American Hustle (2013)

There are times when a movie begins, whether it's from the look, the music, or atmosphere, you know you're in for something that's going to transport you to another time and place.  That's the feeling I got when American Hustle started.

We're told, "Some of this actually happened," which felt like a subtle dig at movies that claim to be based on true events, but you can tell are wildly exaggerated or embellished for dramatic purposes.  That's certainly true here, but that craziness is part of the fun.  American Hustle is a fictionalized account of the FBI's Abscam operation during the late 70's.  I don't want to get into the plot as the trailers do a good job of not revealing much, so I'll just give you the broad strokes. Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is a small-time con man.  He meets Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), they become lovers and start conning together.  They are caught by FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), who wants to use them to reel in some bigger fish and make a name for himself at the Bureau.  Richie has Irv over a barrel, so he doesn't have any choice but to go along.  Their primary mark is local mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) who's trying to raise money to renovate Atlantic City now that gambling's been made legal.

American Hustle is as much about the characters as it is the story we're being told.  Everyone's looking to improve their station in life, and most are working an angle as well.  It would seem that everyone's motivations are fairly selfish in nature, but as the story unfolds, some start having conflicted or mixed feelings about what they are doing.  Relationships become strained and people lose control.  In particular, Irv struggles internally while he develops a friendship with Carmine, as he's a family man that seems to have honest intentions of improving his community.

I've heard many people refer to American Hustle as a comedy.  I wouldn't call it an outright comedy, but more like a crime drama that just happens to be extremely funny.  I love when something makes me laugh consistently when that didn't appear to be the goal.  Much of the humor is from watching how people react to the situation they're in.  Sometimes it's a simple look, other times it's an awkward comment from someone that doesn't realize the gravity of the situation.  A few times it's due to someone completely losing their shit.

The dialog is great as well, with more than a few quotable lines.  David O. Russell and Eric Singer really outdid themselves on the screenplay.  There's some hilarious stuff here and it felt very natural, like being a fly on the wall

I know I'm not the first to say this, but David O. Russell did his best Scorsese impression making American Hustle.  This would fit right in with a marathon of Goodfellas or Casino.  It's basically the same setting and feel, same type of narration, and even some mob involvement.  Hustle seemed to be full of impressions, many probably unintentional.  If you close your eyes when listening to Alessandro Nivola (who played one of Richie's bosses) speak, you may hear a young Christopher Walken.  At one point, the way Bradley Cooper was looking at someone and reacting to them, it reminded me of Sean Penn.

I enjoyed American Hustle the most for its dynamic performances.  Cooper is great and I think he's really found a home in these more demanding dramatic roles.  Jeremy Renner is also very good and plays one of the more sympathetic characters in the film.  Jennifer Lawrence's gives her funniest performance to date, but I was surprised at her character's vulnerability.  She continues to impress me with her maturity playing characters that seem much older than her actual age.  I wouldn't guess she was only 23.  There's another small role played by a very well known comedian, but I won't say who because you don't see him in the trailer.  All I'll say is that I found him extremely funny, but that might be due simply to me being a fan.  There's also a nice cameo that fits perfectly.  Who?  I'm not telling on that one either.

As good as the cast is, they're overshadowed a bit by the leads as there's more focus on the relationship between Irv and Sydney.  The ageless wonder, Amy Adams, is fantastic as a sexy manipulator.  Always playing both sides, she's someone that can get anything she wants.  It also doesn't hurt that she has probably the best wardrobe I've seen in a film this year.  I don't know too many guys that would be able to say no to her in some of those outfits.  However, if there's anything I would critique about her performance it's that her accent didn't seem to be consistent.  Her character crafts a persona that speaks with an English accent, and it sounded like it would transition in and out of her natural voice during conversation.  I think this was due to it being a lighter English accent, but it could have been the speakers in the theater for all I know.  My hearing has taken a beating over the years.  Lastly, Christian Bale delivers yet another great performance, possibly my favorite since American Psycho.  The sacrifices he makes to his body for these movies make me a little concerned for his long term health, but I admire the dedication.  When you see him work that epic comb-over (move over Donald Trump), I expect to read somewhere that was his real hair.

