Chasing Unicorns (2019) User Reviews

True or not, but that is how the general public tends to understand startups

[BeneCumb · 8/10 · 23 November 2020]

Apparently, the writer/director has deep knowledge of this... And the depiction is catchy, with alternating funny and sad moments, decent/good performances (stars were up to their task)...

Well, based on my age/interests/knowledge, I am definitely not within the target audience, but thanks to explanations provided I could follow the events in full and both giggle and have my smiles of recognition. Plus the ending was to my liking - not a trivial one as it could have easily been.

Ükssarvik could be a film for wider audience outside Estonia as well. Then the beautiful city and landscape could form an additional layer for attracting tourists.

A fun, easy watch

[maria9race · 7/10 · 15 April 2020]

This movie made me laugh! A sort of a dorky, good-natured humour. It makes fun of Estonians and saunas (but, seriously, can you go to a sauna on a bus? Whilst travelling!?) and programmers and startups. A fun, easy watch. Get the English subtitles tho - there's a lot of Estonian.

Good and educational movie, through comedy

[sakalamk · 9/10 · 18 September 2019]

I enjoyed it very much. More than half of film is inEnglish. Good overview how startup process is going and how fun it is.

Tropey idealism

[cookie666 · 5/10 · 6 October 2019]

In one of the most startup savvy countries in the world, Estonia, the idea of becoming a unicorn (like Transferwise, Bolt, Skype, Playtech have) is the holy grail. With more startups being born here per capita than anywhere else in the world, this movie was long overdue in terms of its target audience - everyone has been "startupping" for nearly a decade now, hackathons are extremely popular and young people are constantly encouraged to start up a business - and the theaters were packed in the first weeks of its release.

With all this being said, Chasing Unicorns is a witty little film and for the many startuppers of Estonia, probably their favorite film on the year. The movie tries to keep its message light and emphasizes every step of the way how failure is important and how you always need to listen to your heart. This idealism, however, doesn't mash well with the often tropey plot - many of the jokes or characters you've probably seen and heard before. The little cameos it included were neat but out of context and they didn't run with the joke but let it awkwardly fade away, which made it so much worse.

The most construed thing about this movie, however, is the female lead's way to stardom - as a character, she didn't seem to possess any of the skills, spirit or vision that the movie tried to picture her having; as such, her character fell short of her co-lead. The ending, however, was what I disliked the most about this movie and I'm not even sure what point it was trying to make - it could've been a 6/10 movie...

Overall enjoyable but has its flaws.