Yes, No, Maybe So: "American Hustle"
Thursday, August 1, 2013 at 3:33PM If the movie year has been uninspired thus far -- and what honest assessment of mainstream cinema wouldn't come to that conclusion? -- things will undoubtedly be looking up as we move out of the season of movies with only one thing on their mind (profit) and arrive at movies with at least two things knocking around in their heads (awards and profit) but hopefully more. I haven't been much interested in American Hustle up till now (for various reasons) but it dropped a grabby tease of a commercial yesterday so let's play the Yes No Maybe So game and decide how badly we want to see it now that there's something to get a hold of.
...like any part of Amy Adams, just pick one! The trailer and three-pronged breakdown after the jump...
AMERICAN HUSTLE
Though the latest film from David O. Russell moved through a title-fluid state before settling on the sorta generic American Hustle, at least the title feels accurate. This is the story of two con-artists (Christian Bale & Amy Adams) who become entangled with colorful characters from the FBI (Bradley Cooper), Politics (Jeremy Renner) and Other (Jennifer Lawrence's Giant Hair)... though the details of the story are blessedly absent from this trailer which is our first big yes.
YES
• It's the great shame of Hollywood's marketing departments that they have so much trouble selling movies without giving the whole thing away. Who knows what the second trailer will be like (please no second trailer) but this one gives the perfect amount of info: enough to show off its look and actors and sell the tickets and too little for us to think 'why waste money, I've already seen it' as one does when one watches trailers like this or this and to a lesser degree maybe even this. This might mean that Hustle is super confident and does indeed have balls bigger than yours.
• Wait, what?!?!? There's a cast line dance sequence? TICKET… SOLD. (This is one, just one, of the reasons I love Boogie Nights more than most things in life.)
• David O. Russell films are not typically remembered as "eye candy" film but I'm candy crushing on the hair, costumes, and makeup in a big way. Even Bradley Cooper's perm looks fun.
• "I wanna show you something here" is the perfect line to open a trailer... and structurally speaking all trailers would benefit from this approach. Sizzle scene at the beginning followed by GIMME images (I'd try to list a few but just think "every other one" followed by takeaway line *boom* Title. Date. Done.
• This role looks perfect for Jennifer Lawrence -- so perfect i'ma talk about it in a separate post soon. Plus she's the only actor within the cast that I'm not starting from a place of "growing weary of..." so maybe she should immediately jump a thousand spots in the Supporting Actress prediction page despite already being amply overrewarded by AMPAS.
• By the time this trailer was over I had forgotten about Silver Linings Playbook and was thinking "this looks as entertaining as The Fighter and Three Kings" and I wanted to change my Oscar predictions to include it in every category ... now that AMPAS loves David O. Russell it could even be a winner if it's a big enough hit. You gotta be a big hit if you're not "deep" or "messagey" in some way.
• Finally, Jason rightly points out that...
This back and forth alone makes me want to carve a place out inside my hope chest for this movie to live forever and ever.
• Yes, that. Beautiful women + messy glam + actressy throwdown? YES full stop even if we do have to continue on to the Nos and Maybe Sos for the sake of completing what we started...
NO
• Silver Linings Playbook was my least favorite David O. Russell film (apart from his debut Spanking the Monkey) so I worry. Yes I know it won an Oscar and other people loved it but I worry that he has left some of his early truly lively idiosyncracies behind him to become a little more like everyone else. I mean, apart from the possibly electric 'her with him? him with him? them with this?' jabs and shocks and blowouts of his dependably livewire ensembles -- the chief selling point of his fimography if you ask me -- couldn't this trailer be a Scorsese movie?
• I want Christian Bale to stop yo-yo dieting. He'll die an early death if he keeps doing this extreme yo-yo dieting which by my count he's been doing for over a decade now!
MAYBE SO
• Amy Adams is my biggest question mark. She's never looked sexier and if she really lets loose this could be her Oscar moment. But she's hit and miss performance wise, sometimes nailing and deepening her material (The Fighter, Junebug, Enchanted) and other times proving that she's just the luckiest bitch on the planet (The Master, Doubt) with her pick of great roles and weirdly easy access to Oscar ballots.
