Review: American Hustle

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★½

One thing that can’t be said about “American Hustle” is that it’s a nice relaxing movie full of deep meaningful themes about life, love and happiness. No, this is about as in-your-face as it gets. The latest from David O. Russell (“Silver Linings Playbook”) is a fantastic look at people conning each other and going behind everyone’s back. While some movies about con artists are slick and cool (like “The Grifters,” “Matchstick Men” or “Ocean’s Eleven”), “American Hustle” is loud, eccentric, obnoxious, maniacal, unbalanced, hilarious and most of all fun.

Meet your crazy new friends from "American Hustle"

Christian Bale plays Irving Rosenfeld, a very skilled con artist living in New York City in the late 1970s. At a party one night, he meets the beautiful Syndey Prosser (Amy Adams). They form a bond that turns into love and eventually he invites her into the scamming business. Irving’s scam is loaning people money for a non-refundable $5,000 fee but then never delivering on the loan. Sydney fits in by pretending she’s a British woman named Edith with connections to London banks.

One day, Sydney lets her guard down and brings in a man (Bradley Cooper) looking for a loan. What she doesn’t know is he’s Richie DiMaso, FBI Agent. She’s arrested and thrown in jail for fraud. Irving isn’t, but Richie has other plans for him. He’ll let Sydney (who he really does think is a British woman named Edith) go with no charges if Irving helps him con some people he suspects are corrupt so the FBI can bring them down. One name is Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), mayor of Camden, NJ.

Sydney doesn’t like this idea. She would rather flee the country, but Irving won’t because of his adopted son from his estranged marriage to Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence). Sydney knows of Rosalyn but doesn’t care for her because she’s absolutely crazy. She ultimately agrees to help Irving and Richie with the con work, but she’s also going to con Richie right back into having him fall in love with Edith just to aggravate Irving.

There’s a lot going on in “American Hustle” that might seem overwhelming at times. It’s been noted that director David O. Russell was more concerned with characters rather than plot, and that shows. Russell is credited as a co-writer with Eric Warren Singer, but I believe the only thing he really did to the screenplay was embellish the characters into larger-than-life personalities and turn his cast loose.

What we’re left with is a film that lacks any structure. The film moves along – at times briskly, at other times slowly – with one scene after another. I tried to figure out where the act breaks were, but I couldn’t seem to find them. So there’s no flow. Actually, a more appropriate phrase for “American Hustle” is there’s no order to the madness.

Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams exchange unpleasantries

But what fun that madness is! In a film that lacks structure, “American Hustle” compensates for it with loud and boisterous characters that are in your face from the moment this film starts. While Russell’s approach to the story may be a little unorthodox, his approach to these characters is what makes “American Hustle” great. He loves each and every one of them and it shows. The film doesn’t take sides with anyone. No one is a good guy and no one is a bad guy.

The relationships between these people are handled delicately. The relationship between Irving and Sydney is especially intriguing. It’s also added by two fine performances by both Christian Bale and Amy Adams. These two continue their streak of turning in great performances every time. The relationship with Irving and Carmine is also interesting to watch. Irving isn’t the least bit interested in conning him, but he has no choice at first. As the two get to know each other, and as their wives get to know each other, Irving starts having second thoughts. Carmine is a very passionate man and is loved by all his constituents. What’s great is Irving never has a scene of wallowing regret about this to anyone. It’s all Bale showing us through his eyes and his body language that he’s uncomfortable entrapping this guy.

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence turn in the most entertaining and by far the best performances in this film. They’re the loudest and the biggest this film has to offer, and in a film that’s built on loud and grand characters, that’s saying something. Cooper’s fast-talking and hyperactive DiMaso is the focal point of every scene he’s in. It’s impossible to take your eyes off him – either because of the phenomenal acting job Cooper is doing, or because of the loud and outlandish costume and hairstyle Russell puts him in. Jennifer Lawrence is a sensation, once again. Her scenes are few in numbers, but they’re the most memorable of the film. Her character Roslyn is insane, but it’s a joy to watch. She thinks she’s the life of the party and the most important person in the room wherever she goes. “Thank God for me,” she declares, a line delivered with perfection from Lawrence. She’s not the main role in “American Hustle” but we’re once again reminded about the long and successful career she has in front of her.

