o'russell's ABSCAM movie AMERICAN HUSTLE

ur not allowed sry

I totally get why someone could not like this. But I don't see how someone could think Renner, Adams and Lawrence were anything but great, and they alone are reason enough to recommend the movie. I'd throw De Niro in, too, but he's barely in this.

adams is capable actress and def got to do some great accent-juggling and neckline work but there was something kind of blase about her (did anyone really buy the stripper bit?) esp when lawrence was going on all cylinders. renner and cooper also played to strengths but i'd like to see these guys in a movie that wasn't a crazy-long third rate boogie nights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX-YFIuXn2Y

The Ellington talk at the beginning was the lone bright spot for me, but things like that usually cause me to overrate movies. Not in this case, since the "Jeep's Blues" sequence was followed by the film equivalent of some cover band doing Goodfellas at the bar in the strip mall.

I guess if I had to watch The Fighter now I'd like it more too but Melissa Leo working overtime on her accent is a test run for J-Law.

he's the Sturges of his generation

@erickohn
Would audiences pay attention to Preston Sturges movies today? AMERICAN HUSTLE is the only 2013 release that echoes some of his strengths.

What about We're The Millers

</ armond>

@awhite
IDENTITY THIEF is the only 2013 release that echoes some of his strengths.

The Ellington talk at the beginning was the lone bright spot for me

The mention of Ellington having died "this year" was chronologically off, though. He died in 1974, but only a couple of scenes later (before she even debuts her English accent), Amy Adams is complaining about Jimmy Carter.

Yeah, I noticed that too, but I figured there was a flash-forward somewhere that I missed.

I also thought "He died this year" was a little too on-the-nose: "BECAUSE IT'S 1974. YOU KNOW, THIS YEAR. THIS 1974 YEAR THAT WE ARE NOW IN NOW." A simple "He died last month" would've sufficed.

Both characters would've probably known without even mentioning it at all.

they were just making sex talk you guys are so horrible at sex talk, jazz names and dates

You could stand to work on your punctuation.

You. could. stand. to. work. on. your. punctuation.

I see what you worked to the bone there.

JIZZ TALK

looks like they still havent made up - which is a pity bc they brought out the best in each other imo

Marky Mark says they're cool now in the newest weekly Hollywood Reporter cover story.

maybe it was cause i ffwded through some scenes but i didnt realize til the big reveal that brad cooper thought she was english all along lol

OTM... I mean, I guess her accent was supposed to be shaky but she seemed to only half-commit to the fake-character half the time. She always seems insanely miscast to me (never bought her Fighter character; definitely didn't buy her as an ex-stripper in this (what was the v.o. about her stripping days? Something pretty silly, I seem to remember. "At least it's honest work" or something?))

Laughed out loud at the preposterous Bradley Cooper home life, from the fiancée to the distraught mama.

I think it's pretty wrong to define her character as an ex-stripper. That's just one of many things she did to get ahead, and no doubt thrown in there to justify/show how far she is willing to go to manipulate Cooper. She also worked at Cosmo, among other things. Bale worked his way up, too, from glass to dry cleaning to faux art dealer to fake loan agent. It would have been hilarious if every single character was an ex-stripper, too, though.

The Saturday Night Fever of Cooper's home life was totally OTT, but I did think the fiancee stuff was funny. That she's there and clearly set up by his mom but he couldn't care less and is setting up his night out right in front of her.

I mean, Adams' character was an ex-stripper. I really just mean I will always struggle to buy Adams as anybody with that kind of past, no matter the character, but admittedly that's down to my not being crazy about her as an actress. She just seems so formally trained to me, and I can never shake it when those really technical-seeming performers play sexy (the one I always think of is Anne Hathaway in 'Havoc'). Personal thing, I guess.

I did genuinely laugh when Cooper screams in frustration when Adams' character refuses him sex when he shows up at her house. Like Russell was tempted to go the whole hog and do a "whyyyyyyyyy" crane shot on Cooper.

Saw this last night. gr8080 otm --

the total way less than the sum of its parts, but so many great parts
― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Saturday, December 28, 2013 10:09 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

<I>The mention of Ellington having died "this year" was chronologically off, though. He died in 1974, but only a couple of scenes later (before she even debuts her English accent), Amy Adams is complaining about Jimmy Carter.