• Probably by the time you're done reading this someone has claimed biggerballsthanyou.tumblr And even if that doesn't become a ubiquitous meme by the time of the Oscars it's going to be as annoying as "Argo, F*** yourself."
Are you a YES, NO, or MAYBE SO? And do you have bigger balls than Christian Bale?
Reader Comments (69)
Jay - Spot on, and I hope there won't be a repeat this year of the way people insisted on unfavourably comparing Hathaway to Lawrence. That was ugly and mean and completely unnecessary and would never have happened to male actors.
Anyway, I've been a resounding YES since I heard DOR + Bale + Adams (+ Lawrence) and this trailer has made me all happy and frustrated with anticipation for a movie that isn't due to come out for another 6 months! Grrr. Regarding Adams in particular - other than her being one of my favourite actors today (hell, she was the best thing on Man of Steel, and that's not meant to be a backhanded reminder that that movie was a mess!... although it was.) but it always depends so much on the director, even with the best of actors - and since she was marvellous in the Fighter, I'm very much not worried about a reteam with Russell.
Like 50 others commenters have said before me, I'm a big YES.
Everyone in the movie seems to be having a blast, and it totally looks like a winner. Wasn't that interested in it but now I really wanna watch it. Great teasing trailer. Also brings Boogie Nights and Scorsese to mind.
Nicole was never going to be nominated for The Paperboy. It is too vulgar for the Academy and it also is a horrible film. I don't see any point in pitting the two women in this film against one another. It's sexist and shows a misunderstanding of acting.
If Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams cannot have my children, then can they have each others? I am beyond 'yes'.
Uhh...probably not (unless those also get smaller when he does).
The 70's are back y'all. I think I'm going to watch The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour recaps till this or The Wolf come out.
Both Lawrence and Adams look on fire but, let's face it, Adams won't win a Best Actress Oscar (and I keep reading that she is absolutely the leading lady here). I always have to remind my friends who the hell Amy Adams is because they think her, Emily Blunt and Isla Fischer are the same person. That is not a good sign. Here's one hoping, for once, for a category fraud. There's no way she's winning against Blanchett, Bullock, Thompson, Streep or Dench (and I desperately want Dame Judi f*cking Dench to have an Oscar worthy of her virtuoso talents)
Either way, you know what? I don't want any actress to win an Oscar until Julianne has his own/ Nic has her second.
"I will forever resent Lawrence until Chastain receives an Oscar in Best Actress." I agree.
Jason -- not sure what you mean. They are both in the film and are clearly pitted against each other in the trailer (and, it appears, sleeping with each other's men) :) so why shouldn't people talk about them as a pair/duo/rivals?
3rtful & Jason -- i'm not saying that Adams took Kidman's literal spot. Merely that she had a spot reserved which made less room even in a weak year. And there are literally HUNDREDS of performers that have been nominated for Oscars that aren't in the ballpark of Nicole Kidman's work in that film so i think the quality of the film is irrelevant (although I like the film more than most i know) and i will continue to bemoan that they are so scared of risky performances. I mean, if they loosened up a little and would go for more risque films than Lisa Kudrow coulda been an oscar nominee for The Opposite of Sex like she deserved to be. And Ally Sheedy and Patty Clarkson coulda been nominated for Boogie Nights and and and and and and (so many good performances past over each decade because the films are edgier than WW II and Message pictures.
caroline - i have noticed and fully agree. it was cute at first, though.
jay -- TFE is a safe place for Paltrow fans (i personally prefer her to Blanchett that year though i dont think either of them should have won)
joe - i dont dislike Adams. I just think she's incredibly uneven either really terrific/watchable or totally bland/forgettable with almost nothing in between (which is kind of weird!)
dave -- thanks for providing a different response. good for conversation. I suppose it could be derivative and it's true that a ton of people have had Boogie Nights meets Scorsese reactions which could mean it's not exactly new. we shall see.
carl -- thanks for being hte only one to remember the second question LOL
This is one in the affirmative column for me. Though Bale and Cooper are the ultimate headliners, Adams (whose sexy/trashy side I prefer to her kewpie iteration) and Lawrence look like they own the show, and I could easily see the former finally winning for this performance. Furthermore, the 1970s costumes give me a complete eye-gasm to the point of absolute bliss.
