American Hustle

Started by MacGuffin, July 31, 2013, 01:37:35 PM

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MacGuffin






Release date: December 25, 2013

Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence

Directed by: David O. Russell

Premise: The story of a con artist and his partner in crime, who were forced to work with a federal agent to turn the tables on other cons, mobsters, and politicians - namely, the volatile mayor of impoverished Camden, New Jersey
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

©brad


Pubrick

when they do a career retrospective on christian bale, it's gonna be really funny to see him go from skinny to fat over and over again.

it'll be like those before and after weight loss commercials.. but a million times with the same person.

is that what he's going for, i wonder? he's creating a lifelong gif with each film worth a few frames, in the end it just looks like he's breathing with fat/muscle.
under the paving stones.

Lottery

I want him to try morbidly obese at some point. Maybe he'll go down the Brando route later in life.

MacGuffin

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

jenkins

no one? brb
oooh six theaters. why did this open nyc/la? weird. it must be some funky awards season move, because this is obviously a big release. next week goes wide

learned danny elfman was the composer! fun. he also did the unknown known this year. and, last year's promised land, which i haven't seen yet (lol), but gus van sant is an american treasure to me. why is promised land worth mentioning? because

hustle's d.p., Linus Sandgren, has a headscratching history of credits, then last year he popped with promised land, now american hustle and 2nd unit for catching fire. fuck yeah sandgren, excellent launch

going tonight. a panel of people will be there, i don't know who

Ghostboy

It's a ton of fun. The mutual joy the cast and their director find in each other is palpable and vicarious.

jenkins

enjoyed this way more than i expected to. i have new david o tingles. was impressed by the rowdy, boisterous cinema. adored the characters and their development. curious about my second viewing, if it'd work the same for me

samsong

enjoyed this quite a bit, but i feel like it gets "it's like goodfellas meets the sting!!!" tunnel vision.  the times i felt most uninterested were attempts at matching the virtuoso and soundtrack savvy (it does have a great soundtrack, though) of the former and the heist procedural cleverness of the latter.  the real draw are the characters and the performances.  that said, i found myself wishing altman was still around to make a movie about these characters.  but it's a joyous, optimistic american movie with depth of feeling, though much of that depth is left uncharted.  definitely a good way to get the taste of anchorman 2 out of my mouth.

picolas

o russell gets the very best out of a STACKED cast. everyone is AWESOME. i actually think bradley cooper is the mvp which i did not expect going in. his character is such an animal but he's so effortless, and never the least bit showy.

the voiceover is a major misstep. it spells out lots of obvious character stuff in the first act. "he had a big belly but i found myself falling for him" "she was beautiful. i liked that." etc etc. i'm generally all for voiceover and in this case it's probably necessary for the incredibly elaborate plot, but it's noticeably less well-written than the rest of the movie. luckily it fades out after the first half hour or so, which doesn't help its case in the long run. why be inconsistent?

i was very thrown by its structure in a way that felt similar to the fighter (meaning i'll probably love this movie more on repeat views). there are so many threads over such a lengthy runtime, but they're all so delicious. american hustle is essentially a giant stew of unexpectedly harmonious flavours.

Jeremy Blackman

Picolas's review is spot on. (Although I guess I disagree about the plot being incredibly elaborate.)

Bradley Cooper blew my mind in this movie. No one else really meets him at the level he's working on. The way Amy Adams reads her lines (which is unfortunately how it feels at times) is very strange, but that might work for her character... I'm undecided. Jennifer Lawrence is funny but a little cartoonish for my tastes. Christian Bale's performance is... how to put this... good, but expected. Those may sound like complaints, but the ensemble was delightful to watch.

It definitely has David O. Russell flavor all over it. Lots of weirdly paced character scenes with jagged, meandering dialogue that's usually exciting, sometimes terrifying. It feels unpredictable all the way through.

Lottery

Very fun but not always compelling. Performances were great with Renner being a fantastic surprise.

Mel

Simple mind - simple pleasures...

Garam

The bit where Bradley Cooper's character does a coked-up impression of Louis CK's character...that was the exact point I stopped dismissing him as an actor and admitted that he was pretty good. Laughed out loud heartily in the cinema at that part.

Mel



I'm in the middle of interview and it is on-topic and detailed (how character was created, happy Bale, how set operates and so on).
Simple mind - simple pleasures...