Despite its lack of structure, “American Hustle” is a fun and exciting film that’s much different from anything we’ve seen from a Hollywood studio this year. It’s a pleasure to watch Russell’s maniacal characters in every situation they encounter throughout the story. It might be a little long, and it certainly feels its length thanks to its lack of structure, but it’s a great time getting to hang out with these crazy people for that amount of time.

Review: Out of the Furnace

by William Hill

★★★½

Out of the Furnace comes to us from Scott Cooper, director of 2009's Crazy Heart. I never saw Crazy Heart, and I didn't have an inkling of hype for Out of the Furnace. With Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio producing, I am also surprised that there wasn't more fanfare for this one. Still, I went into this with light expectations, and given the middling response from many critics, I didn't know what I was going into. The synopsis seemed generic, and the premise a bit too stereotypical of modern dramas.

The official story is that Russell Baze, played by Christian Bale, pursues a dangerous crime ring to find his brother after he's gone missing. While this paints a picture of a taut thriller where Bale fights a bunch of thugs, it really isn't anything like that. In fact, the advertised missing brother plot doesn't even go into play until over an hour after the film starts.

The film opens with an comfortable scene where Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson), is at a drive in theater with his date. He turns into Woody Harrelson, and argues with his date, before beating a man, and walking out. Cut to Russel's introduction, working in a steel mill in Pennsylvania. He leaves work, and find that his brother, Rodney (Casey Affleck), is gambling on races, and in debt to a local loan shark. There is an immediate connection between the two, and their relationship is setup in mere seconds. Russel pays part of Rodney's debt to John Petty (Willem Dafoe) some time later, and we even meet Russel's girlfriend Lena (Zoe Saldana) in between. It's a tightly paced first act that lands Russel in prison for drunk driving. When he is release, Russel learns that Rodney has gotten involved with underground fighting to pay off his debts to Petty.

I had this horrible dream that I was dating someone who couldn't emote.

If I have any issue with the story, it is that the first act can seem a little flaky at first. With Russel ending up in jail only minutes into the film, and the fact that Russel barely seems drunk when he leaves the bar, the whole movie doesn't seem to know what it is doing for a few minutes. Thankfully, by the time the second act finally finds a pulse, the rest of the film finds a way to make the first act seem worthwhile. However, this still makes the first act weak, because it shouldn't rely on the second act to give it purpose. I will say that the finale is intensely satisfying.

What I find strange is that Out of the Furnace is marketed as a revenge film, but it has more to do with self-absolution following tragedy. Both Russel and Rodney are dealing with their ghosts. While Russel deals with the deaths he caused in his car accident, Rodney is the survivor of four tours of duty in Iraq, and carries gruesome memories that disrupt his performance in fights that he is supposed to be throwing. It's a taut drama, but hardly the thriller that the marketing illustrates.

The first rule of Fight Club is please stop making Fight Club jokes.

Out of the Furnace is probably the most earthy film I've seen this year. A muted color palette tinged with hues of warm yellow are cast on dark colored walls and living areas, and there are moments of high contrast lighting. It's got this brilliant early seventies vibe, all the further augmented with soft focus and a lot of steady handheld photography. There are a few shots that I felt were less than inspired, but aside from those nitpicks, it's a gorgeously shot film. Juxtaposed with a subtle soundtrack of simple guitar lines and sustaining woodwinds and light strings, there are a lot of warm moments with Russel, and sequences of stark desperation with Rodney. I have to give special recognition to the inclusion of Release by Pearl Jam early in the film. In retrospect, that should have told me exactly what kind of movie I was dealing with.

In all seriousness, these guys did more acting in this scene
than what's contained in an entire stack of Man of Steel blu-rays.

Out of the Furnace sees one of Christian Bale's finest performances to date, spoken with great care and more heart than I've ever seen him put into a role. Willem Dafoe proves to slip outside of the loan shark stereotype, and prove to be more likable than Casey Affleck, who still performed extremely well. Woody Harrelson played the typical Woody Harrelson act, but it's still an intense and disturbed performance, and shouldn't be discounted. The writing is top notch, and the experience overall is far more memorable than I'd expected. With a lot of competition in the theaters right now, I can still say that Out of the Furnace is among the best on the big screen right now.