― jaymc, Tuesday, December 31, 2013 3:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink</I>

Roslyn's reference to The Power of Intention was even more off...didnt that book come out in the last decade? Or did I mishear?

you misheard. reference was to Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking (1952)

I just googled "american hustle power of intention" and if I misheard I wasn't alone

yeah she mentions the wayne dyer book specifically

man this was some middlebrow ish.

colleen camp was in this, as the cat lady apparently. didn't recognize her. thought it was kidna funny when i saw her in the credits b/c she could've played either j-law's or adams' characters at different points in time

I mean, Adams' character was an ex-stripper. I really just mean I will always struggle to buy Adams as anybody with that kind of past, no matter the character, but admittedly that's down to my not being crazy about her as an actress. She just seems so formally trained to me, and I can never shake it when those really technical-seeming performers play sexy (the one I always think of is Anne Hathaway in 'Havoc'). Personal thing, I guess.

? Walter Galt, Wednesday, January 1, 2014 10:20 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i know exactly what you mean, especially about hathaway - she's serious about her craft but you're always conscious of the fact that she's Playing (x). adams comes off as a similar type but she also seems more grown up and relaxed and can credibly inhabit a wider range of roles, including this one (she was great)

anyway glenn kenny otm about this, its a sloppy borderline-incompetent mess... i will say that the perfs are all strong, i even liked Bale when he wasnt talking (he overplays the accent but he's effective anyway). never liked b-coop more, adams and jlaw are forces of nature obv. shea whigham as robert evans one of the movies secret MVPs. louis ck didnt need to be in it

i am in love with amy adams #namaste

the accents were very bad in this movie

louis ck i thought was most believable as a man of that time and culture

totes. bale's accent was yucko

I noticed Camp's name in the credits too--not only did I miss her, I think I missed the character. Who was the cat lady?

she wired the money

Geez, that didn't click in at all. She goes back to Apocalypse Now.

I recognized Camp but couldn't remember her full name - "hey, it's the character actress with an alliterative C name!"

they list it in the credits

ol' catlady camp

Two weekw after watching it I'll still claim this was a better time than Wolf but it suffers from expectations created by filmcrits who know shit about Sturges, are so exhausted by year's end that they'll overrate qny mild Hollywood trash, or need to leave the house.

o shut up

this was so fun

"glenn kenny otm about this, its a sloppy borderline-incompetent mess..."

and Wolf goes over that borderline.

"adams and jlaw are forces of nature cleavage obv"

The great Nature vs. Cleavage debate.

i won't deny that this has its goofy pleasures (cleavage and al) but it's too cartoonish and broadly drawn (and possibility just plain stupid) to avoid being a severe case of diminishing returns. the year-end awards for this will be pretty embarrassing in a few years time, i imagine.

i find the contention that it's sloppy, borderline-incompetent kind of weird. it's not aiming high and probably less aware of that than it ought to be, but for two and a half hours of dialogue with a flimsy plot this succeeded in holding my interest p well

Yeah I didn't have any particular sense of slop or mess -- in the characters' lives, sure, but the narrative structure and edit flow were fine. (Some of my favorite movies are messy, so it's not something that necessarily bothers me. But it's not how this seemed to me.)

I think the middle-brow tag is more fair, but that's what makes it likable. It's a crowd pleaser, but I don't think it panders.

i find the contention that it's sloppy, borderline-incompetent kind of weird. it's not aiming high and probably less aware of that than it ought to be, but for two and a half hours of dialogue with a flimsy plot this succeeded in holding my interest p well

― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Saturday, January 4, 2014 10:21 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

sloppy doesnt preclude holding your interest. i was entertained at points too. i'll let GK take the wheel http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2013/12/2013-in-review-qed.html

From the Kenny link (Steven Soderbergh): "But at a certain point, it’s not useful anymore. I stopped reading reviews of my own films after Traffic, and I find it hard to read any critics now because they are just so easily fooled. From a directorial standpoint, you can’t throw one by me. I know if you know what you’re doing, and, ‘Wow, critics’--their reading of filmmaking is very superficial."

I don't think I'd read my reviews either if I were as successful and established as Soderbergh--nothing really to be gained. But that really is a self-serving (and pretty silly, to me) statement as it applies to the best film critics, or the best critics in any field.

wow critics dont appreciate all these cool color filters and affecting descent into drug abuse and prostitution stories i put in my movie so uncool tl;dr

haha traffic is terrible soderbergh faced