''August'' is a 2008 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Austin Chick Austin Chick (born 1971) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer, who made the films '' XX/XY'', released in 2002, and ''August'', which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Early life Although born in Hartford, Connec ...

and presented by 57th & Irving. The screenplay by

Howard A. Rodman Howard A. Rodman is a screenwriter, author and professor. He is the former President of the Writers Guild of America, West, professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, alumnus of Telluride Association ...

focuses on two brothers, ambitious dot-com

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

s attempting to keep their company afloat as the stock market begins to collapse in August 2001, one month prior to the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

. The film premiered as an official selection of the Spectrum section at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Plot

Tom and Joshua Sterling are brothers whose Internet startup company, Landshark, is as hot as a New York City summer – only this is the summer of 2001, their company is in lock up, its stock price is plunging and, in a few weeks, the world will change forever. In the meantime, Tom is living the hedonistic life of an Internet star; he dates multiple women, drives a 67 Camaro convertible and hangs out at a new club called

Bungalow 8 Bungalow 8 was an exclusive nightclub chain with locations in Manhattan's West Side, London's West End, and Amsterdam's nightlife neighborhood Leidseplein. The New York location in particular was popular with celebrities in the early 2000s. Fre ...

. Tom Sterling is a true showman, a demigod in a cult – and culture – of personality.

Cast

Josh Hartnett Joshua Daniel Hartnett (born July 21, 1978) is an American actor and producer. He first came to attention in 1997 for his role as Michael Fitzgerald in the television crime drama series '' Cracker''. He made his feature film debut in 1998 in th ...

as Tom Sterling *

Naomie Harris Naomie Melanie Harris (born 6 September 1976) is a British actress. She started her career when she was a child, appearing in the television series ''Simon and the Witch'' in 1987. She portrayed Selena in the zombie film ''28 Days Later'' (2002 ...

as Sarah * Adam Scott as Joshua Sterling *

Robin Tunney Robin Tunney (born June 19, 1972) is an American actress. Tunney made her film debut in the comedy ''Encino Man'' (1992) and rose to prominence with leading roles in the cult films ''Empire Records'' (1995) and '' The Craft'' (1996). Her perform ...

as Melanie Hanson *

Andre Royo Andre Royo (born July 18, 1968) is an American actor, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Reginald "Bubbles" Cousins on the HBO crime drama series ''The Wire'', and his appearances on ''Fringe'', ''Party Down'', ''How to Make I ...

as Dylan Gottschalk *

Emmanuelle Chriqui Emmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui ( ; born 10 December 1975) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her performance on HBO's '' Entourage'' as Sloan McQuewick, Claire Bonner in '' Snow Day'', Dalia in '' You Don't Mess with the Zohan'', Lorelei ...

as Morella Sterling *

Laila Robins Laila Robins is an American stage, film and television actress. She has appeared in films including ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' (1987), '' An Innocent Man'' (1989), ''Live Nude Girls'' (1995), ''True Crime'' (1999), ''She's Lost Control'' ...

as Ottmar Peevo *

Caroline Lagerfelt Caroline Eugenie Lagerfelt (born September 23, 1947) is a Paris-born American actress, long based in the United States, recognized for her roles on ''Sweet Magnolias'', ''Gossip Girl'', '' Six Degrees', Dirty Sexy Money', Nash Bridges'' and ' ...

as Nancy Sterling * Alan Cox as Burton * John Lavelle as Brad *

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

as Cyrus Ogilvie *

Rip Torn Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn Jr. (February 6, 1931 – July 9, 2019) was an American actor whose career spanned more than 60 years. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his part as Marsh Turner in '' Cross Creek'' ...

as David Sterling

Festival screenings

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film 36% based on 25 reviews, with a consensus that "Josh Hartnett puts in a well-intentioned performance but overall, ''August'' only superficially explores its dotcom-burst setting."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

reported the film had an average score of 39 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, indicating a generally negative response.

References

External links

* * * *
''August''
at the

Movie Review Query Engine The Movie Review Query Engine also known as MRQE, is an online index of movie reviews. Registered users are able to access movie-specific forums and provide their own reviews. The site aggregates reviews, news, interviews, and other material assoc ...

International Sales
(ContentFilm) {{DEFAULTSORT:August (Film) 2008 films American drama films 2008 drama films 2000s English-language films Films set in 2001 2000s American films