August 2008

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: 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. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: 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. Read more

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

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: There's not much to it, but Austin Chick's hyper-focused indie does serve as a nicely assured showcase for lead Josh Hartnett. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Only an amusing cameo by David Bowie enlivens things, but he's onscreen for just about two minutes at the end. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The direction by somebody called Austin Chick gives the appearance of being phoned in from an Internet bar in another town. Read more

Stephen Garrett, Time Out: Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: 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. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: 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. Read more