Film

The Startup

Name: The Startup
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 2017
Cast: Andrea Arcangeli, Paola Calliari, Matilde Gioli, Luca Di Giovanni, Matteo Leoni

Biopic

A Roman teenager's app becomes a sudden hit, making him rich and famous overnight—then the bill comes due. This Italian comedy-drama captures the intoxicating rush and brutal cost of startup success with real affection for its characters, even as it dissects their flaws. It's for anyone who's felt the pull of the startup dream, or watched someone else get swallowed by it.

TMDb rating

2.9

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The Social Network2010

Fincher's masterclass in ambition, betrayal and the price of disruption. Faster-paced and darker than The Startup, but built on the same essential conflict: genius versus character, and which one usually wins.

But It's a Hollywood film about Harvard, not a scrappy Italian indie. The tone is cynical where The Startup is more forgiving.

StartUp2016

A tense series about a dark-web cryptocurrency exchange and the people trying to build it. Slower, grittier, and far more concerned with moral compromise than The Startup, but the same engine: idealism meeting reality.

But Much heavier and more paranoid. This doesn't have Italy's warmth or the lightness of a 93-minute film.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine2015

Sorkin's three-act tragedy of innovation as performance. It shares The Startup's interest in youth, ambition and the gulf between the person and the brand, but trades Italian charm for cathedral-scale intensity.

But Abstract and theatrical rather than concrete. More interested in philosophy than plot.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Startup

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Prophet2009

Both track a teenager's education in a closed system, and ask whether mastery is the same as winning.

A French prison drama where a young man rises by intelligence and ruthlessness. It has nothing to do with startups, but the structure is identical: a nineteen-year-old enters a world, learns its rules, succeeds brilliantly, and discovers that success isolates him. The moral question is the same: what does it cost?

But Brutal and serious where The Startup is comic and warm. Prison, not apps. Completely different register.

The Circle2017

A tech giant's campus-as-cult seduces a young woman with promises of transparency and meaning. Same year as The Startup; same DNA, different diagnosis of how power corrupts.

But Heavier-handed and less funny. It preaches where The Startup observes.

Halt and Catch Fire2014

A series about the obsessive engineers and hustlers building the personal computer. Richer character work than most startup stories, and genuinely moving about creative partnership.

But Slower-paced. Set in the 1980s, so the emotional beats feel more classical than contemporary.

Betas2013

A short series about Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, lighter in tone than The Startup but interested in the same pressures: money, equity, ego, the people you leave behind.

But It was cancelled after one season. And it does sometimes feel like it's trying too hard to be likeable.

Moneyball2011

Not about tech, but about the same mythology: the outsider with a system, the world's resistance, the moment when disruption meets the establishment. Beautifully made, genuinely moving about ambition and doubt.

But It's ultimately a triumphalist film. The Startup is more skeptical about whether winning is worth what it costs.

The Internship2013

A comedy about two guys joining Google. Lighter and sillier than The Startup, but genuinely interested in the comedy of startup culture and its gap between mythology and reality.

But It's a broad comedy. Not as character-driven, and sometimes laughs at rather than with its material.

In Good Company2004

A workplace comedy about a magazine and two men navigating changing media. Warm-hearted, interested in mentorship and dignity, with a light touch that matches The Startup's tone.

But Very of its moment. The internet feels almost antique now. And it's gentler about ambition than you might want.

Gomorrah2008

Both are Italian stories about young men rising fast in systems they didn't invent, watching the machinery eat its winners.

An Italian crime film that follows multiple characters in a Neapolitan drug empire, interested in how power corrupts and isolates. The tone is fiercer than The Startup, but it's asking the same question about Italy, ambition, money and the machinery that grinds people down.

But It's a mafia film, dark and violent. Not a comedy. The gap in tone from The Startup is enormous.

Climax2018

Both films trap a group at a moment of triumph, then show us exactly how it all comes apart, with a Brechtian clarity about cause and effect.

A French dance horror film about a troupe that descends into chaos when their sangria is spiked. It sounds nothing like The Startup, but structurally it's the same: a group of ambitious young people reach a peak, then the film maps their dissolution in real time with clarity and dark humour.

But It's surreal, unsettling, explicitly about psychic destruction. A horror film, not a comedy. Demands patience.