August

Review By: Dan Deevy
DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com

For pretty obvious reasons the story of a man who built a company around a website in these very uncertain economic times, really piqued my curiosity. I thought I’d be going in and watching my life story on screen and in fact there were a lot of similarities that I could draw between myself and Josh Hartnett’s character Tom Sterling, but I’m not sure anyone else is going to be as interested in his story as I was.

August is the story of a wildly successful internet start up company called Landshark that was founded by two brothers, Joshua, the tech expert played by Adam Scott and Tom (Josh Hartnett) a finance guy who could probably sell ice to an Eskimo. Like most successful internet start ups they were given buckets of money from Venture Capitalists that they used to hire tons of people, build trendy office spaces and begin to compete and beat out the other established companies in their field. Even after most other companies had tanked, Landshark continued to trade higher and higher in the market.

Then, on a dime, all of that changed. The stock plummets and for the first time Tom Sterling is unsure of what to do to save his company.

A lot of this movie is been there seen that territory. The only thing that sets this film apart is Hartnett’s powerhouse performance as the fast paced, smooth talking leader of the e commerce revolution, Tom Sterling. The writers are definitely to be credited for nailing the language that this type of guy would use, but its Hartnett who really sells it by totally inhabiting this guy with complete control and ease with his mannerisms and sense of being. I know guys like this, in fact at this point I think we all know guys like this – and Josh is this guy.

Some of the more interesting parts of the film are the conversations between Harnett and Rip Torn as Tom’ father. Trying to make your parents understand exactly what it is you do and why you do it differently than they’re used to can be challenging to say the least. In that sense anyone who chose not to take that 9 – 5 corporate gig with full health benefits will be able to relate to this.

There’s also a very interesting dynamic here between powerful corporations that have existed for years and new start up companies. David Bowie is fantastic as the evil head of the former. It’s what happens when old money meets new money. When you meet a crotchety old guy who’s used to wearing three piece suits everyday and paying his sweat shop workers four cents an hour to make shoes, he is not going to be happy to see a young twenty something suddenly show up with millions of dollars behind him willing to do things his way – a different way. Wearing jeans and a t to business meetings, paying ...