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American Hustle

American Hustle (2013)

December. 12,2013
|
7.2
|
R
| Drama Crime

A conman and his seductive partner are forced to work for a wild FBI agent, who pushes them into a world of Jersey power-brokers and the Mafia.

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ComityZenThrall
2013/12/12

A perfidious President performs all the depraved acts he accuses others of playing and lying about both his and others?AH is a spurious beacon lighting methods of confidence men/women. It reminded me of House of Games where the misdirection and subterfuge lull the viewer into complacency to accept and trust 'honest' characters(on no evidence) while the obverse is gyring away. Think Penn and Teller with a smirk not a twinkle. AH causes me to examine the current political intrigue: are we witnessing assassination of the Republic, the consummation of the Russian promise to bury us? or a heist movie? All 3! American Hustle delineates a lie based on corrupt practices, all with very human faces, and is superb. Also, it should have won the Oscar for costumes- nailed the 70's clothing hiding the intrinsic ethos of the '70's in plain sight.

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hunter-friesen
2013/12/13

David O. Russell knows how to make a good film with great actors, even if his antics behind the scene can be described as cruel, especially to Lily Tomlin (look it up). He has a quick style, almost like Scorsese, where he rapidly follows the characters through their journey. It's worked plenty of times before with films such as The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, and it works here again in American Hustle. With an assembled all-star cast and a great script with some truth to it, Russell's film will surely further his status as one of modern Hollywood's most successful directors.The film follows five main characters during the late 70s and early 80s. The first is Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale). He's a born con man who has spent years building up his dry cleaning empire along with an art forgery business on the side. Next to him is Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), a scrappy and resourceful woman who gets romantically involved with Irving. They both start running a loan scam business together, which after a while attracts the attention of FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). Knowing he has two expert criminals by the leash, Richie forces Irving and Sydney to participate in an FBI operation to crack down on political bribery and gambling. The two other characters to show up are Irving's actual wife, Rosalyn Rosenfeld (Jennifer Lawrence), who's always on the rocks drinking and smoking while she lays the day away in her house with her and Irving's child. The last is Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), mayor of Atlantic City and the prime target in the FBI sting.The overall plot and pacing of the film are very character focused. Every event is either from a main character or from a side character that affects a main character. This is both a pro and con that the film carries throughout. The pro comes from the actors making the best of their characters. Every actor has great chemistry and skill to carry the action and emotional wright. The whole film would have probably fallen apart if lesser actors were cast instead, but luckily that never happened. The con that comes from the character-driven story is that all the characters have a wide range, but very little depth. We only really get surface details and never any real background or striking motivations. The characters are really only memorable because of the actors playing them, which is probably while watching the film I referred every character to the actor. I always saw Christian Bale and Amy Adams, never Irving and Sydney.David O. Russell is an actor's director and he shows it here. He expertly lets his cast do what they want while also staying within the confines of the script, which can be a bit overlong at times. The camera acts as a spectator to the action as it reacts and follows whatever the actors do. The frame is only filled with the actors because nothing else is more important. It's a strategy that works perfectly in this case since it keeps the story focused and free-flowing.The biggest reason you did or probably will see this film is for the performances, and that is definitely what you get. Christian Bale goes through another one of his trademarked body transformations to play the overweight con man with an elaborate comb-over. Bale is hardly recognizable from his Dark Knight trilogy days and makes every scene his own. Amy Adams plays almost like a seductress that is out to overpower every man with her looks and brains. She brings the ferocity to make her character both dangerous and intriguing. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence both play sort of eccentric characters that keep interfering with our main pair. They both have great energy and an ability to steal scenes at any given moment. Finally, Jeremy Renner jumps in and out of the film at times as Carmine Polito. He has charisma, power, but also a heart and genuine love for his city. He's a troubled character that you really don't know if you should be rooting for or against. American Hustle definitely boasts some of the best performances for each of the actors involved. While it never really develops its characters enough, the film is still a fun ride because of the good story and great people. To sum it all up quickly, the actors are not part of this film, they are the film.

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juoliver-70482
2013/12/14

Real facts stories always have attracted filmmakers. Historic tales offer some feeling of truth to the cinema stories. Always will be controversy among moviegoers about fidelity and treason to the historical truth. Whenever a historical person o era is portraits somebody will question the fidelity to the facts. Warren Beatty was probably aware of this and populated REDS with interviews to a gallery of real people, as they were at the real time of the movie-making. They were present, somehow, during the life of John Reed. They commented about those times with their own thoughts. Watergate turned to be a wonderful thriller about the work of two journalists and not about Nixon. Both journalists were credited with William Goldman as responsible by the script. Serious, committed filmmakers have realized good movies out of historic events and moviegoers have shown to be attracted by them. Actual facts give a structural base to the script, a generating point from where it could come up an interesting, brilliant movie. Now the important thing in this genre is to deeply develop such factual themes and relate them to the movie story, which by now will probably become tinted with the filmmaker's ideas. American hustle has been successful in processing the material of a once newsworthy event from late 70,s early 80, which now is not totally installed in the country's collective memory. The real Abscam was in itself an official cover operation and its planning notes could have been the synopsis of a B-spy movie. American hustle used the blueprint of the scam as the movie line and from it created a cast of characters and sub-plots very complex, rare and chaotic converted into a web frame from where develops a story that is credible thanks to the intelligent construction of scenes with characters moving and talking organically and in unison with the screwball spirit of the story. Apparently there was a real Irving (Bale character) and a real mayor Polito (Renner character) who were functional to the factual story both with personal traits and history to nurture these great actors' work but the final product was the task of profoundly creative study of characters and its integration to the story. Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams are extremely accurate in their roles. Bradley Cooper had a great composition of a FBI agent unlike to most typical portraits of Intel agents. He is success- hungry, probably to vindicate his own history as a person and have not scruples and little dignity in achieving the goals he is setting for him and the operation. At one point early in the movie we have forgotten the actual history and we are immersed into a movie rich in textured characters and attracting script with an organic discourse of tension and fear, going much faster and complicated than the characters and spectators have asked for. The film's look expresses with precision an era and an event that it is not to far removed in time. David O. Russell was able to organize a chaotic storytelling by keeping a consistent atmosphere directing a cast of odd characters in a space that is dangerously edgy. As moviegoers we sense the climate and fell the uncertainty of the unknown next step. American hustle is a film that proposed an unusual historic thriller and it was accomplished.

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Dave
2013/12/15

Critics think this film is brilliant. However, it has many faults. It's too long, confusing and complicated. It's supposed to be a comedy - but isn't funny at all.The only character who's in the slightest bit interesting is the histrionic who's played by Jennifer Lawrence.

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