American Hustle

One of the films I'm looking forward to most this awards season. Really dig the trailer, but I stopped watching about 1:20 in, because it was getting a little spoilery.

-EMB
 
'Now who's the master, the writers, the director or ?'

More Jennifer Lawrence/ Bradley Cooper magic with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner thrown in for good measure?

Cheers.
 
Saw this at the 7-o' clock last night, and loved it. It didn't blow me away (I've found, now that I watch so many movies, it's a lot harder to be blown away), but it had this weird, uneasy, underdog kind of story that kept me hooked. It's really well-written, and while I've always been on the fence about O'Russel, his work in this was fantastic - as were each and every one of the actors.

Allan Black, in the post above mine, says: "More Jennifer Lawrence/ Bradley Cooper magic with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner thrown in for good measure?"

But what's funny here is that this is actually the cast of O'Russel's last two films brought together and mixed up (Bale, Adams from The Fighter, and Cooper, Lawrence from Silver Linings Playbook), and then Renner and Louis CK in smaller parts. Somehow, it all gels perfectly. Bale, I think, did a terrific job here: playing a role that normally goes to a William H Macy, Steve Buscemi, or James Gandolfini kind of actor, but is now set in the lead with an A-lister who put on 40 pounds and a bad hairdo and totally owned the role, inside and out. I feel it's actually going to be hard to accept Bale in his usual roles again after this, ha.

Like I said, didn't blow me away, but it was a great ride, and I'll definitely be seeing it again on DVD.
 
Saw it last night. Not completely sure what to think, but overall I was fairly disappointed. I loved David O. Russells last two films, especially The Fighter, so I had high expectations.

It was very entertaining at points, cleverly written, well shot, great music....but it just felt like it was missing something really important to me.

For me, the thing it was missing was substance. The film didn't really say anything. The characters felt designed purely to entertain, not to reveal any important themes or struggles that we can relate to. A lot of the acting decisions just didn't ring true to me, as characters would go to emotional extremes out of nowhere, seemingly just to be exciting, not out of any real character truth. Christian Bale was the exception to this, he managed to find a restraint and truth in his decisions that frankly made everyone else seem like they were overacting.

Also it definitely felt long in places. The film was only 2h15, but I heard multiple people remarking when it ended that "wow that was a long movie".

Ultimately it just seemed like it was trying too hard, like David O. Russell decided he wanted to make a "cool" film and didn't think much about injecting some emotional truth. Unfortunately, he is no Scorcese, nor should he try to be.
 
I think I agree with most of what you said: particularly the part about Bale. I realized, reading your post, the dude did a complete reversal of his character from The Fighter for this film.

I think you're right, there was definitely something missing. It felt like it was trying to be two things at once: a Coen brothers farce, and an underdog political drama. I think O'Russel could have tied the knot a lot tighter if he'd focused more on the "The FBI just entrapped some generally good guys trying to do a generally good thing for their state because the bureau guys wanted to make headlines" aspect. I imagine that was probably lost in the rewrites somewhere along the way.
 
Among best of the year, no doubt.

I was curious of this one point while sitting in a large theater on the first Friday night of wide release: where's the audience?
 
jghenderson said:
Saw it last night. Not completely sure what to think, but overall I was fairly disappointed. I loved David O. Russells last two films, especially The Fighter, so I had high expectations.

It was very entertaining at points, cleverly written, well shot, great music....but it just felt like it was missing something really important to me.

For me, the thing it was missing was substance. The film didn't really say anything. The characters felt designed purely to entertain, not to reveal any important themes or struggles that we can relate to. A lot of the acting decisions just didn't ring true to me, as characters would go to emotional extremes out of nowhere, seemingly just to be exciting, not out of any real character truth. Christian Bale was the exception to this, he managed to find a restraint and truth in his decisions that frankly made everyone else seem like they were overacting.

Also it definitely felt long in places. The film was only 2h15, but I heard multiple people remarking when it ended that "wow that was a long movie".

Ultimately it just seemed like it was trying too hard, like David O. Russell decided he wanted to make a "cool" film and didn't think much about injecting some emotional truth. Unfortunately, he is no Scorcese, nor should he try to be.
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What's missing is the same thing which is missing from the Wolf of Wall Street.
Both of these directors (yes, even Scorcese) are simply using their signature tricks to fill 90% of these films.
Every cinematic device in the new Scorcese for instance, we have already seen in Goodfella's.
Kinda cheapens the perfume after a while. The American public seems to want the ride more than the destination. Or at least that's what they seem to think in Hollywood.
So, end of the day, these are vehicles.

Seems to me all you need nowadays is an A-list actor with an accent from Brooklyn or Queens and a 70's era stretch limo and you are golden.
 
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yoclay said:
simply using their signature tricks to fill 90% of these films
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Yes
Imo, it speaks to the big name director refusing final cut to the editor. Thats it really; just a need to put trust in another (the editor) to clarify your directorial vision
The individualist autuer model does not allow for this; whispers sweet nothings to the ego
 
Just saw this. It started out slow but it picked up in the third act. The best thing in the movie was Lawrence, every time she was on screen I didn't want her scene to end. And when ever she wasn't on screen things felt slow. But it was a good movie, not as good as Fighter or Silver Lining.
 
The best thing in the movie was Lawrence, every time she was on screen I didn't want her scene to end.
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I will give this a big +1......no doubt. "So, thank God for me."

For me, the thing it was missing was substance. The film didn't really say anything. The characters felt designed purely to entertain, not to reveal any important themes or struggles that we can relate to.
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Yeah, I'll have to agree here. This seemed to be an exercise in style as they say....and a damn good one. They got the 70's vibe down. But I don't think there has been a wild public demand for a film about ABSCAM. The last time I heard mention of it was from Kramer on Seinfeld.

Slight technical note....it seemed (to me) like the focus was soft in several shots here & there, which was bugging me. And a few of the shots of DeNiro at the table seemed to be digitally zoomed. Whatever it was, it didn't look so hot.

American Hustle: not totally amazing, but totally worth checking out if you have a 2 hours and 15 minutes to kill.
 
It was shot on film in Techniscope like the old 70's movies, and they uesd 70's Canon K35 lenses, which are really just Canon FD's in a cine housing. Loved the look of the film. I noticed it was soft too, probably just the look they were after. I noticed the blown up shot of De Niro round the table, again it's something that was done in 70's film making.

I saw this last night, and I enjoyed it very much, however something is missing. What was the message of the film? Other than that, it's good, and O Russel even managed to get a performance out of Bale, which is a miracle. I've never liked Bale, but he was very good in this. Amy Adams stole the film in my opinion, those eyes sucked me in. She reminded me very much of Julian Moore in Boogie Nights.
 
I was bored through most of the movie. Maybe my expectations were set to high from the trailers that looked like there was a bit more action? I was looking for more of an Ocean's 11 kinda movie. Really didn't grab me and I just didn't find it that entertaining.
 
Thought this flick was just alright.

Awesome to see DeNiro in a legit role again. Everyone was great except I just have gone totally off Amy Adams. And I'm with CapitalP, Jennifer Lawrence was great.
 
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