American Hustle (2013)

Directed by: David O. Russell
Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence

American Hustle is a talkie about some small-time grifters getting swindled into becoming stool pigeons for a hotshot copper.  This copper wants to shylock some bastard politicals into accepting bribes that will land him a promotion and maybe even a boat.  This john is ballsy enough to try and slip some of the D to the leading dame played by American Treasure Amy Adams, who is no dumb dora.

Terrible 20s slang aside, what I remember most about this excellent, excellent picture is a Daily Show interview that Amy Adams had where she and Jon Stewart talked about how talented Jennifer Lawrence is during the whole thing.  Having seen this interview, and having then watched this movie several months later, and having realized how excellent of a film it is indeed, I now understand what they were talking about and have no choice but to agree.  Jennifer Lawrence steals the fucking show and, in a film packing some serious heat already, that is really saying something.  The other performances are good too–Christian Bale is going full on method again–but there is something seriously amazing about what she does with her role as a trashy and manipulative trophy wife.  It must be seen to be believed, especially when she and Amy share screentime together.  These two should do another movie together, and soon.

David O. Russell packs a lot of energy into a runtime of two hours, the kind of energy that demands your attention at all times with its high strung ambition.  As a film about con-artists, a few twists, double crosses, and swerves are to be expected; so if you blink, you are probably going to miss something.  But this isn’t a bad thing; you’ll just have to go back in time and relive some incredible performances over and over again until you get it right. 

A

 

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: A Lot of People

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a star-studded comic book extrrrravaganza in which Edward Scissorhands is sent back in time to save the world. In traditional comic book fashion the film is a retcon of sorts, taking notable effort to cover up certain… mistakes made in previous X-Men series using copious amounts of colorful explosions, magic, and melodrama. It’s all quite fun, actually.

The time is around 1973. The Vietnam War is drawing to a merciful end. A defeated and beleaguered ‘Murica is packing it in, tail between its legs. Meanwhile, Tyrion Lannister is on the verge of a scientific breakthrough that could rewrite history: his creation of superhuman cyborgs called Sentinels with the ability to detect and eradicate the meddlesome mutant peoples voted most likely to destroy the human race in his high school yearbook. His apparent assassination by a troubled Mystique sets off a butterfly effect that leads to a future of ruin, one in which neither Normal nor Mutant will survive should the rise of the machines have its way. Earth is fucked.

So as luck has it, Ellen Page is on hand at the top of the movie to give the mutants, lead by Professor X and Magneto together at last, one last hurrah. She uses a peculiar and convenient time turning ability to send Wolverine’s consciousness back to the past to reunite young Charles Xavier and Erik… Magneto so they can stop Mystique from being a foolish git and ruining everyone’s lives. Wolverine’s time is limited to the length of a feature film as the Sentinels home in on their post-apocalyptic location. Gau, I hope he makes it on time.

As I said, this film is a repackaging of sorts that ostensibly retells the origin of the X-Men story when in truth Marvel appears more interested in hitting the Reset button on the whole deal. I don’t mind; comic books do this a lot and it allows fan favorites some necessary shore leave to see their families. However, I am slightly disappointed that this was more of a Wolverine movie when young X, Magneto, and Mystique absolutely kill it on their own. If they would’ve been kind enough to consult me on the matter, this should’ve been the third of an epic trilogy and this, the second, should’ve had the young mutants deal with some other angsty or borderline racist-yet-smaller problem. The present really can wait, ya know? Pass the torch already! Gau! You were doing so well with First Class!

B+

The Hunger Games (2012)

Directed by:  Gary Ross
Starring:  Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson

The Hunger Games is a movie that’s based on a book that’s based on an idea that nerds have been arguing over the origin of for decades.  Katniss Everdeen volunteers as Tribute from one of the poorer districts of a dystopian country named Panem in place of her super adorable younger sister.  As Tribute, she is whisked away from her Amish slummy hunter-gatherer lifestyle into the upper echelons of a fabulously wealthy society where people consume shitloads of calories and have weird hair.  Here she prepares for the titular Hunger Games competition in which teenagers annually slaughter each other while the crowd screams for their blood.  The winner are declared when only one is left standing.

