My review of David O. Russell’s (
Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter)
American Hustle will be much quicker than some of my other recent reviews. This movie isn’t exactly flying under anyone’s radar. As of this post, it most likely will earn Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director (though it probably will win neither) and has a chance to land nominations for four of its actors, though the only one that seems certain is Jennifer Lawrence (
Silver Linings Playbook, Catching Fire) for Best Supporting Actress. There are many critics out there (currently rated as 93% fresh on
Rotten Tomatoes. who will rave about this movie, including
Richard Roeper, who listed this as his best movie of 2013. I am, therefore, in the minority. Perhaps the expectations were so astronomically high going into this movie, perhaps it was I had watched
The Wolf of Wall Street just two days prior (a movie that dwarfed this one), or perhaps it was that I was just bored. Still, for whatever reason, I was very, very, very underwhelmed.
Continue reading American Hustle (2013) →
Every trailer for a Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby) directed movie over the last decade-plus has made the film look like it would be a guaranteed Best Picture nominee. Whether that proves to be fruition (American Sniper, Flags of Our Father) or not even close (The 15:17 to Paris, Hereafter) doesn’t affect how great the trailers are. Over the last 15 years, Eastwood-directed movies have earned hundreds of millions more combined than they would have otherwise received had they not had terrific trailers. This is true of 2018’s The Mule. After seeing the trailer for The Mule for the first time in early October of 2018, the film instantly vaulted to my most anticipated movie of the year. When it wasn’t screened very much before its opening, I got a little worried. Then I saw the mixed reviews start to come in. At the time of this writing, The Mule has a 62% critics square and a 74% audience score, a little lower than I anticipated based on the trailer but right around what I expected them to be after seeing the film.
Wow. I really wanted to love this movie. Bradley Cooper’s debut directorial performance was so close to perfect and yet so far away at the same time. I admire his vision and ambition for this movie so much that I want to credit it even in the areas it struggled with. Watching it through the lens of a moviegoer looking for an escape rather than that of a wannabe movie critic would have allowed me to see past some of its many errors. Ultimately, however, this film was far too flawed to be a legitimate contender for Best Picture or Best Director, despite what many seem to be already predicting. I will touch on all of the good and all of the bad in what will be one of my more thorough reviews.