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sublyme posted:Watched it tonight and while I'm not sure what the best film of 2013 was, this wasn't it. Could have used a lot more editing for clarity, storytelling and runtime. Didn't really get why we had Bale narrating 99% of the film but decided to let Adams narrate for a small chunk. Heart pills came out of nowhere but ultimately were pointless; it just felt a bit like trying to stuff too much in. Also, I loved O. Russel's films of the previous couple years, so, yeah, this is an honest critique.
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Jan 3, 2014 14:14
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I was expecting a scene where he croaks a la Nezu in Akira
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Jan 3, 2014 16:16
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The broken bones posted:Why Adams was great: women with bottom of the barrel self-esteem tend to have a few traits, the most important of which is that their mouths curl downwards every time their face is at rest like they're always frowning. Bitchy Resting Face can and does strike at any time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v98CPXNiSk
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Jan 5, 2014 14:46
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Un-l337-Pork posted:It's like O'Russell wanted to make Burn After Reading and decided to splash a bit of No Country for Old Men in there to spice things up. It makes things interesting, just like when my neighbor brought around rice pudding made with her extra breastmilk: tastes OK, but something's a bit off and after you've learned the details, you're kind of grossed out. That's an awful metaphor all around.
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Jan 6, 2014 06:55
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In a year of film that was pretty obsessed with the American Dream (Wolf of Wall Street, Spring Breakers, Hunger Games, Great Gatsby and Pain and Gain come to mind) I think this was my favorite of the lot, if only it chose to treat the whole thing as a malignant joke while still letting the characters fight back. I've never seen an out-and-out comedy presented this way, and it has a weird, off-kilter wavelength, but once I figured out what the movie was trying to do I had a loving blast. I feel the need to say I thought Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were both mind-blowingly good, unlike several posters here. Adams was definitely the most grounded character and went through the most dramatic arc (and nicely, honestly underplayed; if Bale weren't there to say to bluster through similar dilemmas it'd be easy to misread her) without giving up being funny (sweet Jesus the bit where she got Cooper to cum in his pants. Also HAIR), and Lawrence was a complete scream. The men were excellent as well, but those two were just on another level entirely.
Nobby fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Jan 6, 2014 |
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Jan 6, 2014 09:08
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I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the film. It started pretty early on to feel like a Scorsese tribute (especially with the heavy voiceovers a la Goodfellas) but then it started to ape the feel a bit too much. The scene with DeNiro in particular was an example of this - not because of DeNiro's cameo (though I got the feeling the director told him to just do Jimmy Conway), but because Bale seems to be doing a DeNiro impersonation during parts of that scene. It's sad because Bale was otherwise pretty awesome. The bit with Jennifer Lawrence doing "Live and Let Die" went on way too drat long, the audience got the point 5 seconds in and it seemed to last for a few minutes. Amy Adams wasn't very good and someone kept giving her things to wear that I'm pretty sure people didn't wear in the '70s (at least according to my friend who remembers the '70s.) I liked the film but I have a feeling that this isn't going to age well, and in a few years it will be forgotten. Also I'm mad because I never got to hear the end of the ice fishing story. VVVV - yes I get the whole "he's being brazen about the ice fishing story and the con" but I still want to know what happened 
monster on a stick fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Jan 6, 2014 |
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Jan 6, 2014 16:37
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The entire movie was the ice fishing story. Or did I just blow your mind!?!!
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Jan 6, 2014 16:42
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I don't think a character with an entirely constructed personality that she's barely able to keep intact wearing gaudy clothes that normal people wouldn't wear is a flaw in the film.
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Jan 6, 2014 18:47
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Surlaw posted:I don't think a character with an entirely constructed personality that she's barely able to keep intact wearing gaudy clothes that normal people wouldn't wear is a flaw in the film. Ah yes but have you considered the fact that Jennifer Lawrence is unsexy and that the movie is Goodfellas and I am unsure whether this David O Russell is gonna make it in this tough film racket?
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Jan 6, 2014 18:58
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Bolek posted:Ah yes but have you considered the fact that Jennifer Lawrence is unsexy and that the movie is Goodfellas and I am unsure whether this David O Russell is gonna make it in this tough film racket?
