Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Mark Nielson This movie has some problems but overall captures the moment better than any other movie i've seen...better than the over-rated Wall Street or Boiler Room and ten times better than margin call.The sub-story w the family didn't work at all and shd have been cut. the whole brother thing was stupid.The final scene (set in the real-life Pussy Cat Lounge. 96 Greenwich St., New York, NY, 10011) is a work of genius...as the movie closes the news coverage of the plane crash of the almost-star Aaliyah comes on the bar's TV, and this sets the time, the few days before the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the WTC and Pentagon.The movie doesn't even mention the terrorist attacks, so the audience has to remember themselves the time for this to be effective...but if they remember it just kills.btw, my old girlfriend workd on Aliyah's make-up the month before her death and dremt about her returning to her for make-up after her crash...this was spooky as hell.

wes-connors 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

Siamois This is the surprise of the year so far for me.This excellent little film tells a story of two brothers and their struggling company in a timeline that just precedes 9/11. Several people on IMDb have commented that they don't see why the movie needed to be "cheapened with a 9/11 theme" or some such nonsense. Let's be clear: this movie is not about 9/11 but this was historically a crucial point for the dot-com bubble.The movie does actually a wonderful job highlighting these events, without spelling them out in some awkward exposition. The story focuses mostly on one of the brothers: The Charismatic Tom (played by Josh Hartnett), who mostly handles the business aspects. Director Austin Chick does a good job immersing us in his life, his lifestyle, his struggles and his ambiguities. His uneasy rapports with his brother Joshua, co-founder of the company "Landshark", who is the quiet "tech guy" behind the operation. With his parents. His former girlfriend. Various other persons in his life and business dealing. It's an absolutely fascinating portrait. What really helps is Hartnett's performance. Now, I'm sorry to say I never was a fan of this fairly popular actor and he had failed to impress me until now... but this has changed. Hartnett is in fact the main strength of this movie, makes the story come alive and shines among a very, very solid cast around him. Tom's role as a confident, brash young guy who must keep appearance and keep his company afloat while he knows it's going down (along with his personal life) required a good acting palette.It is a strength of the movie that it manages to push both the story of Tom and present an interesting portrait of this time period where economically, things were crashing. What we have here is a movie that could very well have been boring to death due to its topic (finances are a fairly abstract thing, and usually not terribly interesting unless they're your own) but instead becomes fascinating. In many ways, it is reminiscent of Wall Street. Various speeches that Tom delivers and his bout of negotiations lead to several strong moments.This is a great movie. Where pretty much every scene is worthwhile and supports the overall themes that are pushed. Director Chick seems to have a purpose with every element presented and even the elements not present. Consider: we never get to know what Landshark does. At all. Which might seem weird yet is terribly fitting since along with other shooting star companies of the time, it was all a smoke screen anyway.Great movie, probably a must buy for those who have an interest in the dot-com bubble.

joemamaohio Dot com entrepreneur Tom (Josh Hartnett) has it all: attractive girlfriend Sarrah (Naomie Harris), his brother Josh (Adam Scott) and a very lucrative web business.All of it, however, begins to slowly unravel, and Tom does everything he can to stay above it, but his charm and charisma can only get him so far. Soon he's on the receiving end of failure - his girlfriend left him, and his business is crumbling around him.This riches to rags story would've been better if it...well...had a cohesive storyline. His business starts evaporating without really an explanation, and all the dull dialogue and weak performances only heightened the overall dull aspect of this film.