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.
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Category Archives: Based on a True Story
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
The Wolf of Wall Street is the fifth collaboration between Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver) and leading Hollywood man Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, Revolutionary Road). With apologies to Gangs of New York, this is arguably their most daring work together. I would rank this as the third-best movie the duo has combined for. 2010’s Shutter Island is in my all-time top 15. This movie was magnificent in its storytelling and captivating ability to draw you in and keep you hooked for its duration. I think Shutter Island is Scorsese’s best work and, arguably, DiCaprio’s too. I know I am in the minority, and many people laugh at this notion, claiming that Shutter Island doesn’t even come close to cracking Scorsese’s all-time top five. I would rank The Wolf of Wall Street slightly below the departed and slightly above Gangs of New York. In my opinion, The Aviator is the worst of the bunch. Scorcese has eight Best Director Oscar nominations and one win (2006’s The Departed). The Wolf of Wall Street could earn him a ninth nomination, but it will not earn him a second win.
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12 Years A Slave (2013)
The typical moviegoer of America will soon be introduced to one of the next big names in feature film directing when the Academy Award nominations come out in a few weeks. Steve McQueen will undoubtedly earn a Best Director nomination for 12 Years A Slave, a movie that some say is the greatest movie about slavery ever told. While those who have seen the film have talked a lot about the acting (and rightfully so), this movie, like any great movie, needs a captain to steer the ship and bring the story together. McQueen does just that. In a few weeks, the typical moviegoer will ask what else McQueen directed. Well, this is just his third feature film. He has 23 “Shorts” that he is credited with directing, but only two feature-length films. But these two other films weren’t just any movies. Much like Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento), everything that McQueen has touched in his young career has had a purpose. He doesn’t have any “throw away” movies. The movies he has tackled thus far in his full-length directorial career have been on slavery, sex addiction (Shame), and the true story of an Irish Republican Army activist who, in 1981, protested the way British guards were treating him and fellow inmates by embarking on, perhaps, the most internationally recognized hunger strike since Gandhi (Hunger). While Shame and Hunger earned critical acclaim, many people didn’t see them. Shame is a brilliant movie about the taboo topic of sex addiction. As a result, I expected much more when I saw Hunger after this. While I appreciated many aspects of Hunger, I found it rather dull. So now, with 12 Years A Slave, McQueen has three movies I admire and two that I think are brilliant.
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Dallas Buyer’s Club (2013)
Dallas Buyer’s Club was a movie I thought I would like, wanted to like, and started off liking until it became a biopic that just started to bore me. This movie will get lots of recognition during awards season and, in many cases, deservingly so. The performances of Matthew McConaughey (Mud, Killer Joe) and especially Jared Leto (Requiem for a Dream, Girl Interrupted) are top-notch. I could see McConaughey getting a nod for best actor for portraying the real-life HIV-positive Ron Woodroof, even though I thought his performance in Mud was better (note, he might get a best-supporting actor nomination for that movie). Leto is a lock for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. His performance as Rayon, a transsexual HIV-positive drug addict, named Rayon, is out of this world. The chemistry between the two main actors was top-notch. While Jennifer Garner (13 Going on 30, Juno) underwhelms as a local doctor whose specialty is working with patients infected with HIV or AIDS, Steve Zahn (Joy Ride, Rescue Dawn) is nearly unrecognizable (in a good way) as Ron’s brother and a local police officer. Jean-Marc Vallee did a pretty good job directing this movie. The cinematography is awesome. The movie takes place in 1985 Texas and feels like 1985 Texas. McConaughey is a cocaine-addicted womanizer who earns money as a small-time electrician, part-time rodeo rider, and small-time drug dealer. His lifestyle is reckless, and his body shows its wear and tear. He looks like he is about 30 pounds underweight the entire movie.
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Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
This review will be brief. Unfortunately, I need to be more well-versed to write a comprehensive review of this movie. I certainly can’t write one as well as a critic who reviews movies as their profession. I’m sure I can’t write one as well as somebody who knows the facts of the takedown of Osama bin Laden. Like the movie Lincoln, this movie is an important educational tool and should be seen by many, but as a vehicle of entertainment, it underwhelms. I told my friends after our viewing that I’m growing a little tired of movies being an hour or longer than they need to be. This is the case with Zero Dark Thirty. Not only was it over two and a half hours long, but it felt like it was two movies in one.
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