DOT-COMEDY

The hilarious film satire “Dotcom: Hot Tubs, Pork Chops and Valium” does for the high-tech boom what “This Is Spinal Tap” did for rock and roll — it exposes the sheer inanity and insanity of it all. Set between August 1999 and April 14, 2000 (the date of the historic Nasdaq crash), the mockumentary charts the short, strange trip of hapless Chicago start-up ZecTek.com (“Like most names, it doesn't really mean anything,” say its twentysomething founders).

Inspired by the get-rich-quick legends of Web pioneers such as Netscape's Marc Andreessen, the ZecTek brain trust sets out to build its own Internet empire, a business to “cultivate, nurture — and then sell to the highest bidder.” Complete with ego clashes, drug problems and an executive board purporting to include everyone from Jordan's King Hussein to the Jolly Green Giant, ZecTek is the epitome of start-up arrogance and greed. Not only is a business plan never outlined, but given its founders' ineptitude, one probably never even existed.

“Dotcom” was written, produced and directed by Simeon Schnapper and Brett Singer, longtime friends who drew on their own experiences at tech start-ups — Schnapper as chief technology officer of Starbelly.com, Singer as co-founder of WanderOn.com. “It was a catharsis for both of us,” Singer said. “Certain elements are very autobiographical.” So autobiographical, in fact, that he takes exception to the suggestion the story was exaggerated for comedic effect, adding, “Some of the most absurd things came directly from a meeting [Schnapper] had with a VC.”

Schnapper and Singer began work on “Dotcom” as their own start-up careers were winding down, plotting out the project one afternoon over lunch. “We did it over sangria,” Singer said. “After the first pitcher, we decided it was going to be about a dotcom. After the second pitcher, we decided the product or service would never be revealed. And after the third, we said, ‘Let's make this movie.’”

“Dotcom” was filmed in Chicago over six consecutive weekends in late 2000. The dialogue was entirely improvised by the cast, and in the end, Schnapper and Singer found themselves with 47 hours of raw footage that they ultimately whittled down to 92 minutes. Singer said the struggle to now secure funding and distribution for a small independent film is all too reminiscent of his experiences launching a start-up.

“We're essentially a small, unproven business trying to prove ourselves to people who can help us,” he said. “We're constantly quoting lines from the movie because the parallels are so creepy.”

Last month, Schnapper and Singer entered “Dotcom” in the Slamdunk Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where it won Best Comedy and the Independent Spirit Award. They're also getting positive feedback from their fellow dotcom veterans. “People say to us, ‘How did you know my boss?’ or ‘I was the one woman in a start-up, and I had to deal with sexual harassment everyday!’” Singer said. “The comparisons are pretty much spot-on, and that's the biggest compliment we get as filmmakers.”
— Jason Ankeny