Best of 2013: #10 American Hustle

In the opening scene of American Hustle, Irving Rosenfeld (played by Christian Bale) stands in front of a mirror perfecting an epic comb-over with his hair.  He's meticulous, taking his time, even gluing in some fake hair for good measure.  The scene is hilarious, and it sets the stage perfectly for the rest of the movie.  

Irving is a fraud, just like everyone else in this movie.  

Irving owns a small chain of dry cleaners, but he makes most of his money through phony art deals and personal loan scams.  He's got a wife (played by Jennifer Lawrence) and an adopted son in Long Island, but his heart belongs to his partner in crime Sydney Prosser (played by Amy Adams), another fraud.  

Sydney's an Albuquerque transplant who came to New York dreaming remaking herself as a member of high society.  After meeting Irving and learning about his business model, she decides to don a fake accent and become Lady Edith Greensley, a British aristocrat with London banking connections, believing (correctly) that such an association would help with the fraudulent loans.  

Eventually, they try to scam the wrong guy -- Richie DiMaso (played by Bradley Cooper), an ambitious and delightfully hotheaded FBI agent.  Richie catches them in the act, but proposes that they help him catch other scam artists in return for avoiding jail times.  The result of their combined efforts is the FBI's Abscam operation, a real-life endeavor that eventually eventually lead to the convictions of seven members of Congress for bribery.  The movie, however, is a fiction.  

Richie is also fraud.  He's an underling at the FBI and he concocts this operation and let's it grow in size and complexity, even going around his superiors to do so, as a means of raising his stature.  Like Iriving, he sports a fake hairstyle, putting his hair in curlers every night, which is hilarious, by the way.  Eventually, he falls for Sydney, though he doesn't know she's not British or, for that matter, that her name is Sydney.  This, of course, is part of Sydney's plan, both to keep Richie close and to punish Irving.  And, it works.  Richie is sucked in by her life as a scam artist -- the parties, the dance clubs -- even though he's got a plain fiance stashed away at home. 

In the end, all three lead characters are scamming each other and the movie is a race to see who will scam who last.  The most honest character in the movie is the original target of their operation, Camden, New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (played by Jeremy Renner), who, from the outset, takes bribes and offers them to others.  

All of this plays out with a rare kinetic intensity, playing fast and loose as the story unfolds.  Though the plot is detailed and convoluted, the movie feels a little sloppy at times, which is actually a big part of its charm.  This isn't Oceans Eleven or The Sting.  No one in the movie is all that smart no one has an over-arching plan.  Sure, there are scams and double-crosses, but they are made up as they go along.

This on-the-fly construction is the genius of director David O. Russell, who has really come into his own with his last three movies -- The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, and, now, American Hustle.  Don't get me wrong, he was great before that, too.  But, with these movies, he's established himself as one of the best mainstream filmmakers around.    

As with Russell's previous films, the acting in this movie is superb across the board.  Adams and Russell give career-best performances, both worthy of Oscar consideration, though, from the looks of things, they're not likely to get it.  Bale is great as always, though, to be honest, it's probably his second best performance of the year, behind Out of the Furnace.  Renner is also very good.

However, the most memorable performance in the movie is that of Jennifer Lawrence, playing Irving's needy, passive-aggressive wife who gets just involved enough in the operation to screw things up.  She's a firecracker, an absolute scene-stealer.  She's destined to receive her third Oscar nomination for this role.  And, as I've said before, she's one step closer to world domination.  

In the end, the movie drags out a bit too long and the final scam is one you should probably see coming if you've seen movies like this before.  But, it never stops being fun and the characters never stop pulling you in.  This is what happens when good filmmakers and great actors get together.  

More Quick Hitters

Alright, here's the thing, I'm currently four movies behind.  I have a little of an OCD thing going on where I hate to write about movies out of order.  And, now that I'm on Christmas break, I'll be seeing even more movies and I'll likely fall further behind.

Something needs to be done about this.

As luck would have it, I don't have particularly strong feelings or deep thoughts about any of the four movies currently in the queue.  So, even though I hate writing quick-hitter reviews, I'm willing to do so in the name of catching up.

None of this means anything to you, dear reader, I'm aware.  But, putting this explanation out there makes me feel a little better about shirking my blogging duties.  So...here we go.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ***

Unless you're living under a rock somewhere, chances are you've already seen this movie.  So, I don't feel the need to say a whole lot here.

If you liked the first Hunger Games movie, you'll like this one.  It's competently made and well-acted.  Unlike the rest of the planet, I never read the second book, so I didn't know what was going to happen.  The movie kept me interested the entire time.

And, of course, with this movie, Jennifer Lawrence takes another step on the path toward world domination.

Out of the Furnace **1/2

I was interested in this movie from the moment I saw the first trailer.  Sadly, it failed to live up to expectations.  It's not a bad movie, just not as good as I'd hoped.

A tribute to the dying way of life in the Rust Belt, Out of the Furnace features an outstanding leading performance from Christian Bale, playing a Russell Baze, a steel-worker haunted by disturbing memories and a tough life.  His brother, played by Casey Affleck, an Iraq war veteran, starts running with the wrong crowd and eventually finds himself in over his head.  Russell takes it upon himself to try to save him.

