SXSW 2020 - The Boy Who Sold The World
SXSW
There is a truly fascinating movie somewhere inside Adam Barton’s documentary The Boy Who Sold the World, which focuses on the teenage years of entrepreneurial wunderkind Ben Pasternak. He’s a figure who, after creating a viral mobile game, moves from Australia to New York City to start a cavalcade of business ventures with varied success. He also consistently alienates those around him in pursuit of these goals, which are at once clever and foolhardy. Unfortunately, it feels like most of the juicier content was left on the cutting room floor, in favour of a film that only occasionally shows Pasternak in anything but a positive light.
The film opens with Pasternak’s mother helping to set up his apartment in New York. She walks him through how to do his own laundry and questions his ability to separate recycling from trash. Moments after she gets on a bus to the airport, she texts that she misses Pasternak already. A few scenes later, Pasternak proudly declares that his parents have nothing to do with his success and any financial help they gave him throughout his life were simply loans. Likewise, he insists on calling an early hire to the company his H.O.B.O. (Head of Being Old) and chastises an unpaid employee for not getting his own apartment soon enough. It’s in these brief moments, with a vibe akin to David Fincher’s The Social Network, where the documentary really shines.
Pasternak’s story is split into three loosely connected parts all coinciding with a different business venture. The first, and by far the most detailed, focuses on Flogg, an online marketplace in the vein of Letgo with an unfortunate name and no set plans for an income stream. Second, Monkey, which is ChatRoulette for the iPhone — no matter how many times Pasternak tries to state to the contrary. The last and, mild spoiler, only business still open) is Nugg, a pea-protein-based vegetarian chicken nugget company. Each of these segments are different enough in their concept and include a new team surrounding Pasternak that the repetition never feels excessive, though the film does sag in the middle under the weight of Monkey’s clear lack of viability.
The Boy Who Sold the World is a quick and breezy PR-friendly piece about a teenager who has accomplished far more in a few short years than most people ever will. It’s also a fun look behind-the-scenes at the early days of a start-up with the added spectacle of a 16-year-old at the head. But it’s the occasionally glimpsed moments of instability, both in Pasternak and his various companies, that really stick in viewers’ minds long after the credits end.
