Review of August (1996) by Joshua B — 10 Jan 2009

August is a somewhat interesting look at the burst of the dot com bubble in the days just before 9/11 that is punctuated by moments of greatness. I enjoyed the narrative itself, in watching Hartnett's character's sense of gen-y elitism crumble as his world starts to fall apart, though at times it seemed the screenwriter shared the same egoism as his lead character. That is the film's biggest flaw, in that it doesn't propel its narrative through its characters but through smug, self-satisfied soliloquies. The ambiguity of the industry tech-speak and the fact that we're never told what Tom's company actually does (even when one character explicitly asks) is storytelling that's either arrogant or just plain lazy.

Still, the cast is strong and David Bowie's two-minutes of screen time are solid gold.