Overall, the movie showcases some fine acting from it whole ensemble.  Bale's performance is one of the best of his career, though it lacks a big scene to tie it all together.  Affleck is also very good.  Willem Dafoe and Sam Shepard also turn in noteworthy performances.  And, of course, there's Woody Harrelson chewing up the scenery as the villain of the piece.

In the end, it's not the actors that are the problem, it's the script.  The movie succeeds thematically and in terms of tone.  It just never seems to go anywhere -- it's all premise, not enough story.  Still, it's worth your time, particularly if you, like me, are a fan of the actors.

What sets this movie apart, however, is its effective use of the song "Release" by Pearl Jam.  Why has that song never appeared on a soundtrack before?

Philomena ***

This is another movie that succeeds mostly on the strength of its lead performance.  Judi Dench, in fine, Oscar-worthy form, plays Philomena Lee, a woman who lost her illegitimate son at the hands of some Catholic nuns.  Fifty years later, she joins journalist Martin Sixsmith, played by Steve Coogan, on a journey to find her child.

It's a true story, by the way.

The interplay between Dench and Coogan is wonderful, shifting from hilarious to philosophical to theological, often in the same scene.  And, the story pipes along at a good pace.  If there's a fault in the movie, it's that it tries too hard to be whimsical when the subject matter is often very sad and serious.

Still, it's a fine film.  Dench will deserve her certain Academy Award nomination.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues ***

A worthy sequel to one of the indispensable comedies of the last decade, Anchorman 2 succeeds in most of the same ways its predecessor did.  In the end, you could probably just say that they've made the same all over again -- and that's not a bad thing.

The original struck a chord with me that few comedies about idiots ever have.  Though, I have to say that, while I rarely go a day without uttering a quote from the original, I don't know that I'll be saying the same thing about this one.

This movie's one weakness:  Too much Steve Carell. While Brick was pretty much just a funny set piece in the original, he gets his own subplot in this one. And, every time it shifts to that story, the movie goes from stupid-funny to just stupid-stupid.

But, honestly, I'm nitpicking.  Overall, this movie is hysterical.  The climactic battle sequence, which mirrors a similar scene from the first movie, may be the funniest thing I've seen all year.

 

Random Movie List: Ranking Christopher Nolan's Movies

This year has marked the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's heralded Batman trilogy.  In addition, I think it's safe to say that it has marked an end of an era for Nolan himself.  While his career thus far has been more or less defined by the success of his take on the Caped Crusader, his overall record over the last decade or so has been nothing short of astounding.  

I don't think there's ever been a filmmaker who began his career with so many consecutive successes, both critically and commercially.  There are surely examples of filmmakers who made art-house or independent movies that had better track records.  But, in terms of both audience appeal and love from the critics, Nolan is in an elite class.

All in all, he has directed seven feature films -- eight if you count Following, which I don't.  I'm leaving Following off the list for no good reason other than I haven't seen the whole thing.  I keep starting it (it's streamable on Netflix) late at night and have fallen asleep, which is more of a commentary on my ability to stay awake than on the movie itself.  Other than that, it doesn't count simply because it was never really released in any real form other than to show people what Nolan did before he became famous.  Yet, even that's a crappy reason for not including it.  

I'm just not counting Following, okay?  I don't have a good reason.  

So...where was I?  Seven feature films directed by Christopher Nolan.  I will do my best to rank them here.  One thing to keep in mind: I hold all of these movies -- almost all of them anyway -- in very high regard.  Nolan is simply an incredible filmmaker and a master storyteller.  Those that appear lower on the list are all high-quality films, they're just low on Nolan's list.  They'd probably be near the top of a list ranking the works of virtually any of Nolan's contemporaries.  

In Theaters: The Dark Knight Rises ***1/2

The Dark Knight about four years ago, virtually everyone on the planet has been eagerly anticipating the next entry in Christopher Nolan's Batman saga.  The only thing exceeding our anticipation was our expectations.  After all, given Nolan's track record and the brilliance of the first two films, we've all been certain from the outset that the third -- and what is purportedly the final -- act in the trilogy was going to blow us away.

But, what if it didn't?  What if it fell victim to the Third-Movie-in-a-Super-Hero-Series Curse and just stunk up the place?  Between the tradition of franchise-ruining third entries and the law of averages suggesting that Nolan is due for a misfire, there was a lot going against The Dark Knight Rises.  And, honestly, when the first few trailers started rolling out, I, personally, started to feel like maybe the just wasn't going to be as good as we all hoped/needed it to be.

If you haven't seen the movie in the first two days, you'll be happy to know that my fears were misplaced.  This is a very good movie.  It left me riveted, fascinated, and anxious to go out and see it again.  But, that doesn't mean it's flawless.

Rather than catalog all the little problems with this movie, I'll just lump them into one big problem: the first hour.  The first sixty minutes or so of the movie are, for lack of a better word, dumb.  Another good descriptor for the initial hour would be sloppy.