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      August

      2008, Drama, 1h 28m

      25 Reviews 2,500+ Ratings

      What to know

      Critics Consensus

      Josh Hartnett puts in a well-intentioned performance but overall, August only superficially explores its dotcom-burst setting. Read critic reviews

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      August  Photos

      August (2008) August (2008) August (2008) August (2008) Rip Torn as Mr. Sterling in "August." (L-R) Robin Tunney as Melanie, Andre Royo as Dylan and Josh Hartnett as Tom in "August." Josh Hartnett as Tom Sterling in "August."

      Movie Info

      Tom Sterling (Josh Hartnett) is a dot-com superstar living the high life in New York City. Tom's fortune is jeopardized when the tech bubble bursts in the summer of 2001, and his main investor, Cyrus (David Bowie), is reluctant to sign off on a deal that would guarantee an influx of cash. Tom is forced to turn to his brother (Adam Scott), with whom he has a strained relationship, for a loan. But, as Tom's business fails, he realizes his personal relationships are what really need saving.

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      Critic Reviews for August

      Audience Reviews for August

      • May 31, 2011

        Interesting solely when viewed as an aesthetic antecedent to The Social Network, with its shadowy interiors and pulsing dark electronic soundtrack, but this is a small story that made for a small movie. There's nothing wrong with small movies, of course, but August's ambitions run deeper; it's got some Very Important Things to say about the stock market, and tech, and Faustian power-grabs. Also noble, but when Josh Hartnett delivers a puerile anti-capitalism monologue halfway through the film and is universally applauded for it, the movie's intentions become both clear and undefendable. The movie discourages us from clashing with Tom Sterling's perspective, and even though that big caps-locked HUBRIS stamp ultimately brings him down, it obviously wants us to see him as a misunderstood, insecure bad boy of business. August's ridiculous bias hits its boiling point with an insane, scenery-chewing performance by Rip Torn, where he growls about Oreos and attacks Josh Hartnett with some quasi-Enron "it doesn't do anything if you can't explain what it does" argumentation. See? He's just trying to prove to his grumpy blue-collar daddy that he can work too. Do you guys get it yet? If you don't, we can repeat the scene almost verbatim forty minutes later. It's hard to tell if Tom Sterling is a failed character because of the script or because of Hartnett's performance. He seems to have a rich understanding of the material (he also produced the film), but I think he lacks the range of expression required to humanize this character. Really, despite what August wants us to think, Tom really just comes across as an incompetent asshole. Short of an effortless deflation by David Bowie late in the film, he's actually part of very few substantial events through the course of the story, so there aren't many opportunities to see him react other than trying to overwhelm his problems with sheer bullheadedness. I guess it's a deficiency of writing, for the most part, but the point is that it's a character piece that fails. It's unique, and not a total disaster, but August is entirely skippable.

        Super Reviewer
      • Aug 02, 2010

        Voyons voir! Tom Sterling (Josh Hartnett) un jeune entrepreneur qui ce lance avec son frère dans le web (cela reste très vague et flou en ce qui concerne le produit ou service que vend la compagnie) et connait un mois d'août de misère. Bla bla et encore bla. Voilà tout ce qui se produit dans ce film! On suit le jeune josh qui tente de réglé sa vie pendant que sa compagnie tombe en faillite. 1h20 de pure blabla. Et la fin ? pitoyable! Il ne se passe jamais rien dans ce film, et ce, même pas à la fin. Même s'il joue à la télé, ne perdez pas votre temps! Il a probablement un meilleur film sur une autre chaîne. P.S.: Les tattoos de Tom sont ... affreux! Et la bande sonore l'est d'autant plus.

        Super Reviewer
      • Mar 04, 2010

        The premise of this film is the story of two brothers "fighting to keep their start-up company afloat on Wall Street", a month before 9/11. The real story is about a young man (Hartnett) whose cockiness ends up biting him in the @$$. Like many films, I only watched this film 1) because Josh Hartnett was in it, and 2) there was a refreshing interracial romance in it (with Ninja Assassin/Pirates of the Carribean actress Naomie Harris). But other than that, this film was nothing to write home about. I think even the creators knew this as they tried to make the film seem more important than it really was by trying to frame it historically with all the big things taking place at the time; like showing news clips of Bush's first few months as president; as well as what was going on in entertainment news at the time. What particularly unnerved me was the news clip of R&B singer Aaliyah's death in the Bahamas. I'm a huge fan of her music, but even I couldn't see the point of interjecting the story with a mention of her passing. We already know the film takes place in 2001. Stop beating us over the head with "breaking news." We get it. The movie had a sweet ending though, and I LOVED David Bowie's small but enjoyable appearance in the film.

        Super Reviewer
      • Feb 28, 2010

        Josh Hartnett's performance in this film, is a good reason to check out the movie. In my opinion, it is one of his best performances, so far. The film reminded me of films like The Prime Gig, Boiler Room, Less Than Zero, Nothing in Common, Up in the Air, American Psycho, and Glen Gary Glen Ross. Adam Scott is also very good, as Hartnett's brother. Scott and Hartnett have a good on screen chemistry. Robin Tunney and Rip Torn are solid in their roles. David Bowie steals the one scene that he is in. The music in the film is good. On a negative, the pacing is off. Also while Naomie Harris was ok in her role, I think another actress in that role, would have done a much better job. She didn't have a good on screen chemistry with Hartnett. Still the film is worth watching for the performances, especially Hartnett's.

        Super Reviewer

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