American Hustle (2013) Dir. David O. Russell

Work has been extremely busy lately so I haven’t had much time to read Ulysses. So here is a movie review instead!

Con artist Irving Rosenfield (Christian Bale) grew up to believe that in this world everyone is out to con everyone else. So naturally he grew up to be a conman. His emotionally unstable and needy wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), conned him into marrying her through her kid. Irving only finds a moment of true happiness when he meets and begins a love affair with Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) at a party. He feels so comfortable with her that he reveals his true occupation. Sydney soon joins him in his con, adopting a British accent and pretending to be a fake relative of British royalty, in which they ensnare desperate people in a fake banking scheme. This goes well until psychotic FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) catches Sydney during a sting and after arresting her convinces both of them to work for him in bringing down corrupt politicians and mobsters in New Jersey in exchange for dropping the charges. This event puts a wedge in Irving and Sydney’s relationship as Irving refuses to abandon Rosalyn because he loves his stepson like his own child and Sydney feels betrayed by his unwillingness to leave her; worsening matters is the fact that Richie, the FBI agent, has a thing for Sydney, and Sydney is more than happy to flirt back with him. But is Sydney conning Richie or is she conning Irving? As the operation goes on and everyone’s passions flare up it is hard to tell who is coning who!

The film deals with the issue of unhappiness and illusion in our own lives. Richie DiMaso likes his job, where he can be a big gun and important, but dislikes his boring life at home, which is the extreme opposite of his work life, where he is impotent and sits around listening to his mother yell at him nonstop. This is paralleled by Irving who seems alive and happy during his cons and with Sydney, but impotent and tired when he must return home to Rosalyn. Sydney, too, leaves her former life to be somebody else, someone different than herself. In this sense the con game is more metaphorical for the illusions of our identity and relationships. We con ourselves into adapting roles because we think it will bring us an elusive happiness, but as the film suggests these cons just make things more complicated and confusing over time.

The film evokes a similar tone as Goodfellas with its Italian street culture and unstable women always arguing with their criminal husbands without actually being a mob film or containing any real violence for that matter. Another good quality of the film is that the acting is spectacular. Richie begins as a slightly wild law enforcement official, but progresses over time into an emotionally unstable monster who beats up his own boss, almost rapes Sydney, rants like a petulant child on the phone when he can’t have something for his operation, and ignores the existence of his own fiancé. Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence as Rosalyn almost steals the show because she is just so crazy and selfish; the film makes us feel how frustrating it must be for Irving to live with her all the time.

While the acting is wonderful, all these emotionally unstable characters serving as the main cast, leads to one of the main problems of the film; the characters are extremely annoying and it gets tiring to watch so many miserable people with their constant fluctuations of emotions. While sometimes they are engaging precisely because they are so crazy, at other times, it is like being forced to sit in a classroom while someone slowly scratches their nails across a chalkboard. You’re left wondering how can so many emotionally unstable, unhappy, and downright annoying people congregate in one room. This is coupled with a second problem: the film felt overly long. I can’t pinpoint any particular part I would suggest cutting, but the film just keeps going and going.

 

Nebraska (2013) Dir. Alexander Payne

This Oscar-nominated film was a solid comic-drama with plenty of genuine laughs and authentic tragedy. As the film closed I was left with two thoughts: this movie was really funny and really sad.

It is a story about fathers and sons and our relationships to our old hometowns. Woody (Bruce Dern) believes he has won a million dollars after receiving a magazine sweepstakes promotion in the mail and is determined to reach Lincoln, Nebraska in order to retrieve his imaginary winnings. After many attempts to get their by foot, since he can no longer drive after losing his license, his son, all-around-nice-guy David (Will Forte) agrees to take him, much to the annoyance of the rest of his family, Woody’s sharp-tongued wife (June Squib) and an older brother (Bob Odenkirk). Along the way, they stop at his hometown where Woody meets up with old acquaintances, friends, and his extended family. The town soon learns about Woody’s imaginary fortune and gets caught up in this dream, with many old acquaintances and even family members demanding repayment for supposed loans that they had to give Woody to keep his family afloat due to poor finances and alcoholism.

The entire film is shot in black-and-white. This style choice emphasizes the simple story-telling, while also deepening the small-town Mid-Western atmosphere. It makes the quaint town feel even more old-fashioned. It also plays a symbolic role; the characters and their situations seem black-and-white at first, but tiny details reveal they’re more shades of gray.

Woody seems like a cantankerous old-man on the verge of senility, but the film implies that this laconic, often confused old man has a life full of regrets. As they visit his old town the film raises that frustrating specter that haunts all human beings at some point in their lives: What if! We meet an old fling who seems kinder and gentler than his current wife; what if he had married her instead? We learn of a dead younger brother, who used to sleep in the same room as Woody, giving the sense that they must’ve been close; what if he hadn’t died? We visit his old business he had with a partner; what if he hadn’t sold his half of the business and been more successful? Indeed, even his two sons were unintended accidents, not conscious decisions. There is a sense throughout the film that Woody could have had a very different life; perhaps a better, more satisfying one. Indeed, as he eventually tells his son; he only wants the money so he can buy his own truck and leave the rest as an inheritance to his sons.  His biggest regret of all is that he has nothing to leave his sons when he dies.

Woody’s wife reveals that much of Woody’s financial misfortunes stem from his being a nice guy who can’t say no to anybody, a trait visible in David. She warns David, in the beginning of the film, that he will grow up to be just like his father. At first, we get the impression that this is just a random insult because she is angry that David is indulging his father’s whim, we believe she is talking about his stubbornness, but as the film progresses and we learn more about Woody’s past, we see that David is a reflection of what his father must’ve been like in his youth, a way too nice guy whose defining trait is both endearing and fatal.  The beginning of the film in which David’s girlfriend leaves him also implies David is struggling with his life choices. We get the impression that his life choices haven’t brought him much happiness either.

The strength of the film, besides its comical moments, is the way it constantly forces us to reevaluate the characters. Woody blames his wife for his alcoholism, telling us that if you lived with such a woman wouldn’t you become an alcoholic? However, he later reveals he began drinking at the age of eight, long before he ever knew his wife. Likewise, for all her fast-paced insults and irritation at her husband, which gives the impression that she doesn’t particularly like him, a scene towards the end of the film shows her tenderly kissing her husband’s brow after an accident sends him to the hospital, implying that she does genuinely care and love him, and really is just looking out for what she believes is in his best interests.

Once the town learns the truth of his supposed newfound riches, all his supposed friends and extended family who really just wanted a hand-out, mock him. In the end, Woody gets the truck he always wanted and drives it through his hometown, much to the shock and surprise of his old acquaintances who can only just stare, wondering if he did in fact win a million dollars after all. It is an illusion that he has finally had a good stroke of luck, thrust in the face of his old hometown. If Woody’s consideration for others helped his misfortunes along and is meant to be a warning that being too selfless leads to people taking advantage of you, then this scene of a son’s consideration for his father’s dream counterbalances this idea of selflessness always being bad.