The Seattle International Film Festival is in full swing. Two nights ago, I attended a screening of the film August, a story of two young dot com entrepreneur brothers caught in the throes of the bubble burst in August of 2001.
Obviously the subject matter of the film intrigued me; seeing something you lived through played out by big stars (Josh Harnett plays the leading role) on the screen gives you a feeling that you were part of something important, and then of course there's the hope that you'll gain new insights about it.
The movie failed for me on a number of fronts, mainly because the main character played by Harnett is such a complete creep. By the time the movie ends and the fictitious company "LandShark" has gone bust, you're actually happy to see misfortune come to this guy. The whole movie is like watching a plane about to crash, but you actually wish it would crash faster. None of the other characters in the film like this guy, so why should I? He's arrogant, irresponsible and shows no passion or empathy for his family, customers or employees. The only sign that he might have been a decent guy before his success is the brief appearance of a cute ex-girlfriend. Obviously she saw something in him at one point. And it's obvious by the way Harnett spouts out dated jargon like "cross-channel, cross-platform, click and mortar", etc. that he has no idea what he's saying.
All of that said, there were a few scenes that hit entertainingly close to home and are worth seeing if you're in the mood to reminisce about some of the funnier moments of the bust. Harnett's character shows up to speak at an industry conference unprepared and despite a completely obvious BS job, gets a standing ovation. When his father drills him on "what exactly do you do???" and it's clear that there really is no answer, you'll recall plenty of has-been companies with the same issue. And as the stock plummets, employees huddle around a laptop reading industry gossip about their own doomed fate. Sound familiar?
The irony here is that back in 2001, the Seattle International Film Festival ran another film about a dot com startup going bust. This one, E-Dreams was a documentary about the rise and fall of Kozmo.com....remember them? Bicycle messengers that delivered videos and ice cream to your door after you ordered it online. This film was great, and watching August, poor as it was, provided value in that it made me want to see E-Dreams again. Joseph Park, the CEO of Kozmo is clearly in over his head, and watching the unrealistically meteoric rise and sudden fall of his company happen to him and the people around him left me thinking for weeks about the emotions and momentum of that time. Howard Schultz has a cameo role that he'd probably like to forget (Starbucks had a partnership with Kozmo), reminding us of how swept up even the most successful companies became in the .com craze.
Good news for you: E-Dreams is now available for instant view on Netflix. Might want to pop some microwave popcorn, take a long lunch and watch it at your desk. If you have the chance to see August, plan on doing something great with the rest of your day so you won't feel too bad about wasting the time. It's a bit worth seeing, but more as a compare/contrast to E-Dreams than anything else. Happy viewing.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that was reminded of E-Dreams. I sat down this morning to watch some trailers and when I saw the description of August I thought 'surely this is just a remake of E-Dreams,' but I guess it isn't. Thanks for the review of August, now I know I can skip it completely.
Posted by: ubershauna | June 14, 2008 at 12:40 PM