August: Critic Reviews

Anyone who thinks that Josh Hartnett isn't a true movie star should see his riveting, high-wire performance in August, a shrewdly dramatized look back at the bursting of the dot-com bubble.

Has a dark desperation thata(TM)s morbidly compelling. But the moviea(TM)s amoral momentum is fatally slowed by an acronym-heavy script and flimsy characterizations that offer fine actors...little to play.

August seems to be missing something essential -- a prologue? Or maybe it's not what's missing that's the problem, but what's here.

There's not much to it, but Austin Chick's hyper-focused indie does serve as a nicely assured showcase for lead Josh Hartnett.

The direction by somebody called Austin Chick gives the appearance of being phoned in from an Internet bar in another town.

This middling drama has no glaring faults, but simply lacks the intended urgency. There's scant sense of surprise in a narrative trajectory that feels preordained.

Only an amusing cameo by David Bowie enlivens things, but he's onscreen for just about two minutes at the end.

The actors are not well supported by Howard A. Rodman's self-satisfied script, which would rather tell than show, relying at several points on long, smug speeches that bring the narrative to a grinding halt.

This one has nothing extraordinary about it to compensate for seven years' staleness.

A movie that makes a good initial public offering.

If you want to see ignorant self destruction, see Troy Duffy in "Overnight" and forget this film---the worst mistake Josh Hartnett has made in his career.

While this modest indie offers high-tension plotting, it's real substance is the contrast between Hartnett's charismatic, hard-charging business persona and his intimacy-challenged real-life relationships.

...the picture ... provides Josh Hartnett with one of his most interesting roles, and it elicits one of his sharpest performances.

Smartly scripted, convincingly atmospheric morality fable in which Hartnett, usually insubstantial as a good guy, plays a convincingly flawed character galloping toward the precipice.

This stylish, well acted drama chronicles one once-successful dot-com's efforts to stay afloat in the wake of the Internet boom's bust.

Merely serves to watch a company's ashes fall without really considering what started the fire.

all gloss and pizzazz but mostly pizz and no azz.

August is a brooding, boring indie drama about the death of the culture-wide hallucination that was the dot-com bubble, and the moment when countless dot-com millionaires on paper became real-life paupers.

August tries to bluff its way into success as a deeply felt parable of greed, loyalty and family ties, but ends up being just as fatuous as those burst-bubble paper-tiger corporations it eviscerates.

Rodman's potentially intriguing idea about the 2001 crash of the dot-com biz just months before 9/11 is poorly executed by helmer Chick (XX/XY), who doesn't take full advantage of his star cast, headed by Josh Hartnett, Naomie Harris and David Bowie.

Hartnett does windbag cockiness well, yet the overriding conception of his character and the Dot Com phenom in general is so straightforward and unrevealing that his effort goes for naught.

A procession of anger mismanagement protagonist episodes of rude behavior with assorted unbelievably receptive babes, and a glutton-for-punishment old flame (Naomie Harris) whom he manages to re-con into bed, before she wises up all over again.

August doesn't make a lot of sense nor does it seem to have a message or point.

Has a gritty, edgy look and it helps propel the audience along with Tom as he rides the edge of the dot com bust.