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Jan 6, 2014 19:05
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This movie was somewhere between bad and mediocre, I can't decide. I haven't seen The Fighter or Silver Linings Playbook, didn't really have any desire to before seeing this movie, and definitely have no desire after.
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Jan 7, 2014 01:16
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Incendiary Pig posted:This movie was somewhere between bad and mediocre, I can't decide. I haven't seen The Fighter or Silver Linings Playbook, didn't really have any desire to before seeing this movie, and definitely have no desire after. Silver Linings Playbook is bad, but Three Kings is a legit really good movie.
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Jan 7, 2014 01:20
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:Silver Linings Playbook is bad, but Three Kings is a legit really good movie. Three Kings definitely owns a lot. Honestly the only David O Russell film I really didn't like was Huckabees but I haven't seen The Fighter or anything pre-Three Kings.
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Jan 7, 2014 01:21
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I have seen Three Kings, which does kick rear end. I've seen about a half hour of Huckabees and holy poo poo was that movie boring as gently caress.
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Jan 7, 2014 01:29
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Incendiary Pig posted:I have seen Three Kings, which does kick rear end. I've seen about a half hour of Huckabees and holy poo poo was that movie boring as gently caress. Boring and pretentious but what can you expect from a movie where the director is running around calling his cast "A bunch of cunts" or whatever tirade he ended up going on.
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Jan 7, 2014 02:38
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Flirting with Disaster is the first and best put-upon Ben Stiller comedy, highly recomended.
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Jan 7, 2014 05:54
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Incendiary Pig posted:This movie was somewhere between bad and mediocre, I can't decide. I haven't seen The Fighter or Silver Linings Playbook, didn't really have any desire to before seeing this movie, and definitely have no desire after. Both Silver Linings and The Fighter were better than American Hustle. e: didn't read ahead, you already saw Three Kings
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Jan 7, 2014 13:13
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I think my biggest problem with Russell is that I am just not on his wavelength when it comes to humor. His "comedic" scenes really just come across as awkward and painful to watch. Like, the scene where Bradley Cooper is beating the poo poo out of Louis C.K. feels like it's edited like a comedy sketch, (my audience seemed to support that assumption) and I just thought it was repulsive and unfunny. And most of his comedy seems based around people yelling "quirky" things over-top one another. Same basic thing happened in Silver Linings when the cast gets together in one room and yells at each other for 3 minutes straight to clumsily come up with the stakes for the climax. Oh and that scene where Amy Adams reveals that she's not who she is, and Bradley Cooper starts sexually assaulting her, creeped me the gently caress out and that felt like it was trying to be funny as well. But it didn't have the offensive undertones (Look how funny and quirky mental unstable people are!) that were in Silver Linings Playbook, so I guess I would tepidly call American Hustle an improvement.
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Jan 7, 2014 19:29
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It's a pretty safe bet that the creepy, uncomfortable scene that creeped you out was intended to. It's a pathetic guy hitting rock bottom and losing control in a really gross way. Which part of it made you think you should have been laughing?
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Jan 7, 2014 19:56
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Surlaw posted:It's a pretty safe bet that the creepy, uncomfortable scene that creeped you out was intended to. It's a pathetic guy hitting rock bottom and losing control in a really gross way. Which part of it made you think you should have been laughing? It was mostly Cooper's delivery of the whole thing. I think the line was "it doesn't make sense. Maybe it'll make sense if we gently caress" or something along those lines. It also wasn't filmed with any sort of intensity or horror like an assault scene. I was a flat medium shot that just sort of lingered that offered no emotional connection. Also, my audience thought it was loving hysterical, but I think they might've been retarded. Either way, I don't think Russell has a great understanding of cinematic language.
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Jan 7, 2014 20:19
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Yeah I think your audience was crazy. It's fine to think the scene failed to be effective, but it's definitely meant to be creepy. I can understand laughter via discomfort or uncomfortably laughing at how pathetic the character had become (or because someone thought Cooper was laughably bad) but it's not meant to be a hysterical scene.