On a side note, I can't tell you how many times writing this review I had to correct writing American Psycho instead of American Hustle.  If Christian Bale comes out with another film with "American" in the title, I'm gonna be screwed.

Much funnier than I could have imagined and carried by great performances and direction, American Hustle reminds me why I love movies so much.  Stylish, with a great soundtrack and extremely lively, it's a film I enjoyed on multiple levels and have no issue with calling one of the best of 2013.

5 (out of 5) Death Stars

Out of the Furnace (2013)

Out of the Furnace opens and closes with a nondescript Pearl Jam song.  It sounded like a slower version of "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" combined with "Dissident", only with more Vedder mumbling.  The credits listed it as "Release", and twice for some reason.  Were they different versions of the same song?  Is this something that only the most detailed-oriented Pearl Jam fans would notice?  My friends that are fans will probably be mad at me for saying so, but was their music always so generic and depressing?  Am I remembering their early stuff wrong?  I had to do some research to find that "Release" was a hidden track from Ten, an album that I still own, but I guess I don't have a version that has "Release".

Look at that, one paragraph in and I'm already way off topic.  I bring this up because the song really seemed to set the tone for the film, and not in a good way.  Out of the Furnace is a film I've been looking forward to for a while though.  The cast alone intrigued me, but this is also the next film from Scott Cooper, whose directorial debut was Crazy Heart, a film I enjoyed a great deal.

Russell Baze (Christian Bale) works in a factory in a very small town in the Northeast.  When I first heard his name, I heard it as "Blaze", which would have been so much cooler.  He's close with his younger brother Rodney (Casey Affleck), who's on active military duty, but also appears to have a gambling problem.  They have a sick father that they both look after as much as they can.

One thing that struck me as a little odd was that based on the town, the cars, and overall look of the film, I thought this took place in the 70's.  Even the very opening scene is set in a drive-in (where I didn't recognize the film playing as The Midnight Meat Train).  You then see a TV broadcast from a Democratic primary referring to electing Obama, so that would mean this is more like 2008.

While driving drunk, Russell hits a car that's backing out of a side road.  Now I'm not condoning drunk driving, but the way the accident was presented, it seemed like the kind of accident that could have happened to anyone, especially late at night when you take your eyes off the road for a second.  Russell is sent to prison, and here's where I started having issues with the film's concept of time and glossing over things.  We see no trial, and I don't think a single mention of the length of his sentence is made.  We jump straight from the scene of the accident to him already being in prison.

Once in prison, he keeps his head down and tries to get back on track.  For some reason, another inmate decides to pick a fight with him, but there didn't seem to be any purpose to this.  It wasn't the start of a string of fights, or something that forces him to join a gang.  There's no consequence to this, so you watch it and think, "Okay, that's something that happened."  In pretty much the very next scene, he's out of prison already.  We still don't know how long he was in.  Many details like this throughout the film are skipped without any explanation or development.  It as if Out of the Furnace was originally intended to be a much longer film, and then had to cut a bunch to get it under two hours.  In fact, this would have been an interesting series on TV, where you could have spent more time developing the characters, time with Russell in prison, Rodney's military service, their relationship with their father, etc.  It felt very underwritten as is.

Anyway, Rodney's military service is done, but is having problems finding work, so he turns to the shady world of underground fighting.  You'd think that this was something that Russell could have gotten involved in, as he also might've had a hard time finding work after prison, and sometimes inmates take up boxing.  Instead, Russell urges Rodney to get a job at the factory and not get mixed up in that world.  Against his friend John Petty's (Willem Dafoe) judgement, they take a fight ran by Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson), a psychopath you don't want to find yourself owing money to.  Rodney goes missing and when it appears there's not much the authorities can, or will, do, Russell goes looking for him.  At this point, you think the film is finally going to pick up and become some kind of revenge thriller, but it builds no tension at all.  That's really the biggest problem with Out of the Furnace; it's slowly paced and doesn't go anywhere satisfying.  The entire tone of the film is very dour.

