I've been putting off talking about a David O. Russell film for the past few weeks because I've been hoping that in time, I will reach a state of elevated maturity and taste where I can, if not appreciate, at least talk about his work in a civilized manner. That time has not come yet, and I doubt it will for a while. So let me just start by saying: David O. Russell is so shockingly overrated it's crazy. He's had a good movie here and there, The Fighter in particular comes to mind, but overall I can never understand the hype associated with his name. For Christ's sake, Christian Bale gained 40 pounds for American Hustle, and his purposeful bad posture for his character gave him a herniated disc in his back that shrunk his height by three inches. American Hustle is not worth losing 138 minutes of your life to, let alone 3 inches of your height. Nevertheless, this film garnered some pretty high praise, and 10 oscar nominations, so there must be something alluring about it. Right?
Of course, American Hustle is not a bad film, just an okay one. There was a lot of good in it. For starters, It was impeccably acted, and each star worked to deserve their Oscar nominations. Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner, and Amy Adams executed their roles with impressive complexity, and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are just plain fun, 2-dimensional plain fun, but well-acted fun at that. And of course, the costumes are brilliantly done, a mosh pit of polyester, hairspray, and plunging necklines that lay on the 70's nostalgia harder than the kitschy soundtrack. But with all that volume, sometimes it all becomes too loud and the cast begins competing for attention against their own wardrobe. Yes, the actors are the glittering gems in this otherwise dull movie, but even their work can't distract from the narrative mess beneath.
American Hustle wants so badly to be able to pull off the concept of a large-scale caper movie, balancing interesting storyline of a plot-based movie, while still getting the emotion and realism of a character-based movie, but it turns into a convoluted mess. There are rules in screenwriting, and sometimes those rules are made to be broken, but that only applies if you're going to do it well. From the get-go there are choppily arranged time jumps back and forth, and unfortunately, they are not stylized or funny enough to have any effect besides confusing the audience. As the film goes on it becomes full with poorly crafted twists and turns that are neither necessary or helpful to the movie's plot. Russell has yet to learn that sometimes simplicity really is better. And then the cameos. Let’s not even talk about that complete waste of a cameo that painfully shoehorned into the movie for Robert De Niro. It was just ridiculous. Obvious in its motives and dumb as all hell. The movie is amusing, no doubt, and has its funny moments, but it yells them instead of letting them be funny on their own merit. It's not a sing, but if being loud and fun were the criteria for Best Picture, Michael Bay and Tyler Perry would clean up every year.
And another point on the "telling-not-showing" offense list, the voiceover that takes up the first twenty minutes of the film is lazy filmmaking on Russell's part. It beats any subtlety out of the opening, and even what the voiceover what narrating was simple and obvious to everyone in the audience, making it completely unnecessary. Narration like that either makes you look unconfident with your actor's performances in regards to telling the story, or it makes you look like you're talking down to your audience. Neither are things I hope to find in a highly-praised, award-winning movie.
Aesthetically there is too much going on, emotionally there is nothing. The human moments fabricated by Russell feel just that- fabricated, and no amount of crying on cue will mend that. Unfortunately, though it lacks any real comedy at all, at a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, American Hustle gets the last laugh.
Of course, American Hustle is not a bad film, just an okay one. There was a lot of good in it. For starters, It was impeccably acted, and each star worked to deserve their Oscar nominations. Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner, and Amy Adams executed their roles with impressive complexity, and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are just plain fun, 2-dimensional plain fun, but well-acted fun at that. And of course, the costumes are brilliantly done, a mosh pit of polyester, hairspray, and plunging necklines that lay on the 70's nostalgia harder than the kitschy soundtrack. But with all that volume, sometimes it all becomes too loud and the cast begins competing for attention against their own wardrobe. Yes, the actors are the glittering gems in this otherwise dull movie, but even their work can't distract from the narrative mess beneath.
American Hustle wants so badly to be able to pull off the concept of a large-scale caper movie, balancing interesting storyline of a plot-based movie, while still getting the emotion and realism of a character-based movie, but it turns into a convoluted mess. There are rules in screenwriting, and sometimes those rules are made to be broken, but that only applies if you're going to do it well. From the get-go there are choppily arranged time jumps back and forth, and unfortunately, they are not stylized or funny enough to have any effect besides confusing the audience. As the film goes on it becomes full with poorly crafted twists and turns that are neither necessary or helpful to the movie's plot. Russell has yet to learn that sometimes simplicity really is better. And then the cameos. Let’s not even talk about that complete waste of a cameo that painfully shoehorned into the movie for Robert De Niro. It was just ridiculous. Obvious in its motives and dumb as all hell. The movie is amusing, no doubt, and has its funny moments, but it yells them instead of letting them be funny on their own merit. It's not a sing, but if being loud and fun were the criteria for Best Picture, Michael Bay and Tyler Perry would clean up every year.
And another point on the "telling-not-showing" offense list, the voiceover that takes up the first twenty minutes of the film is lazy filmmaking on Russell's part. It beats any subtlety out of the opening, and even what the voiceover what narrating was simple and obvious to everyone in the audience, making it completely unnecessary. Narration like that either makes you look unconfident with your actor's performances in regards to telling the story, or it makes you look like you're talking down to your audience. Neither are things I hope to find in a highly-praised, award-winning movie.
Aesthetically there is too much going on, emotionally there is nothing. The human moments fabricated by Russell feel just that- fabricated, and no amount of crying on cue will mend that. Unfortunately, though it lacks any real comedy at all, at a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, American Hustle gets the last laugh.