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Jan 7, 2014 20:26
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I will say the one thing I did like about this movie was Jennifer Lawrence's character. She was basically an amalgamation of every girl I've ever dated. Take from that what you will.
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Jan 8, 2014 04:51
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monster on a stick posted:Also I'm mad because I never got to hear the end of the ice fishing story. or is it a ruse?
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Jan 8, 2014 10:29
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 No wonder it got cut.
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Jan 8, 2014 21:28
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Apples McGrind posted:It was mostly Cooper's delivery of the whole thing. I think the line was "it doesn't make sense. Maybe it'll make sense if we gently caress" or something along those lines. It also wasn't filmed with any sort of intensity or horror like an assault scene. I was a flat medium shot that just sort of lingered that offered no emotional connection. I don't want to pigeon hole the movie, but overall I think it is best understood as a dark comedy, a large number of scenes are played for and meant to be comedic, although there are some sincerely disturbing parts. Cooper becomes increasingly unhinged but so many of his responses are over the top, I was often laughing. I was certainly laughing after Amy Adams throws Cooper out of the bathroom and there's a spiraling shot from above while she goes to the bathroom and screams, the whole thing was too over the top and absurd not to be intentionally funny. I thought the assault scene you mentioned was actually played pretty straight, unless you count the end when he asks where his boss is so he can go beat him up. The ensuing "shoot out" between Louis C.K. and Cooper also had me laughing. Surlaw posted:It's a pretty safe bet that the creepy, uncomfortable scene that creeped you out was intended to. It's a pathetic guy hitting rock bottom and losing control in a really gross way. Which part of it made you think you should have been laughing? I laughed at pretty much every stage of Cooper hitting rock bottom. Obviously the movie isn't just a comedy and certain scenes aren't the least bit funny, but the movie has a lot going on. Marketing New Brain fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Jan 9, 2014 |
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Jan 9, 2014 03:23
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Apples McGrind posted:I think my biggest problem with Russell is that I am just not on his wavelength when it comes to humor. His "comedic" scenes really just come across as awkward and painful to watch. Like, the scene where Bradley Cooper is beating the poo poo out of Louis C.K. feels like it's edited like a comedy sketch, (my audience seemed to support that assumption) and I just thought it was repulsive and unfunny. And most of his comedy seems based around people yelling "quirky" things over-top one another. Same basic thing happened in Silver Linings when the cast gets together in one room and yells at each other for 3 minutes straight to clumsily come up with the stakes for the climax. Those aren't the funny parts, so you're probably correct to think that you aren't on his wavelength. No offense, hopefully. Also, it's hilarious to me that people are calling I Heart Huckabees 'boring and pretentious' when it's basically a satire of people and schools of thought that are 'boring and pretentious'. Boy did you miss the boat on that one.
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Jan 9, 2014 03:38
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second-hand smegma posted:Those aren't the funny parts, so you're probably correct to think that you aren't on his wavelength. No offense, hopefully. I'm willing (for argument sake) to say that the assault scene was intended to be serious and was just botched by Cooper's delivery, but the scene where he beats up Louis C.K.? There's a set-up line in the prior scene where Cooper yells about beating him up. Then once we get to the actual scene, it just jumps right into it with Cooper just yelling ridiculous and over-the-top insults at his commanding officer. Not to mention the fight doesn't affect the status quo, at all. Then there's that whole scene where the two are discussing the event with a superior, which results in the superior sweeping the whole confrontation under the rug like it was no big deal. Then to top it off, the scene near the end where Cooper is listening to the recording in which they think they have evidence against the lawyer, Cooper starts celebrating by nearly attacking Louis C.K. again, which is intended as a comedic callback to the fight.. If David O. Russell seriously intended that event to come off as a "serious" moment, then he failed spectacularly. Marketing New Brain posted:I don't want to pigeon hole the movie, but overall I think it is best understood as a dark comedy, a large number of scenes are played for and meant to be comedic, although there are some sincerely disturbing parts. Cooper becomes increasingly unhinged but so many of his responses are over the top, I was often laughing. I wouldn't go as far as saying that it's intended as a dark comedy (it's intended to be pretty light-hearted, IMO), but most of the humor is supposed to revolve around over-the-top behavior. But I don't think it really works, because there's no straight man in the film for the characters to play off of (okay maybe Louis CK, but he's barely in the movie for him to work as one).
