I just finished watching the Aardvark’d film about 4 interns at Fog Creek Software.

All in all, it was decent. I like these kinds of stories, like Revolution OS, about software and clever people saying clever things. Paul Graham is great in this one.

There are numerous things with this film, however, that really annoyed me. First of all, there’s a side story about one of the developers having a tomato plant on the balcony; this has absolutely no relevance to anything else in the film, and just seems so weirdly misplaced. Second, there are these awfully made reconstructions. The people participating aren’t great actors, which they really shouldn’t be either. But this shines through so clearly in the reconstructions, it ruined quite a lot for me. In one instance, one of the interns attempts a jump out the window, but in realising his failure, he clings on to the window ledge. The next scene is an attempt at showing it from his angle while he’s stilling hanging in the ledge. The others then come running, not looking convincing and asking what he just did. All the while, when he’s supposed to be holding on for his life, his fingers are relaxed, and no one looks really panicked.

As stated, it’s a decent film. I just wish they would have hold on to the story about the software, instead of doing these half-hearted dramatic sequences.