The movie is split into two parts.  Part one is what I like to call “The Exposition.”  It is here we get a good look at a totally crapsack world where poor people live in squalor and filth while the rich people live in utopias (a utopia?) far removed from those who suffer.  It gives a sense of why the Games exist and just how fucked the lower classes of Panem are, even though it looks like these lower classes do all the labor.  And then there’s part two: what I like to call “The Ol’ Ultra Violence.” In which The Hunger Games begins in earnest and a bunch of teenagers start to murder each other with sparkling medieval weaponry and unusual enthusiasm.

Overall, The Hunger Games is a film that works in both concept and execution.  Jennifer Lawrence lives as Katniss both in poise and personality.  As for the rest of the cast, I have no misgivings about any of them; they all do a fine job, though Ms. Lawrence clearly carries the majority of the runtime.  It has more grit than the typical young-adult film especially once the Games begin.  Allowing teenagers to be killed violently on screen was an important and interesting move.  I’m mostly sure other directors or editors would have liberally used jump cuts to communicate this necessary roughness down to a mere implication.  But amping the stakes this way made the hour long build-up to part two really matter.

One more thought: someone else mentioned that this film should have served as some kind of commentary about our society.  I don’t think it should be held to that standard.  If you ask me, this film doesn’t have that kind of responsibility.  Yes, there are some creepy visuals about some nuclear war or whatever but this is more of an underdog story than it is anything political.  The people have all accepted this bizarre reality in which they were bred.  It’s too early to rise against it right now.  Let’s have an adventure and push that particular melodrama onto the sequels.  That’s what sequels are for: for when the initial shock wears off and for when these impressionable young teenagers become boring old adults.

A

Winter’s Bone (2010)

Winter’s Bone is a mystery, thriller, and indie movie all rolled up into one spectacularly boring package starring Jennifer Lawrence as a 17 year-old family caregiver in BFE, Missouri.  The mystery revolves around her attempts to locate her deadbeat dad, who put their house up for bail and skipped town.  She is met with incredible hostility from the locals who do not wish to get involved with her search for him and pretty much has the support of no one in a race to find out the truth before the authorities kick her entire family to the curb because yeah the government is very interested in seeing what happens when a bunch of minors are forced to live like Bear Grylls.

Apparently this movie, like, won awards or something?  It truly is an exercise in tedium; Jennifer tries her best to give a good performance, which is good because she really is the best part of this movie.  The rest of it is fucking dull.  At no point did I give a crap about her dad’s history or what happened to him, pretty much the entire supporting cast wants to kick the shit out her for asking questions or no reason, and the upticks in tension offered underwhelming resolution with unclear consequences.  In the end, not a whole lot happens and the movie simply drowns in a cesspool of lameness.  I suspect the screenplay looked good on paper and all the interesting stuff was left on the cutting room floor or handwaved as too complicated to use.

D+

X-Men: First Class (2011)

X-Men: First Class is a comic-book movie that tells the origin story of the X-Men we all have grown to be jealous of.  It begins as a clusterfuck as we follow Charles Xavier’s story of how he becomes a well-established and educated elite; then we switch to Erik Lehnsherr who is a survivor of the Holocaust, having been saved by his ability to bend metal under duress; then we switch to Kevin Bacon who’s trying to do… something… that becomes a little bit more clear as the jumbled mess finally starts to mesh together; and then at long last we are brought full circle to a sort of integration with the Cuban Missile Crisis and events of the Cold War.  Finally, the movie concludes with a quasi-epic and jumbled fight sequence where we see mutants fight other mutants that ultimately leads to the Magneto vs. Professor X theme we’re already familiar with.

The meat of this film is both in the details and in its solid second act.  The funnest parts are those where we see Charles and Erik work together as a team and bring this band of merry misfits together, the echoes of mutant racism resonating just below the surface.  Both leads are really strong–Young Magneto has some exceptionally good scenes–and it’s really awesome to see the generally stern resolve that defines the X-Men’s motivations fade away in the face of just being young and fucking around.  Say what you want about the fluctuating and dubious quality of Marvel projects: I find the levity refreshing every time.  Not everything has to be all gritty; it’s cool to have fun sometimes. Here’s hoping we’ll get to see more mutant-on-mutant action soon.

Also: Mystique, if you’re reading this and are still finding trouble fitting in, I have an unprejudiced lap you can sit on.  Come on over!

B+