It seemed too good to be true. For $9.95 per month, you could watch any movie, anytime, anywhere (the only limit was one per day). MoviePass came to subscribers in the mail and looked and worked just like an ATM card; swipe and print your ticket.

So far so good. But like many recent films charting the meteoric rise of a start-up company, followed by a devastating nosedive into oblivion, MoviePass went from a Wall Street darling to almost literally worthless within 8 years.

It’s worth mentioning that the brilliant idea was conceived of and launched by two African-American businessmen. Later, they were muscled out of the company they built by gray-haired white guys who spent exorbitant amounts of cash partying and ignoring the seeds of problems that were about to grow rapidly.

 The film features the founders and one of the former top dogs. It’s a cautionary tale and engaging to see how something that became so big, started with nothing but great ideas and a hard push to try to find funding. It is outrageous and sucks you in and it even has the occasional laugh supplied by former subscribers-movie geeks on parade,

For all its downer details, the film ends on a hopeful note, which I will leave for you to discover.

MoviePass, MovieCrash can be seen on HBO/Max Starting May 29th