David O. Russell=YES (even though I hated I Heart Huckabees).
More than one actress, and a potential Bechdel movie=YES.
Christian Bale=I hate that guy and a potential NO.
More yeses than nos, I'm in.
i'm not saying that Adams took Kidman's literal spot. Merely that she had a spot reserved which made less room even in a weak year. And there are literally HUNDREDS of performers that have been nominated for Oscars that aren't in the ballpark of Nicole Kidman's work in that film so i think the quality of the film is irrelevant
Replace Adams with Streep and change the category from Supp to Actress, and the politics of the matter don't change. Your argument loses merit because it's an attack on Adams and not the system that keeps her ever present.
Now that we're on the topic of best movie things of last year (a la Kidman), is it imprudent to ask if the Film Bitch awards are going to be wrapped up? Those extra categories give me life.
I'm a yes but I want Amy Adams to just stop getting roles in Oscar bait films. She is truly the luckiest actress. Unlike say Kate Winslet who had a number of nominations and deserved her win, I feel like Amy really has just been able to ride the various film wave for her nominations.
I wonder if this film will help solidify the Academy's decision on awarding Jennifer Lawrence the best actress award last year because she is under the microscope for sure right now but I have a feeling she'll be fine if her attitude is any sort of an indication.
I think that if Amy Adams ends up going for a lead campaing, with so many Oscar winners in the race, she might just win.
Bale's balls got nothing on mine (though I'd have to check his to be sure)
YES because
1) Bale;
2) DOR (I consider Silver Linings Playbook to be an aberration);
3) I'm over Adams more for her off-screen persona than any performance she's given;
4) Renner delivers;
5) Ditto for Lawrence (even though she should give back the Oscar).
No NOs
MAYBE SO because Bradley Cooper is hit or miss for me.
It's a yes from me. A huge yes! The Fighter was one of my favorite films from 2010, and Silver Linings Playbook was my #2 film of last year (behind only Zero Dark Thirty), and I also loved Three Kings back in '99. I expect Russell's win streak to continue here. This trailer looks pretty fantastic. I'd still like to know more about the plot because I know nothing about Abscam, but I expect a 2nd trailer later this fall.
The thing I'm looking foward to the most is the potential for Amy Adams. This role and from the glimpses shown here could be her ticket to an Oscar (Finally!). She is my favorite actress working right now has been worthy of her nominations but hasn't quite had that role to take her all the way. This appears to be that film, I'm rooting for it! Yes, yes, YES.
Yes for me. The cast is mouthwatering so I was already stoked, but the Goodfella's feel and the Led Zep soundtrack took everything to a new level.
Cast in credit order:
Bale - I have always appreciated Bale, but never had a fondness for him or an emotional connection. This looks like it could well be the character to change that.
Cooper - Looks like a complex and not particularly sympathetic character. He has not impressed me greatly so far, but the part looks interesting and a good contrast to the others who all seem much more accessible
Adams - I always enjoy her performances and she looks like she is having a ball here - should be fun.
Renner - He isn't in the trailer much, but what I see looks great. Very different type of role, but he looks very confortable and I want to see more.
Lawrence - Some great images, but am I going to be convinced by a 22 year old playing that type of role? If I am I guess she will go on my list of unmissables.
I really don't get all the "Amy Adams isn't worthy of her Oscar noms" mood here ... She is one of the most gifted character actresses in hollywood, the only one who's able to use only her eyes to transform into a stone cold bitch (The Master) or a heartbreaking ingenue (Doubt). I really love the way she makes her way in hollywood, alternating auteur films and blockbusters, cumulating Oscar nominations without becoming a horrible diva .... She reminds me of a young Meryl Streep and there seem to be a lot of Katharine Hepburn (one of the few people who hated Streep) here on this website (which i still love by the way ;).
PS : I totally disagree with Adams stealing Kidman's nomination. I reaaaally wanted Kidman to get it, and i hate the academy for giving it to Weaver, who deserved to win for Animal Kingdom but not for Silver Linings where she was the only cast member really under employed.
Hello,
I really liked the trailer of the movie and will definitely go for the complete movie.