| DOTCOM:
HOT TUBS, PORK CHOPS & VALIUM Rating:  Directors: Brett Singer & Simeon Schnapper Producers: Brett Singer & Simeon Schnapper Writers: Brett Singer & Simeon Schnapper Director of Photography: Darryl Miller Cast: Simeon Schnapper, Michael Mazzara, Jamie McMillan, Stephen Eugene Walker, Matt O'Neill, Katherine M. Ripley |
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Review by: Warren
Curry
7/13/02
Let me be blunt -- having spent the past year of my life working at an Internet company (i.e. "the day job," and a roller coaster ride if there ever was one), I am the target audience for Dotcom: Hot Tubs, Pork Chops and Valium. It's difficult for me to ponder what I might have thought about this movie had I not been exposed to this environment; some of the humor could have been lost on me, but that still wouldn't detract from the fact that this is a top-notch mockumentary, replete with hilarious dialogue and performances. Writers/directors/producers Brett Singer & Simeon Schnapper are well-schooled in the world of comedy and have set their sights on a subject they seem to know quite well.
Looking back, it's almost surreal to think that only a few short years ago, 20-somethings with little to no business experience were starting Internet companies and convincing deep pocketed entities to invest millions of dollars in their ventures. Dotcom traces the rise and fall of one such fictional company known as Zectek.com, an Internet startup that begins in the summer of 1999 and comes to a crashing halt in April of 2000, founded by young entrepreneurs Si (Simeon Schnapper), Stan (Stephen Eugene Walker) and Mitch (Michael Mazzara). They know that their company is going to somehow function as "the solution for e-tomorrow," but everything else is sort of sketchy. They draft into the fold Jane (Jamie McMillan), the director of marketing, who becomes the center of Si's infatuation, Ross (Matt O'Neill), the CFO, who suffers from panic attacks and Maria (Katherine M. Ripley), the woman who lives downstairs turned office manager. This crew of go-getters manages to raise and then lose millions of dollars, all while trying to build a company that essentially does nothing.
All of the characters are unique and have their own distinct personalities. Si, the CEO of Zectec, and Mitch, the company's EVP of Sales, battle for control of the company and, at first, the attention of Jane, but both are completely lost in the cloud of their own self-serving bullshit. When they prattle nonsensically about something or another working to an "advantageous advantage" for the company, it made me stop and reflect on the startlingly number of times I've heard this kind of ridiculous gibberish fly out of people's mouths in my adult life (that's living in L.A. for 'ya).
Schnapper, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the late John Belushi, is the comic center of the film and carries it with ease. Mazzara, whose expressions often speak 1000 words, strides right along with him, and the two play off one another beautifully (apparently, all of the dialogue was improvised). McMillan is great as the "alluring" Jane, a character whose level headedness goes up in flames amidst the dreams of dotcom power.
Singer & Schnapper drive the movie along at an upbeat pace and keep the humor sharp, but grounded. They're able to pack a multitude of effective scenes in the mix and never extend any joke longer than necessary. The film stays completely true to the mockumentary format without going out of its way to keep reminding you that it is one.
Dotcom: Hot Tubs, Pork Chops and Valium
is a thoroughly enjoyable 90 minute
ride (and a great counterpart to 2001's noted documentary Startup.com)
that contains a good number of laugh-out-loud moments. Best of
all, I'll never be able to take a company staff meeting seriously
again.
(Screened at the 2002 Dances With Film Festival)
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