Customer Reviews

August

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Bottom Line:

Weaving an unmistakable atmosphere of gloom over the story of an arrogant dot-commer attempting to keep his dying company afloat several months after most other such companies have collapsed, director Austin Chick elevates August into quite a little modern tragedy; it was panned by critics but between the electric performance by David Bowie in the film's final act, a wonderfully sour Rip Torn, and the aforementioned direction by Chick there is a great deal to like in this already-forgotten picture

3/4

I had wondered when a mainstream film would attempt to show the business sector just prior to 9/11, and this was advertised to be it - all the way down to the month name in the title. By itself August would mean nothing in a title unless it had something to do with what changes the world a couple weeks later.

The casting choices also peaked my interest with David Bowie, Rip Torn, Chirqui and Naomie Harris. Josh Hartnett plays the CEO of an Internet company going through significant financial troubles. He plays the front of the future being extremely bright and everything being OK, even though his company should have been folding yesterday. Especially once the mandated recovery deadline of September 14th passes, the world should be his oyster. With them actually mentioning an important date for their company, I thought the film might go that far chronologically, but they do not.

The story starts right out in the high gear Hartnett's character plays most of the film, but it quickly dissipates into boring subplots, tons of unanswered questions, and eventually really bad acting. Even Torn's performance was staged (on purpose I guess since he is way better than this). The one saving grace comes towards the end with David Bowie's three minutes on screen; he was very believable as the hostile takeover kind of guy. But he vanishes and the film comes to an ambiguous ending that never even alludes to the upcoming destruction. It just fades to black and you realize you just wasted 90 minutes. They do interject one CGI shot of the twin towers, but nothing else ties together to the title relevance.

Hartnett is adequate, but his upcoming role in I Come With the Rain looks significantly more challenging and productive. Chirqui's role was for two scenes, and Torn for just a few minutes. Overall, this can't be given a higher rating as honestly, nothing really happens.

In "August," Josh Hartnett plays a cocky, twenty-something entrepreneur named Tom Sterling who, for the past several years (the movie is set, rather portentously, in August 2001), has been riding the dot.com wave to easy fame and fortune - though he isn't quite prepared, either financially or emotionally, for the crash that is to come. Landshark, the company he founded with his brother, Joshua (Adam Scott), and of which he is currently CEO, has a couple hundred employees on its payroll, but pretty much everyone who works there is at a loss to explain just what it is the firm does or produces. Even worse, the company that was once valued at well over three-and-a-half million dollars is now worth just a paltry fraction of that amount, the "business model" having apparently failed to pan out as expected.

As written by Howard A. Rodman and directed by Austin Chick, "August" is essentially a cautionary tale set against the get-rich-quick hysteria that came to dominate in the early days of the internet, when virtually anybody with a half-baked idea and a smidgen of techno-savviness could become a high-stakes player on Wall Street. That many of these people were making their fortunes out of little more than the cyber equivalent of chewing gum and bailing wire - while producing nothing of any real substance or value in the long run - is what eventually led to disaster for so many of them and for the economy as a whole.

"August" does a reasonably effective job capturing the moral emptiness and emotional shallowness of the characters and the world they inhabit, but, when all is said and done, the movie lacks the dramatic heft and focus needed to turn it into a profound and major work. The minor characters are bland and insufficiently developed, and even Tom is deficient in the kind of depth and shading he would need to make him a representative "tragic hero" for our time. That being said, the movie does offer some intriguing insights into the way the business world works these days and into which type of individual typically succeeds in the new arena. And which type fails.

The first three reviewers of this film could not be more wrong - I just had the chance to watch "August" and found it satisfying on every level. This is the kind of movie that I love - one that sneaks in under the radar and knocks my socks off. Josh Hartnett, while never impressing me much in past roles, knocks this one out of the park. If I was in charge of Academy Award selections, he would be nominated for Best Actor for this role. Don't miss this one.

This movie is great if you're an internet nerd but it also has a great lesson attached to the story.
in the movie josh hartnett's cocky attitude brought his success but also failure...

Josh Hartnett doesn't do too many bad movies. While they aren't exactly blockbusters, they're usually conciderably entertaining. I don't know what went wrong with this film though. This was one of the dullest movies I've ever seen. The film follows a cocky young buisnessman around watching his company go from being the #1 new start up to dropping to nearly nothing until he has to sell it to David Bowie. It's a drama without drama I guess. There was just no point to it. A big disapointment.

I Read a lot of bad reviews on this movie at first. I don't know why but i always like to look at the bad reviews first and then take a look at the good ones. I decided to buy it because Josh Hartnett is one of my favorite actors.
After I watched the movie I was really impressed with everything. The only thing that I didn't like about the movie was that I never really did find out what Land-shark does as a company. It struck me as a little depressing but it also has some real in it. I am sure this type of thing happened to so many dot com start ups back in those days that its not even funny. Someone who had no status at all starts a dot com and it blows up and they get WAY more money then they should have ever got and then everything falls apart because they don't know how to manage all of there success. I am sure this happened to so many people so when i was watching this i couldn't help but think of all that.
The bottom line is that this was a really good movie if you are into this kind of thing. I don't like how some people just "Dog" this movie and talk down on it because I thought it was really good. I would recommend it only to those who are into this kind of movie.

I discovered this movie just last night. Josh Harnett does a fantastic conveying the confidence and hyperbole of a dot.com ceo and his desperate attempts to fund a business built on 'fumes.' An excellent cast and story, another reviewer said it, this is an under appreciated gem.

great it has bowie and was at excellent price but the movie was boring-the product and deliver were excelent

I waited a long time for this movie to come to dvd, and I wasn't disappointed. Josh Hartnett deserved a best actor nomination and I am not exaggerating. This movie is about the problems a small business sees during the post 9/11 era. Josh Hartnett is outstanding as a business owner facing the facts that his business is failing. He's partners with his brother, and the brother tries to get Josh to face the reality that they need to sell the company and get out. Josh is reluctant at first, but he soon starts to realize that his brother has a family to support, and the business was failing. Great acting and story, you will not be disappointed.