American Hustle

Well, spank my ass and call me Charlie. A movie made by a hell of a director with actors that could fill up a hall of fame, but still the movie turns out bad. I can’t remember the last time I felt so terribly disappointed. Sure, I did see the reviews here, but I kept telling myself that people simply didn’t like some aspect of the movie. But what I didn’t expect is that the aspect was the entire movie – literally all of it. I mean everything about the movie is bad. Let me start from the beginning. The screenplay is absolutely terrible. This must have been written by some lunatic who paid to have his screenplay made into a movie with A-list actors, or I don’t know what else to think. It’s a mixture of boredom, greyness and lack of interest… it’s absolutely terrible and it won’t keep you entertained even at the end. And that leads to the individual characters, the setting, the non-existent humor. All of it. Literally. The two stars are actually quite a good rating as this is a joke gone bad rather than any kind of a hustle. Compared to other movies in a similar vein, this is incredibly sub-par. (05.02.2014)

A retro farce with great costumes that nonetheless unfolds at a sluggish pace and is full of actors showing off unnecessarily. I consider American Hustle far from masterfully directed. On the contrary, at such a slow pace, it is striking that the ambitious plot disintegrates in the tangle of character motivations that got out of hand. But would you do any better if there was a scantily clad Amy Adams prancing around your set? The acting performances are fantastic, however. Christian Bale tries hard, but Jennifer Lawrence turns in the best performance here. Amy Adams is super-hot (let’s be honest – would you be able to restrain yourself in the bathroom scene?) and the icing on the cake is the unexpected Mr. “XY” from Miami in the best mafia role in recent memory. With his appearance, the pace picks up a little. The nomination for best film and director was probably secured by Bale’s necklace. (27.01.2014)

O. Russell annoys me immensely. His films are reminiscent of a showcase of clichés and conventions, and if all this worked well in Fighter, it changed from Silver Linings Playbook to empty glitz covered with an imitation of "something more". However, his mannerist preference for certain techniques and compositions is not even "nicely cheesy" and cool (exciting), but simply emptily self-serving. Completely in line with the never-ending "just enough so that you can't see much" show of Amy Adams's cleavage, which instead of excitement arouses, after a while, an inquisitive feeling about whether she is supposed to attract attention or distract the viewer. An absurdly rich selection of period hits, a showcase of idiotic hairstyles, dysfunctional parallel storylines and narrator voices, carried by Bale, who is already starting to forget that acting means more than periodically gaining and dropping 50 kilos. After The Wolf of Wall Street, this artificial attempt at an epic of deception and hypocrisy, folded into a would-be brazen and contemplative whole, feels even more unappealing. And the last Marty didn't get under my skin much. But at least I still have enough sense to recognize a hoax from the original. [50%] (22.01.2014)

“Some of this actually happened.” The exaggerated opening title well indicates the strengths and weaknesses of Russell’s American Hustle, which isn’t rooted in any particular genre. No, we will not familiarise you with the procedural details of the central swindle. Who knows what it was really like back then? And yes, like what you are about to see, Hollywood is one big game that plays fast and loose with the truth. So, we will set up a mirror and other reflective surfaces in front of ourselves and from the opening scene (preparation for the performance) we will draw attention to the performative dimension of the con artist’s “craft”. Which is to say that we will not focus on facts or provide enough of them that would create tension and expectations, but only self-reflexive wordplay that belongs entirely to the actors. Due to the sidelining of the course of the operation in favour of the relationships between the characters, who deny and rediscover their own identities, there is nothing that would hold the narrative structure together and keep the viewer in suspense. We can understand the herky-jerky rhythm of the narrative as an attempt to adapt the form to a large number of narrators with different natures and goals (and acting styles, because nearly every actor is attuned to a different genre), though I personally see it as evidence of Russell’s indiscipline as a director, which is caused by putting too much trust in the actors. Similarly, the manneristic use of certain stylistic techniques (rapid dolly shots) and gratuitous incorporation of contemporary music testify to the fact that Russel is adept at his craft and knows how to shoot a “cool” scene, but his directing is non-conceptual. The changes of identities, genres, rhythm and narrators are fun at first and give the film a certain flair. Due to the aimless directing and meaningless plot, however, the excess of images and words, which basically say the same thing again and again (and say it much more straightforwardly than, for example, Preston Sturges in the timeless The Lady Eve, becomes off-putting much sooner than, for example, in The Wolf of Wall Street, which seems to be a much shorter film thanks to its more concentrated and coherent narrative. As is becoming customary in the case of Russell, the actors save the film from being completely rejected and quickly forgotten. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, though entertaining, forgot to switch from the eccentric comedy mode employed in Silver Linings Playbook and the atrocious (s)exploitation of Amy Adams’s body needlessly flattens the Sydney character and detracts from her ambivalence, but at least Christian Bale hasn’t looked so bad and acted so well in a few years. 65% (21.01.2014)

We weren’t wrong about David O. Russel the first time. American Hustle wants to be a refreshing, engaging and vibrant gangster movie and manages it quite well. At times, it tries too hard, especially with the at times surprisingly and intentionally weird behaviour of some of the characters, but it never gets to the point of bothering me. The performances are superb without exception. It’s delivered as a comedy and I take it as such. This time Russel doesn’t try to unsuccessfully portray romantic relationships or social conflicts, which I take it as a plus. For me, good fun and satisfaction. (05.01.2014)