‘American Hustle’: What a Piece of Work

American Hustle

David O. Russell really makes you work for it in American Hustle.

About a month ago I went over to Brendan’s apartment to watch the screener. We put it in, and 17 minutes later took it out. It was really fucking awful. We watched Blue Jasmine instead and like it a lot. Brendan went back and watched Hustle again, got through it and really really fucking hated it. I trust his judgement, so I let it be. I’d eventually catch it down the line.

But after the Golden Globes and hearing all of the rave reviews, I figured I’d stick with it and give it second chance. It took every bit for me to make it through the movie.

On the most recent Jay and Dan Podcast, someone described the movie as a bunch of people standing up and talking to one another. That’s probably the most accurate description of the movie.

People are standing around and talking about how to scam people, scam politicians, scam the Feds, scam one another. It’s really fucking tedious especially if you don’t really care about anyone on the screen.

There are some good moments: the “science box” aka the microwave and the mishap that ensues. There’s Jennifer Lawrence kissing Amy Adams in the bathroom. And the final 30 minutes of the movie was pretty good.

But damn there was a lot of wasted celluloid in the first two-thirds of the movie.

I’m glad I gave this movie a second chance. Instead of really fucking hating it, I now merely don’t like it. And it makes me wonder just what the fuck the critics were watching. It still seems like a Martin Scorsese rip-off, and in a year we had The Wolf of Wall Street who needs it?