In New York City, during the George W. Bush Administration, handsome tattooed Josh Hartnett (as Thomas "Tom" Sterling) struggles to keep his multi-million dollar "dot.com" business going, after the stock market slides downward in "August" of 2001. His partner, the "creative genius" of the organization, is Adam Scott (as Joshua "Josh" Sterling), a nervous new papa. Mr. Hartnett is optimistic, even when it comes to beautiful brown-skinned ex-girlfriend Naomie Harris (as Sarrah).Singer-musician David Bowie has a cameo, as wheeler-dealer mogul after Hartnett's business.Unfortunately not a great film, but "August" should put director Austin Chick and cinematographer Andrij Parekh on a watch list; their green-hued New York looks rich. Showing off his long torso, Hartnett still needs that great movie role; besides looking good, he performs the unfocused character well. With a tight soundtrack and trendy script ("My bad", "Hey yourself"), this "August" doesn't stick because the short-lived drama is, like Hartnett's character says, "so over" and "way over." ***** August (1/22/08) Austin Chick ~ Josh Hartnett, Adam Scott, Naomie Harris, Robin Tunney

August is a very finite and pointed film. It's a low-flying indie sleeper that has its points to make and it makes them quite effectively. Above all it really manages to nail a small moment in time, that of the dot-com implosion.I, along with many others I'm sure, was part of a dot com start-up similar in some respects to Landshark. It was very common in those days of over-hyped speculation to bet tons of VC generated start-up capital on IDEAS that looked promising, when in reality much needed to happen before they could be realized. This didn't hold true for all start-ups, but a fair majority.It's very easy to get caught up in the delusion that you're a "real" company when your stock is shooting up the charts and quite a glass of ice water to the face to realize all that speculated valuation can disappear overnight, which it did slowly over the course of late 2000 and 2001...it was never really there to begin with.August grabs that bursting bubble in a number of effective ways. As the film progresses, it becomes apparent that for all of Tom's boasting and bluster, he's nothing more than a hyped-up spin doctor. Watching this revelation sink his ego is entertaining if not more than a bit sad. Hartnett does an adequate job with the role.The most true-to-life scene for me was the mass of staffers flocking around F**kedCompany.com, which was a popular barometer for the sink-age rate of companies about to go belly-up, instead of lounging at their Ikea desks playing solitaire...they're not lazy, they just have nothing to do...no customers, no product.As a film, this is a tough one to sell to an audience who doesn't have first-hand experience in the story's premise. There is a lot of business/financial terminology/slang thrown around that to those not knowledgeable or interested in it will seem very boring.It does what Indies do best...present a slice of life, with no pat clichés or feel-good endings. And for that, I liked it.

I do understand the markets, I'm studying IT in business right now, and I happened to see this movie. Most of it was like watching paint dry. How the casting director scored Rip Torn and David Bowie is beyond me. The movie is much like a .com company - all hype and no substance. I can just see the guy pitching his scrip right now to the VC's - he probably used that same material when doing the same scene in the movie. This movie rely's heavily on the F-bomb to make its point about businesses - or the lack of sense in business. It could have used witty dialog instead... There are some diamonds in this rough though - when David Bowie tell's you he doesn't like the way you've been handling your personal life, you know you've hit rock bottom!

I just got done with watching this movie and I have to admit it was really pointless. 1/3 of the movie is just business lingo, the other 2/3 is just plain contemplation of Josh Hartnett's slightly above average acting...Big holes in the script. We don't know anything about the characters backgrounds, it feels like Tom is acting like an ass just for the sake of it. Very cliché character: the cocky guy who has tons of money, pisses off everybody and then realizes that there is more in life than dough. We all saw it coming right at the first party scene... Am I the only one who would have liked to know what kind of product their company made? Why is the company sinking? Sept. 11 was mentioned in other reviews, I could not find any link whatsoever...Let's face it, the whole plot was not movie material and even thought it was pretty well shot and the score is interesting I don't think any business or stocks neophytes have any reason to see it since there is absolutely no character exploration.ONE LAST THING: What was the point of putting David Bowie in the trailer, on the DVD's back picture and even write his name on the cover when he actually gets less screen time than 90% of the cast? (even the semi-goth employee gets more screen time...)