I rewatched August on television tonight. I will never understand why critics eviscerated this film; I love it.

Set in the titular month in the year 2001, the film is an astute, small portrait of a dot-com entrepreneur (Josh Hartnett) fighting to save his company as the I.T. bubble bursts. Hartnett delivers his best performance here, portraying with energy and skill his character's initial charismatic confidence and subsequent descent into desperation. It's a role well suited to the attractive actor and his low-key, modern acting sensibilities.

There are other fine performances as well. Adam Scott is solid as Hartnett's brother/business partner and David Bowie (yes!) is fierce in a third-act cameo as a corporate titan.

The film has this amazing sense of impending doom and perfectly captures/comments on the time period in which it is set. The end of the brief, strange dot-com era, when idealistic dreams and celebrity-personality CEOs overshadowed, oh, capital and profitability, is dramatized expertly. There are also subtle moments which remind the viewer of August 2001 (Hartnett glances at a newscast reporting Aaliyah's death).

While Remember Me hides when it is set and turns a certain event in September 2001 into a plot twist, August embraces its setting and time period: everything how it was then, only days before so many deeply held beliefs were obliterated and so many notions of security and success were shaken to the core.

As I said before, the second film by young festival favorite Austin Chick (XX/XY) was not warmly received by critics, but I definitely feel it deserves a complete reevaluation. In my opinion, it's an effective financial thriller and a spot-on exploration of America as it existed nine long, long years ago.

A

THIS MOVIE IS SO UNDERRATED.

I'd say it's better than The Social Network.