it soars into the stratosphere - and pops.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Always absorbing.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
Some of the simplest shots give you the full picture of the price these guys paid for their dreams.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
The story of the business is historically interesting, but the story of a friendship tested to the breaking point is timeless.
|
| 60 |
New York Magazine
There's something a bit condescending about how the movie devolves into a falling-out-between-friends scenario, as if the only way our attention could be held by this subculture were if it was presented to us sentimentally.
|
| 50 |
Slate
Some people are finding it difficult to live with the idea that Kaleil could put his employees through hell, lose $60 million of other people's money, and wind up a movie star.
|
| 50 |
Austin Chronicle
The filmmakers no doubt had a hell of a time whittling the material down; unfortunately, what they came up with was something long on the mundaneness of GovWorks.com and short on the personalities behind it.
|
| 40 |
New Times (L.A.)
For a general audience the entertainment factor is quite low. The project may best serve us not on the screen, but in a time capsule.
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