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Jan 9, 2014 06:26
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I caught this on the weekend and while I didn't think it was a bad movie per se. I think it lost its way sometime before the start of the third act. I also picked the lawyer not actually being the lawyer. I felt that was really phoned in and I thought that the movie could've ended neater by having a lot of fat trimmed away. Something I read when flicking through the imdb page referred to Bale talking to O'Russell about the improv changing the flow and story of the movie and Russell said something to the effect "I care about characters, not stories" and it kind of twigged where the movie was bugging me. Many of the bit parts and scenes were excellent, Bale playing off Lawrence and Cooper with the FBI boss and Louis in their meeting about the assault was great, but overall I found it a little difficult to identify with any of the characters and I can usually do that even when everyone on scream is a scumbag. I dunno, what exactly specifically turned me off so to speak about the movie but I think the narrative got bogged down in so much interpersonal drama at the expense of the plot and occurrences that attracted me to the movie in the first place. Also, I liked three kings, didn't appreciate the fighter at all and thought Silver linings playbook was decent, if unspectacular. BlindSite fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Jan 9, 2014 |
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Jan 9, 2014 06:58
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Just seen this, thought the structure was slightly off, but that the performances made up for it. Didn't like Bradley Cooper, but his cokehead impression was spot-on, so the hate was more to do with the fact cokeheads are ridiculously annoying arseholes. J Law in particular put in a great performance. I don't think David O Russell is an amazing filmmaker (he's not too hot on narrative control), but at times he's capable of getting phenomenal performances from the actors, and even his worse stuff can be really enjoyable. Not a five-star film anyway, but pretty excellent.
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Jan 9, 2014 21:41
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second-hand smegma posted:Also, it's hilarious to me that people are calling I Heart Huckabees 'boring and pretentious' when it's basically a satire of people and schools of thought that are 'boring and pretentious'. Boy did you miss the boat on that one. Yet somehow it managed to be boring and pretentious.
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Jan 9, 2014 22:53
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Dusseldorf posted:Yet somehow it managed to be boring and pretentious. I find it quite entertaining. 
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Jan 10, 2014 05:17
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BlindSite posted:Something I read when flicking through the imdb page referred to Bale talking to O'Russell about the improv changing the flow and story of the movie and Russell said something to the effect "I care about characters, not stories" and it kind of twigged where the movie was bugging me. Yeah, I've been thinking about this, and I came out of the cinema having really enjoyed the film, but not really connecting with anything in it, and it's exactly how you describe. His films just get lost. And re character over story, he seems concerned about a specific kind of (loser) character, it's difficult to really care about anyone in his films
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Jan 10, 2014 07:19
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Wait....I just read the Oscar noms and this film was a COMEDY? They forgot the laugh track 
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Jan 16, 2014 17:08
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WastedJoker posted:Wait....I just read the Oscar noms and this film was a COMEDY? What would ever make you classify this as a drama?
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Jan 16, 2014 18:36
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zandert33 posted:What would ever make you classify this as a drama? I went into it completely expecting it to be a drama and that was my continued impression throughout.
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Jan 16, 2014 19:03
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WastedJoker posted:I went into it completely expecting it to be a drama and that was my continued impression throughout. yea it had some funny bits, but it was a drama
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Jan 16, 2014 19:05
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It doesn't neatly fit into a comedy/drama dichotomy and that's part of why it works so well.
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Jan 16, 2014 19:08
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Surlaw posted:It doesn't neatly fit into a comedy/drama dichotomy and that's part of why it works so well. I thought that was part of why it didn't work very well.
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Jan 16, 2014 19:43
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When i watched this movie drunk in the theatre i thought it was pretty good, then the more distance i have from it and the more i think about it the less i like it. It was just ok. It was fluff masquerading as a Good Movie
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Jan 16, 2014 19:44
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Colonel Whitey posted:I thought that was part of why it didn't work very well. Exactly how I felt. Carmine's ending was at odds with the rest of the tone of the film, which I found a bit troubling.
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Jan 16, 2014 20:24
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