Out of the Furnace does have a great cast and is well acted though.  Christian Bale is great as he always is, but this is slow pitch softball for someone of his skill.  Casey Affleck as also good, as is Sam Shepard and Willem Dafoe.  Zoe Saldana is in the film briefly, and shares a very emotional scene with Bale after Russell is released from prison.  I heard many people crying around me during the scene, but I had no emotional connection with the characters at this point.  This is mainly because Saldana's character is not developed at all beyond being "the ex-girlfriend."  You see very little of their relationship before Russell goes to prison, and by the time he's out, she's already moved on and now hooking up with the local police chief (Forest Whitaker).  One of the best and bright spots of the film was Woody Harrelson, whose inspired performance make him feel like a rabid animal.  It's a reminder of the rule that it's more fun to play the bad guy.

Out of the Furnace is a gritty looking film and dependably acted, but its plodding pace and lack of tension prevents it from having any real effect or impact.  It simply fizzles out and unfortunately ends up being something very forgettable.  It's not the worst thing in the world, but better saved for rental.

2.5 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - First Impressions

Hey everybody.  I just got back from seeing The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX.  I'm still recovering from surgery, so I need to lay down after the length of the film, but I thought I'd just get some initial thoughts up.  I'll get a more detailed up review once I'm feeling better.

First off, see it in IMAX if you can.  The sound was amazing!  There was a moment where an explosion went off in the background and the ground shook a bit, well, it also shook in the theater.  It made for a nice effect.  A good portion of the film was actually shot in IMAX format, so many of the best action sequences take full advantage of it.  I think I might have to enjoy this in D-BOX once I'm feeling up to it.

The performances are all great.  I was especially impressed with Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway.  For those of you worried about how Hathaway would do with Catwoman, you can stop worrying.  She's sexy as hell, but they gave her character some depth and more to do than just vamp and look hot in the catsuit.  I also really enjoyed Joseph Gordon-Levitt and liked what they did with his character.

I did think Tom Hardy was good as Bane, but you will hardly recognize him.  Even with them re-dubbing the voice from the trailer (it didn't even sound like Hardy's voice), I still thought there were a few parts of this dialog that were hard to understand.  Also, while I thought Christian Bale was good, I wish he would have toned down his Batman-voice.  You can see how he manipulates his mouth to do the voice and it's still a little off-putting.

As much as I was looking forward to Bane, I didn't think he was that memorable.  Heath Ledger's Joker is just too hard of an act to follow.  He's not one dimensional, but between not being able to see his face and the voice, it was hard to really get into his character.  Bane does have some really great moments to show you how brutal and driven he is.

It is a little long and I felt there were a few things that could have been trimmed, but the movie had a good pace to it.  When you consider the pain I'm in when sitting down, that I never felt bored or had the need to check my watch should tell you something.

There really aren't any surprises here as far as the story.  It's pretty straightforward.  However, I did feel like they skipped over things, and there were encounters that happened that were too convenient.  You might find yourself going, 'Hey, where did you come from?' or , 'How'd you get there so fast?'  Characters seem to be in multiple places at once, and I have to think this was due to poor editing.

Hans Zimmer's score felt a little repetitive and like it was beating you over the head a bit.  I didn't hate the score, but it was a little much at times.  Sometimes you don't have to have music punctuating every single scene.

Overall, I still thought The Dark Knight Rises is a very good and entertaining movie.  It's not perfect, but it's a fitting conclusion to the Nolan trilogy and did good job of tying the previous two movies together.  I watched both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight again leading up to this, so they were fresh in my mind and I think it helped with keeping everything straight when watching TDKR.  I would say The Dark Knight is a better movie, but could anything really live up to the expectations set by that?

4 (out of 5) Death Stars for now...