o'russell's ABSCAM movie AMERICAN HUSTLE

the end!

you got to the end without telling us the punchline!!

http://www.country933.com/files/statler-waldorf-boo1.jpg

christ this movie was made quickly! Silver Linings Playbook was only out in late 2012. he doesn't sit about i have to give him that.

amazed at this being called 'a black comedy' by some folk. i liked it plenty though.

finally saw this last night

Feel like this boils down to everyone shouts at everyone while doing their hair. Supporting actor: HAIR CURLERS
I liked how it looked, but it was like watching a bunch of really good actors all simultaneously going for it while the camera just rolls and rolls and rolls and hey fuckit we'll just edit a story into it who cares we look good right

It was fine but if this thing sweeps the Oscars I'm done.

Classic January-February response from audiences, mostly deserved ("Uhh...this thing is loved?").

done with liking bad movies? as if! :)

xp

haha no smartypants done with awards bullshit

then again I say that every year and still get snookered

you can proceed as long as u know it's all bullshit to the core

like Obama

now see that's generous of you

lol <3

I was so bored by this I had to leave with 50 minutes to go. Only done that once before. I'm not proud but it felt right.

I felt kinda bored after 20 minutes and all I could think was "jfc I have two more hours of this?"

and yet, "it was fine" (throws up hands and puts on a Harold Lloyd film)

what did you eat that you're throwing up hands

a hand sandwich

this guy doesn't like it.

pretty sure that's a woman

this guy woman doesn't like it.

Much prefer Kevin's takedown of Argo last year...

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/01/down_with_argo_ben_affleck_s_iran_hostage_movie_is_the_worst.html

Slate column is right about the twist, and the acting, but villifying Ordinary People is getting almost as boring as doing the same to Driving Miss Daisy (as much as I might agree they should've lost).

And Wolf is the worst nominee. (pending my likely never-watch of Captain Phillips)

Argo is no good either.

that slate column is too careful about reassuring us that it IS a good movie and she DID like it

Seriously, why didn't she just tear into one of the actually terrible films in the lineup?

I have no problem as long as she wrote the movie is bullshit tho.

So I saw this tonight, was really good if not classic or whatever

Also: Elizabeth Rohm? WTF

http://news.yahoo.com/abscam-con-man-american-hustle-wrong-jennifer-lawrence-024025307--abc-news-topstories.html

Weinberg also said his mistress was not involved in the operation, unlike in the movie. But as portrayed in the movie, Weinberg did marry her, and together they raised his adopted son who is now a policeman. He says they have since divorced, and she is peeved about the movie.

"She didn't like the way she was portrayed," he said.

i'm not surprised, lawrence played her like a walking cliche

Wasn't Lawrence the wife not the mistress?

hah heh oh yeah

there was an ok movie buried......somewhere in this mess

man this got boring really fast

once ppl get oscar buzz taint on their flicks they get picky imo, this was not-quite straight to dvd trashy fun but it was a similar brand of fun

it just lacked some basic tension. it seemed to ask the audience to sympathize with everybody involved, Cooper ostensibly the "bad" guy by virtue of being the most actively annoying. and all the Scorsese/Tarantino homages were so wall-to-wall, there wasn't anything clever about the stylistic appropriation it just went on and on and on

Scorsese
it just went on and on and on

I want to cut up that sentence Burroughs-style.

we needed you in December

this was distracting enough but kind of a void -- nothing to chew on, nothing that resonates afterward. some of the character conflicts were interesting in theory but basically left unexplored by the film.

russell likes to help his actors make High-Impact Scenes, no matter how much sense they do or don't make in the context of the whole movie. i think P T Anderson also has this problem, less so with his last film. but at least he mixes the High-Impact Scenes with other, more genuinely offbeat, stuff.

Russell's filmmaking talent has kind of shrunk, his earlier films have a volatile mix of tones that I appreciate, in this one he just dials the scorsese-amp up to 11 for nearly every scene and it all felt the same.

i neither hated nor loved this film, but after this and Silver Linings Playbook I think it'd be fair for anyone to write off O'Russell.

i mean, the guy who made flirting with disaster just seems cannier and smarter and funnier than the guy who made this movie.

i neither hated nor loved this film, but after this and Silver Linings Playbook I think it'd be fair for anyone to write off O'Russell.

― display name changed. (amateurist), Thursday, May 29, 2014 4:07 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark

these 2 movies are so bad that ive found myself retroactively wondering if DOR was ever a good director at all. i used to love the guy!

Silver linings i disliked as soon as i saw it, but Hustle i had to slowly realize i hated a while later. it does everything in the most LCD pandering way, its supposed to be a movie about manipulation, deception, wearing masks, but we have characters telling us in voiceover what their deepest thoughts are thereby undercutting the uncertainty one would expect in a character piece about con artists (does Irving really love Sydney, or is he using her? good thing we have this voiceover monologue about how madly he loves her!)... or that scene where jlaw explains how her nail polish is sweet but also a little sour smelling and like 2 scenes later hollds up her hands and says "my marraige is like this nail polish.... sweet but with a sour fragrance also" the whole movie operates at this level of cynicism and basic assmption that the audience is stupid. and i think DOR knows all this, but he also knows that he can just go Haha, you guys like crazy wigs right?? and make 1 billion dollers. which makes him way worse than the guys make bad shit because thats all they know how to do

so otm

.. or that scene where jlaw explains how her nail polish is sweet but also a little sour smelling and like 2 scenes later hollds up her hands and says "my marraige is like this nail polish.... sweet but with a sour fragrance also"

lol this is otm, idk i liked it in a v dum fun way, def didnt deserve much acclaim imo; yea orussell is a hack now who thinks hes frank capra

the musical cues, the soundtrack, ill-advised and obvious voice-over, SNL-level performances...

I liked the SNL-level performances, but that is an apt description for sure.

it's like 'Ooh, look, Jennifer Lawrence smoking and with a funny accent!"

"these 2 movies are so bad that ive found myself retroactively wondering if DOR was ever a good director at all."

He was never a good director at all. In fact looking at his filmography I'm not sure what movies he made that would make anyone think he was good director...

Spanking the Monkey and Flirting with Disaster still work; the latter depends on timing and inflection to work, and he and the actors keep thing humming. Three Kings isn't the masterpiece 1999-is-best-year-of-cineMAH-ever claim, but at least its tonal shifts and engagement with a world and people beyond the characters are audacious.

I Heart Huckabees was very obviously not a work by someone with the same priorities as nu-DOR. Even if you hate it, as many (most?) do, you can't deny it does not feel like the same guy at all.

flirting with disaster is terrible, i heart huckabees is worse and feels like completely the same guy, three kings i feel like maybe might be not terrible but i'm not going to watch it again to confirm

in conclusion: fuck watching o'russel

why is it terriblee?